Statistics and sources

There are often said to be lies, damned lies and statistics, and we like  most are suspicious of all statistics we get presented with.

There is a problem in getting statistics we can prove out. Studies for example that say a certain parentage of people preferred one thing or another not only differ according to the group of people you select but also how the question or series of questions were asked. 

Our own study, as neutral as we could be, found that over 82% of people would prefer to have a home they designed or designed for them, but most mistakenly thought that this would be more expensive than buying a home from a developer. 

We would put the number who do go down this route as 15-20% of new builds, and the difference between this and those that would like one, is mostly through lack of understanding, where if most had understood what was involved and the cost implications then 95% of new build buyers would have gone for a self build. 

We find more spontaneous interest from those in management and business owners, mostly because they have found out what is involved and feel that their management ability will be relevant, but once educated roughly equal interest from most groups of people.  We find people of all ages interested, and interest from both men and women, although more men buy self build publications, and go to shows, while more women buy magazines looking at interiors. To a degree there is a tendency for men to look from the shell and technology, so from the outside in, and women to look from the inside out, being more interested in fittings and layouts inside. We find about equal amounts of interest in getting a better home for the same budget and spending less on a new home, which is in fact the same, just a different way to look at it.

The potential number of people who may become involved in self build is not 82% as some have no interest in obtaining a property at all, some are elderly and never expect to move and some others prefer to rent for mobility or other reasons. Some also prefer older homes rather than new builds.  If the entire population was educated, as to what a self build is, and the benefits to them, then the potential number who would then be interested would be around 30% of the adult population. Given most of these would share, you are looking at a house to population ratio of 15%. So take a city with 200,000 adults and you could potentially have a self build demand for 30,000 houses, compared with the current 20,000 a year spread across the UK. There is therefore considerable scope for this club to educate and help people to get these benefits. 

Compared to other countries in Europe and north America, we lack a long way behind. Most having far higher percentages of people involved in self build. In American supermarkets for example, amongst the magazines you will find several books of plans each month where people can order a set of detailed drawings for any of the designs featured. Plots in most areas being plentiful and listings available.  Eire (Southern Ireland)  has about the same number of self builds as the UK although having a smaller area and far lower population. In some ways it is easier in some countries as planning consent  is easier to get and there not being a perceived shortage of building land.

Lets look at some figures from others.

Build it on their rate card they quote sources as AMA research: the UK self build house building report 2001 and Joseph Rowntree Foundation 2001. From this they say 170,000 new homes are built a year and 13% of these are self builds accounting for a total spend of £3.8 billion. They say the average spend on a self build house is £190,000. They say that now over 20,000 new self builds occur every year and many more conversions and modifications.

As to build it readers they tell us that a third own their homes mortgage free, 72% are male and 28% female, a third of readers earn over £50,000 a year and 71% are ABC1. Their circulation a year ago was 26,804 growing at 11% a year.

Homebuilding and Renovating magazine say their circulation was 37,374 a year ago, growing rapidly over the last few years from around 21,000 in 2001. 66% male, 32.5% female and the rest didn't want to say. They put the current self build market value at £4.03 billion, quoting the same sources as build it.

Self build and design put the value of the self build market at £4.9 billion, but this probably includes renovations and conversions. Circulation is not quoted but said to be growing.

We have analyzed all the projects featured in the above magazines where figures have been available on the economics of self build, and some of these tables are shown in the case studies section of the clubs main UK web site. On our study of the Homebuilding and renovating  2004 projects the central 20 range from 35% to 47% saving, while the total listing ranged from 2% to 93% savings. Care should be taken when using these as they may be effected by prices of property generally rising at the time of the build, in land already owned in some cases, as well as some other factors. Likewise many are show homes so have been finished to above commercial standards, so had they been built to sell, they would have been more profitable. Most are also lone self builders undertaking their first projects, so may have not been so economically arranged as they would have been by a more experienced self builder or with help.

Norwich and Peterborough Building Society (N&PBS) carried out a survey reported in Self build and Design September 2004 p6. They were looking at peoples attitude to designing and building their own home.

The report states that 

The rest of the report points out the flaws in these assumptions and details about the N&PBS arrangements to stage pay and fund land on self build mortgages.

This report reinforces the study we undertook, although asking different questions. It shows that the main problem is misunderstanding and peoples lack of understanding of both self build, its benefits and the help we have available. With the clubs help it is practical, not difficult, affordable and finding a plot is not a problem that will stop anyone.

We can't equate these percentages directly with our study, their results over the population appear to be far higher than ours,  however although we can see holding factors, that we could make go away, we do not know then what percentage of these would wish to move ahead.

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Self Build Homes Club is an international club and trading title of Self Build Homes Club llc. Local services
 to serve members are commissioned for the club by New Atlantis International Services Corporation.
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