What can you Build for your Budget?

People choose to self-build for many reasons, but in my role collating our readers’ homes articles, one that I’ve seen crop up time and time again is the idea that you can often get so much more for your money in comparison to buying a ready-to-move-into property from an estate agent.

This is undoubtedly a massive benefit of self-building. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that automatically means you have to do it all yourself in order to get the most out of whatever you’ve got to spend.

In reality, it’s actually all about understanding how and where to spread your budget. Generally, this means researching, planning and knowing when engaging the skills of qualified professionals is a good idea.

We’ve seen self-builders create their dream homes on a variety of different budgets, so don’t be scared off by dramatic projects you’ve seen on the television. It’s true that you might face unforeseen costs – whether that’s because of a complicated planning restriction that needs extra surveys, or unexpected ground conditions requiring expensive foundations that you only discover once you start digging.

Perhaps a supplier is late and this delays works, or you need to fork out for a professional to redo something that someone else did badly. But fundamentally, while there can sometimes be a few stumbling blocks, creating a bespoke home from scratch doesn’t have to be something where costs will spiral out of control and leave your finances reeling.

For 99% of self-builders it’s an adventure that will leave you with a home tailored to your exact needs and that, in many cases, ends up being worth more on the open market than it cost to construct.

Inspiration

The following pages present a diverse selection of readers’ homes that I’ve handpicked from recent Build It issues in order to demonstrate what your money could achieve. There are different structural methods, house sizes and style preferences, but what each story has in common is that the homeowners worked hard to maximise the potential of whatever budget they were working with.

With build costs ranging from £77,000 up to £749,500, these homes prove that careful planning and keeping an eye on fees as you go will ensure your project is a success.

I’ve also spoken to a few industry experts to pick their brains about how to keep organised, whether certain aspects of your project could benefit from savvy saving techniques and what areas are worth investing in.

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