Self-build is a term that is getting ever-popular in the housing market. Hold on, what precisely is “self-build”? It’s a property you build yourself. Not quite literally by yourself, but you set yourself in the position as foreman, architect, planner of your house and allow professional workers do the job you order them to do. More people are opting for the “self-build” route - in fact, the army of “self-builders” in the UK outnumbers the amount of properties being developed by any professional developer. The function of self-build is to produce a house to your precise specifications, not a template that the large developers work to.

I know what you’re thinking: “I haven’t a clue about how to build a house”. The pleasant news is that getting involved with a self-build project doesn’t mean you necessarily have to dive in with the actual development (in fact, only around 5% of self-builders in reality take a role in the actual development of the property). Even when it comes to design, quite often this is delegated to a professional designer.. Self-build, more often than not, is about you expressing (in laymen’s terms), what you need to the property designer - who then produces a design dependent on your prerequisites. This design then becomes the draft the builders follow. Now do you see? It’s not required to have any proactive participation in self-build. Having said that, the DIY fantatic can use self-build as a chance to save some cash by contributing toward the tasks of self-build they have experience in - it’s your shout as to how much involvement you want during the build.

Self-build sounds expensive, but in reality it’s generally cheaper than purchasing an already developed house of the same specifications (roughly a third cheaper). That’s not all, self-built houses sell very well too - as much as 25% higher than the development costs, so self-build can be simply an investment, rather than a place to live.

You must ensure the squad of workers you choose are 100% competent and that they can work as a squad. No doubt you will want builders with experience of some rather potentially dangerous machinery used in construction, such as floor saws, wall saws, angle grinders, masonry saws with diamond blades and stihl saws. With a skillful team, you are also raising the safety levels of the build.

This article is only an introduction to self-build, and I hope it will inspire those of you who are disheartened by the thought of running a project of this kind of scale. It needn’t take up all of your time, and you won’t need any specific skills, but you will need to be particular as to who you employ, and you will need to cautiously work out the overall cost of the project.