A beginner's guide to self-build

With the right tradesmen, location and planning approval, building your own home can be a cost-effective option, says Christopher Browne

Roger Angus has designs on property. Plotting, drawing and planning hotels, office blocks and houses are all part of his daily routine as an architect. But when his daughter needed to move recently something totally unexpected happened: Angus the architect turned into Angus the project manager. One weekend on a family outing, he and his daughter Haidee spotted a disused patch at the end of some terraced houses. They sought out the owner, made an offer and bought it. Then when Roger went to the office the next day, he drew up plans for a three-bedroom house to add on to the pretty little row in Twickenham, Middlesex.

"It was market insecurity that inspired me. My son had just been evicted from his home as the landlord wanted to sell the house, and it made me realise that renting can sometimes be unstable. I was doubly determined to find a safe place for my daughter and this seemed the ideal solution," he says. Roger's next move was to get planning permission from the local council. "It went through pretty smoothly. The site was merely a rough-and-ready tract that a few residents had been using to park their cars in, and as there were other available spaces in the road I thought it wouldn't cause a problem," he says.

His end-of-terrace will have the same brick facade and features as the others in the row. The only difference is the house that Roger builds will be made from new materials. "It won't be a piece of outstanding architectural beauty, but a good, solid and comfortable base for my daughter."

According to government estimates, each year around 5,000 homes are built by enterprising owners as they realise long-held dreams or cut down on the price of materials and middlemen. Most are detached houses and cost between £100,000 and £150,000 all-in. As for hotspots, Essex has attracted a big following as farmers sell off disused agricultural plots to enthusiastic DIYers. And "location, location, location" is certainly key if you decide to sell the property you built from scratch. "Any self-builder who already owns the land to be built on and lives in central or outer London can make very big profits when he puts the property on the market," says a spokesman for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

So what does it take to be a self-builder? "The ideal candidate is someone who works in the building trade and has good links with contractors, surveyors and architects," says Roger. The RICS spokesman adds: "You must ensure your planning permits are in place before you start, treat all costs like a control freak and get a specialist project manager to run it."

One way to start is to log on to www. selfbuildcentre.com. This offers timber-framed packages and self-build schemes with project managers. Site-seekers, meanwhile, can pay £39.99 (renewable for free) and log on for three months, picking out plots offered by councils, churches, farmers, public companies and individuals in six-county batches. If the idea of a quarter-of-an-acre in Dyfed, Wales, appeals, it would set you back around £26,000. A similar-sized plot in Hampshire would cost about £110,000. "The highest prices are in the Home Counties and the lowest in Wales and parts of Scotland," says a spokesman for Landbank Services, the website's owners.

You could also build a house of straw - or more precisely, a barn with a thatched roof. When demand forced up the price of the much-coveted rural barn, Potton Homes started selling build-your-own kits. These cost from £41,300 to £57,000 (erection costs included) with all the basics from beams, doors and windows to skirtings and staircases. It is then up to you to find the bricks, tiles and other building materials - and a friendly local owl.

More lenders are offering self-build loans. You can either borrow in stages or take out an accelerator mortgage, giving you up to 95 per cent of the cost of the land and house in advance. Lenders include the Brittania, Skipton and Newcastle building societies.

So how long will the enterprise take? "If you are an experienced operator, it could take four months; if you are new to the industry it might take you a year or two. The worst-case scenario is that the project goes pear-shaped," adds the Landbank Services spokesman. Meanwhile the house that Roger builds has a 12-month deadline - "six months if all goes to plan".

www.buildstore.co.uk lists 6,000 UK self-build sites; www.rics.org.uk will seek out a surveyor, www.architecture.com, run by the Royal Institute of British Architects, will find you an architect, or you can order a DIY barn from Potton Homes on www.buildabarn.co.uk