Any house builders/property developers on here
Discussion
Hi All,
Its a business that has interested me greatly over the last 4 years and I want to start to take my first step into maybe buying a plot of land and building a house on it for resale.
Over the last few years I have seen small pockets of land pop up to build one or two houses that have PP.
Does anyone have any experience of the pitfalls of doing this kind of thing. do people usually just get a contactor in and tell them to do it from start to finish or do they manage the projects themselves?
What sort of costs or price per Sq m/ft are we looking at.
propertly values I could get from zoopla or the local estate agent for estimates to get my approx profit figure.
Any advice would be great.
Its a business that has interested me greatly over the last 4 years and I want to start to take my first step into maybe buying a plot of land and building a house on it for resale.
Over the last few years I have seen small pockets of land pop up to build one or two houses that have PP.
Does anyone have any experience of the pitfalls of doing this kind of thing. do people usually just get a contactor in and tell them to do it from start to finish or do they manage the projects themselves?
What sort of costs or price per Sq m/ft are we looking at.
propertly values I could get from zoopla or the local estate agent for estimates to get my approx profit figure.
Any advice would be great.
- Using a contractor you will handover most of the potential profit to be made on the development as a rule of thumb you're looking at £1200 a sqm for fully managed contractor, more like £700 a sqm if you manage it.
- Building method very important, brick and block, SIPS, timber frame all have their merits. After doing some blockwork builds I am going to try SIPS next time. A little pricey but so many project risks are removed.
- Don't trust the bank to do what it said it will when it said it will. Not much you can do about it, but just be prepared.
- It can be very stressful, take up weekends and evenings, and if you're married can affect your marriage and free time, it's great fun but be aware it's not always the easy money it might appear to be.
- Make sure your achitect understands the budget and what you want, they can get a bit 'creative' with self/small builds and that can add hugely to costs, for example feature windows, or curved walls. A simple design is cheap to build. It's better to do a simple design with high quality materials and fittings ( IMO ) than to try and be fancy and run out of budget resulting in a crap finish.
That's my tuppence.
- Building method very important, brick and block, SIPS, timber frame all have their merits. After doing some blockwork builds I am going to try SIPS next time. A little pricey but so many project risks are removed.
- Don't trust the bank to do what it said it will when it said it will. Not much you can do about it, but just be prepared.
- It can be very stressful, take up weekends and evenings, and if you're married can affect your marriage and free time, it's great fun but be aware it's not always the easy money it might appear to be.
- Make sure your achitect understands the budget and what you want, they can get a bit 'creative' with self/small builds and that can add hugely to costs, for example feature windows, or curved walls. A simple design is cheap to build. It's better to do a simple design with high quality materials and fittings ( IMO ) than to try and be fancy and run out of budget resulting in a crap finish.
That's my tuppence.
Timmy40 said:
- Using a contractor you will handover most of the potential profit to be made on the development as a rule of thumb you're looking at £1200 a sqm for fully managed contractor, more like £700 a sqm if you manage it.
- Building method very important, brick and block, SIPS, timber frame all have their merits. After doing some blockwork builds I am going to try SIPS next time. A little pricey but so many project risks are removed.
- Don't trust the bank to do what it said it will when it said it will. Not much you can do about it, but just be prepared.
- It can be very stressful, take up weekends and evenings, and if you're married can affect your marriage and free time, it's great fun but be aware it's not always the easy money it might appear to be.
- Make sure your achitect understands the budget and what you want, they can get a bit 'creative' with self/small builds and that can add hugely to costs, for example feature windows, or curved walls. A simple design is cheap to build. It's better to do a simple design with high quality materials and fittings ( IMO ) than to try and be fancy and run out of budget resulting in a crap finish.
That's my tuppence.
Thank you for that, its very insightful. To be honest I am really god at sticking to budgets and not getting carried away with special designs, this is purely to build a good product (house) and sell it for a good product. - Building method very important, brick and block, SIPS, timber frame all have their merits. After doing some blockwork builds I am going to try SIPS next time. A little pricey but so many project risks are removed.
- Don't trust the bank to do what it said it will when it said it will. Not much you can do about it, but just be prepared.
- It can be very stressful, take up weekends and evenings, and if you're married can affect your marriage and free time, it's great fun but be aware it's not always the easy money it might appear to be.
- Make sure your achitect understands the budget and what you want, they can get a bit 'creative' with self/small builds and that can add hugely to costs, for example feature windows, or curved walls. A simple design is cheap to build. It's better to do a simple design with high quality materials and fittings ( IMO ) than to try and be fancy and run out of budget resulting in a crap finish.
That's my tuppence.
If I seen timber frame companies close me. the size of houses/kits I am interesting in starting out with is something like the below:
http://www.scotframe.co.uk/SelfBuild/HomesPortfoli...
The kit price for this is 20k approx ex VAT. Not sure if this is cheap or expensive. I am just starting with this as a ball park figure.
I've just completed my self build and moved in 5 weeks ago - YAY!!!
I did not do it to sell so went the fully managed approach as it's my first time but will definitely do another at some stage and will PM it myself. I learnt so much through doing this one and being close to tall the decision making and scheduling even if I did not do it myself.
I'd echo the above and add that you will never appreciate the level of decision making or scheduling involved until you have gone through the process.
I did not do it to sell so went the fully managed approach as it's my first time but will definitely do another at some stage and will PM it myself. I learnt so much through doing this one and being close to tall the decision making and scheduling even if I did not do it myself.
I'd echo the above and add that you will never appreciate the level of decision making or scheduling involved until you have gone through the process.
IATM said:
If I seen timber frame companies close me. the size of houses/kits I am interesting in starting out with is something like the below:
http://www.scotframe.co.uk/SelfBuild/HomesPortfoli...
The kit price for this is 20k approx ex VAT. Not sure if this is cheap or expensive. I am just starting with this as a ball park figure.
Looks fine to me. Nice little/simple project too. You can save on the achitects/draftsmen fees by using a pre-designed house too ( just need to get planning to agree to that design if a different one has already been approved ). http://www.scotframe.co.uk/SelfBuild/HomesPortfoli...
The kit price for this is 20k approx ex VAT. Not sure if this is cheap or expensive. I am just starting with this as a ball park figure.
I would say the kit it about 1/3 the budget. Couldn't tell if the windows are included?
Timmy40 said:
IATM said:
If I seen timber frame companies close me. the size of houses/kits I am interesting in starting out with is something like the below:
http://www.scotframe.co.uk/SelfBuild/HomesPortfoli...
The kit price for this is 20k approx ex VAT. Not sure if this is cheap or expensive. I am just starting with this as a ball park figure.
Looks fine to me. Nice little/simple project too. You can save on the achitects/draftsmen fees by using a pre-designed house too ( just need to get planning to agree to that design if a different one has already been approved ). http://www.scotframe.co.uk/SelfBuild/HomesPortfoli...
The kit price for this is 20k approx ex VAT. Not sure if this is cheap or expensive. I am just starting with this as a ball park figure.
I would say the kit it about 1/3 the budget. Couldn't tell if the windows are included?
This is the link here of the kit spec:
http://www.scotframe.co.uk/MainlandUK/KitSpecifica...
Also bear in mind that being onsite and building is only half the battle these days.
Planning, potential flood risk, drainage complications and contributions can have very serious effects on the viability of a site.
Ive seen plenty of land for sale with outline planning permission for a new dwelling but once you start to look at the detail of what would be required they simply dont stack up.
Planning, potential flood risk, drainage complications and contributions can have very serious effects on the viability of a site.
Ive seen plenty of land for sale with outline planning permission for a new dwelling but once you start to look at the detail of what would be required they simply dont stack up.
barryrs said:
Also bear in mind that being onsite and building is only half the battle these days.
Planning, potential flood risk, drainage complications and contributions can have very serious effects on the viability of a site.
Ive seen plenty of land for sale with outline planning permission for a new dwelling but once you start to look at the detail of what would be required they simply dont stack up.
Planning, potential flood risk, drainage complications and contributions can have very serious effects on the viability of a site.
Ive seen plenty of land for sale with outline planning permission for a new dwelling but once you start to look at the detail of what would be required they simply dont stack up.
Can I add to that, something most people don't realise at first, just because planning have approved a set of plans/elevations it doesn't always follow that building regs will agree with what planning have approved or even stated as a requirement. If this seems overly beaurocratic and a bit stupid it's because it is. Welcome to development.
Oh and bats..... the only thing worse than bats on a site is newts. So well worth bothering to read any evironmental reports/ surveys.
Timmy40 said:
Oh and bats..... the only thing worse than bats on a site is newts. So well worth bothering to read any evironmental reports/ surveys.
I know of someone who were able to do virtually diddly squat for 18 months on a barn development because of a bat! In the end I don't think it was even living in the barn, just flew by it every so often.
Timmy40 said:
Can I add to that, something most people don't realise at first, just because planning have approved a set of plans/elevations it doesn't always follow that building regs will agree with what planning have approved or even stated as a requirement. If this seems overly beaurocratic and a bit stupid it's because it is. Welcome to development.
Oh and bats..... the only thing worse than bats on a site is newts. So well worth bothering to read any evironmental reports/ surveys.
Remove lots of this
Divert one of these
Construct one of these 20ft high
All to build 5 of these
Link to one recently for sale
blueg33 said:
Timmy40 said:
Can I add to that, something most people don't realise at first, just because planning have approved a set of plans/elevations it doesn't always follow that building regs will agree with what planning have approved or even stated as a requirement. If this seems overly beaurocratic and a bit stupid it's because it is. Welcome to development.
Oh and bats..... the only thing worse than bats on a site is newts. So well worth bothering to read any evironmental reports/ surveys.
Gorgeous houses!
Great advide regarding reading up on the enviornmental reports as the pictures you showed on the empty plot on first impressions looks like a great first site to just start building ASAP - clearly not!
IATM said:
Bloody Hell! - What are they that they had to be moved individually!
Gorgeous houses!
Great advide regarding reading up on the enviornmental reports as the pictures you showed on the empty plot on first impressions looks like a great first site to just start building ASAP - clearly not!
Yes, each bulb was move by hand before they showed the shoots in spring. They had to be sorted from the stones and replanted by hand. Very rare wild grape hyacinth.Gorgeous houses!
Great advide regarding reading up on the enviornmental reports as the pictures you showed on the empty plot on first impressions looks like a great first site to just start building ASAP - clearly not!
We did some nicer than those - Google Netherswell Manor
aghhhhhhhhh that stuff makes a triffid look timid. If you think Benefit Chavs multiply quickly they have nothing on that stuff! Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff