Want to bring your dream home to life in 2023? Getting the location right will dramatically increase your chances of success
If you’ve been looking to buy a home over the past year, you’re probably well aware of the issues facing buyers in the current market, with fluctuating house prices and rising mortgage rates.
READ MORE: How to build your own house: a self build beginner's guide
According to Rightmove, asking prices are slowly starting to rise again after a slump in the last two months of 2022, and though this may not be music to the ears of buyers, a softening in mortgage rates is sure to be.
However, if the current state of the property market still worries you and you're tired of having to try and predict fluctuations in house prices—or you're concerned about losing money on an existing property in the next year or two—perhaps it's time to consider building your own property.
The self build route
The UK is behind many other countries when it comes to self building, but the government is keen to change this.
In April 2021, the government announced £150 million of funding through the Help to Build scheme to kickstart the self build revolution by offering lower deposit mortgages, freeing up money for would-be self-builders to realise their dream.
Announcing the plans, the then Housing Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said: "Building your own home shouldn’t be the preserve of a small number of people, but a mainstream, realistic and affordable option for people across the country."
The Help to Build scheme 2022 officially launched in June last year and aims to make self builds a viable option for more people, even those who have a small deposit, by offering equity loans of between 5% and 20% (up to 40% in London) of the combined value of the land—if you don't already own it—and the build.
Image credit: Shuang Li / Shutterstock
Those that are eligible—and yes, it is also open to first-time buyers—can spend up to £600,000 on their home, although only £400,000 can be spent on the cost of the build itself.
To qualify for the scheme, you must be over 18, plan to live in the home you build and be able to secure a self build mortgage with a lender.
In addition to support from Help to Build, there are other advantages to building your own property.
For a start, unlike the work you might need to do to a fixer-upper, you don’t have to pay VAT on labour or materials when you're building your own home, saving a hefty 20% in most cases.
You also only pay stamp duty on the price of the land—and even then, only when it costs more than £250,000—and empty plots are considered non-residential, meaning the stamp duty rates are lower.
Building hotspots
But even though there are financial pros, there are also big hurdles for self builders to overcome, from finding reasonably priced land to getting planning permission.
There are huge variations in how difficult it is to pull off your own build around the UK, but helpfully, landscaping expert Marshalls has carried out research to come up with a list of the best and worst locations for self build projects in England.
To compile its ranking, it looked at a range of variables, including the cost of land, the proportion of successful planning applications and how building costs compare across the country, to give every local authority in England a Home Build Index score.
Image credit: 2022 raymond orton / Shutterstock
Newcastle-under-Lyme, in Staffordshire, came out top of the list of councils, with the highest Home Build Index score, thanks to a high planning approval rate of 88.29%, as well as a comparatively low cost of residential land and lower than average building costs.
Following closely behind, in second and third places respectively, are Telford and Wrekin, and Fenland and Nuneaton, both in the West Midlands, which suggests that England's heartland is the smart choice when it comes to building your own home.
The best locations for building your own home
| Rank | Council area | Residential land value per hectare | Planning approval rate |
Construction costs vs national average |
Home Build Index score /10 |
| 1 | Newcastle-under-Lyme | £1 million | 88.29% | -4% | 7.82 |
| 2 | Telford and Wrekin | £1.2 million | 90.40% | -4% | 7.71 |
| 3 | Fenland | £370,000 | 80.88% | +3% | 7.64 |
| 4 | Nuneaton and Bedworth | £1.4 million | 90% | -4% | 7.64 |
| 5 | Bolsover | £370,000 | 100% | -2% | 7.61 |
| 6 | Wolverhampton | £1.2 million | 86.05% | -4% | 7.54 |
| 7 | North Kesteven | £850,000 | 83.12% | +3% | 7.51 |
| 8 | West Lindsey | £370,000 | 78.82% | +3% | 7.49 |
| 8 | Redcar and Cleveland | £400,000 | 97.78% | -6% | 7.49 |
| 10 | East Lindsey | £800,000 | 81.86% | +3% | 7.44 |
| 10 | South Tyneside | £400,000 | 94.12% | -6% | 7.44 |
At the other end of the scale, London is overwhelmingly marked out as the worst location to build, due to the astronomical price of land and higher-than-average build costs.
Top of this list of worst places to embark on a self-build project is Tower Hamlets, where you could expect to pay £39.9 million per hectare (or £1.6m for a tenth of an acre—a big enough plot to build a four-bed home).
On its coattails is Lewisham, where the cost of land is marginally cheaper (£32.8 million per hectare), but in both local authorities, build costs are a massive 18% above the national average.
The worst locations for building your own home
| Rank | Council area | Residential land value per hectare |
Planning approval rate |
Construction costs vs national average | Home Build Index score /10 |
| 1 | Tower Hamlets | £39.9 million | 51.55% | +18% | 2.78 |
| 2 | Lewisham | £32.8 million | 53.37% | +18% | 2.84 |
| 3 | Richmond-upon-Thames | £24.6 million | 49.57% | +13% | 2.93 |
| 4 | Haringey | £24.3 million | 57.89% | +18% | 2.95 |
| 5 | Croydon | £12.3 million | 36.88% | +13% | 2.97 |
| 6 | Greenwich | £20.4 million | 49.66% | +13% | 2.99 |
| 7 | Brent | £24 million | 54.32% | +13% | 3.03 |
| 7 | Hillingdon | £11.6 million | 47.35% | +13% | 3.03 |
| 7 | Kingston-upon-Thames | £21.2 million | 53.18% | +13% | 3.03 |
| 10 | Barking and Dagenham | £8.1 million | 43.31% | +13% | 3.06 |
| 10 | Epsom and Ewell | £7.3 million | 51.43% | +6% | 3.06 |
Interestingly, though, while all 10 of the worst places to build your own home are in Inner or Outer London, the City of London is one of just four local authorities in England (alongside Bolsover, Halton, and the Isles of Scilly) to have a council planning approval rating of 100%.
READ MORE: How to find the perfect self build plot
Main image: 2022 Halfpoint/Shutterstock