How to get Value for Money on your Self Build

Understanding the reality of what it costs to build your own home is vital if you’re to enjoy a successful project.

For a few lucky people, money is not much of an obstacle and they can indulge their every whim on spectacular design, top-quality materials and every technological innovation under the sun. I don’t meet too many of them, though.

Setting a budget and sticking to it is essential if you’re to achieve the house you want at a price you can afford. In truth, most aspiring self builders I speak to have limited funds – and they’re likely to be asking a lot of the cash they do have. Sometimes too much, in fact. Here are a few of the steps you can take to keep your spending on track.

Build costs

The most common question I get asked in this game is “how much does it cost to self build a new house?” Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to answer with any accuracy. Recently I’ve taken to replying with another question: “what does it cost to buy a new car?”

The reason for this is that the variables are similar. You can buy a basic car for under £8,000 but it won’t be much to write home about. Similarly, you can build a small house using budget materials for under £1,000 per m2 but you’re not likely to see Kevin McCloud knocking on the door any time soon.

It is a fact that if you want all the bells and whistles on either, it’s going to cost considerably more to buy or build. So you need to decide which parts of your project are essential and which elements are nice to have.

The cost of constructing your new home will increase in proportion to the amount of risk that you are happy to pass on to others. For this reason, the cheapest route is to do as much of the work yourself as you possibly can. But only 7% of projects are completed in the literal sense of self build – largely because most of us don’t have the time or the skills to undertake things on a truly do-it-yourself basis.

The next rung in terms of cost would be to manage the project yourself, hiring the individual trades and sourcing materials as required. Employing a general builder to do the work and run things on your behalf would represent another step up.

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