3 December 2015
Finding land remains the biggest hurdle faced by would-be self and custom builders – according to the latest analysis of supporters of the National Custom & Self Build Association (NaCSBA).
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The study, sampling 2,500 supporters registering with the Self Build Portal, found that an overwhelming 56% claimed finding an affordable/suitable site with which to build their own home was by far the biggest challenge they faced – an increase of 15% since the last survey was undertaken in July 2013. Understanding all the technical information needed to build a home proved to be the next obstacle for 16% of people followed by securing finance (15%) and obtaining planning permission for a project (15%).
Linking up with other people to undertake a group self build project proved to be the easiest challenge for half of the respondents.
The findings also suggested that the majority (82%) of supporters hope to build a home for themselves within two years – with less than a third (29%) having identified a plot or in the process of building, and just a handful (1%) of people declaring they had already built their own home. Nearly half (49%) of people wish to build their new homes in the South of England.
Most would-be self/custom builders revealed a site purchase and construction budget between £100,000-200,000 to deliver a home. And nearly a third (31%) of supporters wish to build a flat-pack kit home instead of a brick/block building.
Mike Hardwick, NaCSBA CEO, said: “These figures make interesting reading and echo the views of self and custom builders that I meet. The demand for land is still well above the available supply and so many of our supporters are eager to start their projects in the next couple of years but are held back by this critical shortfall.
“However, I think that recent initiatives will help. New legislation coming into force on 1 April 2016 will oblige local authorities to keep a register of potential self and custom builders in their area and, ultimately, to permission sufficient plots of land to meet that requirement. I believe this will go a long way to addressing this issue and it will be one of the cornerstones of the government’s plan to double the number of self and custom build homes to 20,000 per year by 2020.”
