2Finding land

Table of contents

Lesson 1: first things first 4

Lesson 2: what are the main types of plot? 8

Lesson 3: where to look (part 1) 10

Lesson 4: where to look (part 2) 13

Lesson 5: thinking outside the box 15

Lesson 6: real-life case study 18

Lesson 7: three potential pitfalls to avoid 21

About Ben Adam-Smith 23

3Finding land

Finding land

Searching for land to build on can easily make inexperienced self builders lose the plot. Suitable parcels might be few and far between. And when you do find one, you could face fierce competition. Not only from other self builders, but also developers with deep pockets and bags of know-how.

The good news is that roughly 13,000 people self build every year, so the plots are there. It’s just a case of putting in the blood, sweat and tears to snare a good one.

This learning module is aimed at those of you who are new to self building. It’s an easy-to-follow sequence of lessons that’s designed to smooth your plot finding journey and bring your self-build dream that little bit closer.

4Finding land

Lesson 1: first things firstSo you’re embarking on your maiden voyage to find a plot of land to build on. And you’re full of excitement and optimism. You imagine your kids and pets playing in the sun-drenched garden of your new home, while you savour your successful build over a glass or two of chilled rosé. Sounds lovely. And we hope you find the plot you’re imagining quickly and affordably.

We don’t want to rain on your parade, but it’s fair to say that without being properly prepared, you could end up overlooking plots with potential. Even worse, when you do find a great plot, you need to be ready to take on a long queue of fellow self builders and developers just waiting to outbid or outsmart you.

You’re also fighting against a frighteningly impenetrable figure — that 90pc of land in Britain can’t actually be built on. But none of this means that without the right information, you can’t win the battle. It doesn’t have to be a mission impossible.

So where do you start? Well, before you start searching the internet, scrutinising Ordnance Survey maps or pounding the streets, you need to ask yourself a few key questions — and listen to the sage advice of a few well-travelled self builders.

The big questionsWe apologise for sounding like a free-spirited self-help manual, but the place to start is with yourself. There are some really important questions that you need to ask yourself and a few realities that — according to our

5Finding land

experts — you should try to accept. So start by reviewing the following questions. Write down your answers and keep them somewhere safe, so you can look back on them later:

1. Where do you want to live? Narrow it down to a manageable area of a few square kilometres.

2. What is the maximum you are able to spend?3. What are the key things you want from your plot (i.e.: specific location,

size, environment, etc.)4. What aspects won’t you budge on?5. Which are you willing to compromise on?

So you have your list. Well done. It’s an excellent starting point. If your list is really rigid, you should be prepared that your search could take years. In the series of podcasts we’ve done here on House Planning Help, we spoke to a couple — Dani and James McDonald — who spent 10 years finding a plot in Hertfordshire.

So flexibility is the key to speeding things up and getting your new life moving. This, combined with having the ability to focus enough time and energy on the hunt, will give you the best chance of swifter success.

We’re not saying you should settle for a terrible plot. But sometimes you need to scratch below the surface to see a plot’s true potential.

Ted Stevens of the National Self Build Association UK advises first-time plot hunters to be realistic. “It’s not difficult to find a challenging plot,” he said. “In urban areas, realistically, that’s probably all you’re going to find. In rural areas you can still find good ones, but if it’s been advertised I think you’re going to be chasing it alongside lots of other people and the price will be high.”

Lesson 1

6Finding land

He recommends being flexible — if you can — about your precise location. “The trick, I think, is to work out really where you want to live,” he said. “If you want to live in central London then you’ve got a really tough job finding a site. But if you feel like you might want to relocate at some stage, then the further away you go, the cheaper the land is and the more attractive it often is.

“Working out where you want to be is the first thing and some people might decide it’s worth relocating to build a new home. It’s cheaper to build things physically in certain parts of the country — materials and labour rates can be cheaper.”

Another top tip is to make sure there’s value in the land you’re buying. Don’t get caught up in a bidding war. If you can’t make the following simple equation work, then you should probably walk away. “There is a simple means of valuing land, which anybody can learn to do,” said author of Building Your Own Home, David Snell. “It’s simply that the land cost, plus the build costs, plus a profit margin (for you) of say 20-30pc equals the end value of the house.

“You need to learn to use that equation — to look at a piece of land and work that equation out in your head. You need to be able to juggle the first three elements of it to always add up to the last element. If the land is costing more than you’d originally hoped for then something else has got to give. Either the cost of the building has got to go down or the amount of the margin has to go down. But they must never exceed the end value of the house.”

From David’s perspective, finding a plot to build on is all about having the right mindset.

“If an experienced self-builder wants to go and self-build again, they simply go out there and find the next piece of land without any particular

Lesson 1

7Finding land

problem,” he said. “It’s the first-time self-builder who has that terrible problem finding the piece of land. So it’s a question of attitude.”

According to David, it’s vital you keep an open mind from the very start of the search. If you won’t compromise on anything, you face a long and tough journey. However, if you are prepared to look deeper at a site, you’ll often find hidden potential. It may also be the case that your site doesn’t need to be as big as you think it does. Plenty of fantastic self-builds go up on plots of just an eighth of an acre. So it pays to keep an open mind.

A final tip for take-off is to narrow your search down to a manageable area. A common mistake that land hunters make is searching too wide an area. If you don’t focus your search to a specific geographic location, the sheer scale of the job could defeat you. It’s way better to focus on a much smaller area — and then launch your offensive.

So we’ve heard from the experts and hopefully you’re now a little clearer about what you want from your plot. Now, let’s go and find it.

Lesson 1

8Finding land

Lesson 2: what are the main types of plot?

As a first-time plot hunter, it can be difficult to get your head around the different types of land that are out there and what they mean for your project. So here’s our simple guide to categories of land — and the likelihood of building a home on them.

1. BrownfieldThis is land that has been previously developed on and it’s where the UK Government focuses much of its new housing. So, in theory, local councils should look favourably on plans for these kinds of plots. Brownfield sites are also likely to have major services — like power and water — already in place. Where services aren’t already in place, you’re looking at sizeable bills to bring them there before the build’s even started. You will need to apply for a change of use, and the council could impose design restrictions and demand the new build sticks to the previous building’s footprint. Brownfield sites are often relatively affordable, but you may need to factor in additional costs if you need to demolish an existing building that’s there.

2. GreenfieldThis is land that has never been built on. It could take the shape of open countryside, gaps in rural areas on the outskirts of villages or between existing houses. It is possible to gain planning permission to build on a greenfield site, but it’s important to be clear on the distinction between this and ‘green belt’, which is likely to be passionately protected by local people.

9Finding land

3. Demolish and rebuildDemolition fees can be tens of thousands of pounds. But if you find a desirable plot with an existing building to demolish, the price can often be justified. You could also recoup some of the demolition costs by selling on materials or reusing them yourself. One thing to consider is that you may only be allowed to build to the same footprint and height of the building you’re knocking down.

4. Private gardensThe definition of brownfield land now excludes domestic gardens. However, Planning Policy Statement PPS3: Housing still states that ‘options for accommodating new housing growth may include additional housing in established residential areas’. To translate that, it effectively means that small-scale development in gardens is still possible. It’s likely that one-off houses — like the one you’re trying to build — will be be preferred over small developments.

5. Designated areasSelf building in locations with special designations — such as conservation areas — is subject to strict controls. Planning permission for a new house or a demolish-and-rebuild, is unlikely. Renovation opportunities are a better bet, but you’ll find that permitted development rights are often severely restricted.

Hopefully, you now have a clearer view on the sort of sites you’re going to encounter — and what that could mean in terms of planning. Armed with this new-found knowledge, let’s embark on the fun part. And start finding some of them.

Lesson 2

10Finding land

Lesson 3: where to look (part 1)

There are a couple of obvious starting points when you’re searching for a plot of land. Specialist online plot-finding sites and high street estate agencies are the simplest avenues to plunder first. But that also means they’re popular. With the knock-on effect that prices for the best plots often snowball.

But let’s take a closer look at these options — and how a bit of networking and smart thinking can help you get the best out of them.

Estate agenciesMaking a nuisance of yourself doesn’t come naturally to most of us. But it’s the best way of getting the most value from doing a land deal with an estate agent.

Just like when you buy a house off the peg, estate agents are the most obvious professionals to stake out when you’re thinking of buying land. However, not all of them will be able to help. Commission on land isn’t as attractive as houses, so lots of agents turn their backs on land sales.

Local agents, or those that run auctions, are the most likely to have something of interest. In any given area, you’re likely to find a handful who are willing to support you in your search. You should also register your interest with them in run-down or derelict properties that could be demolished and rebuilt.

11Finding land

Now it’s time to make a nuisance of yourself. If houses are about location, location, location, getting first look at a great plot of land is about pestering, pestering, pestering. And then pestering some more.

So don’t just email your details; phone them regularly, visit them and build up a relationship. By doing so, you’ll be fresh in their mind should something suitable come on to the market. They might even give you a heads up before it does.

The aim is to get to the top of their hot list, so you get first crack of the whip at any good plots they’re offered. It’s also worth contacting local architects and surveyors, as they’re also likely to hear about new plots early.

Dani and James McDonald, who we referred to in lesson 1, found lots of value in badgering agents. “Once the estate agents know what you want, you get first notice and you can get in there quite quickly,” she said.

Online agentsPlot-finding websites feature thousands of land listings, so it would be silly to ignore them. As well as providing details of specific plots, online search portals also:

• help you identify agents who are actively selling land in your target area• provide an idea of the amount of land on the market and its price.

The downside, however, is that as it’s the obvious place to start, you can be pretty sure that’s what everyone else will be doing. But it’s not a bad option for putting the feelers out and getting a clearer vision of the spe-cific picture in your target area.

While David Snell admits online portals aren’t the place to bag a bargain, he does see value in using them — if only to help you realise what your money will, or won’t, afford.

Lesson 3

12Finding land

“If you’d always wanted half an acre in the Guildford area and you’d only got £150,000, you’d pretty soon find (by looking online) that you couldn’t get that. So you’d realise you needed to refine your search and say: ‘Well, we’ll move a bit further up the M4 and maybe we’ll find a plot’,” he said.

Useful online resources include:

• PlotBrowser

• Plotfinder.net

• PlotSearch

Other sites that you can do a specific ‘land’ search on include PrimeLocation, Rightmove, Zoopla and Movehut. Plus, there’s The Land Bank Partnership, which specialises in the sale of land with planning consent or the potential for residential development in the West and South West of England.

AuctionsPlots suitable for single houses are regularly sold at auction (often as demolition and rebuilds). Popular online auction houses include www.allsop.co.uk and www.savills.co.uk. The upside of auctions is they do offer the possibility of paying a good price for a good plot. On the flipside, you should have your eyes open and do your research to make sure the site doesn’t have problems. Always visit the site first and read the auction pack. Never bid on anything without doing so, as deposits paid at auction are non-refundable.

Lesson 3

13Finding land

Lesson 4: where to look (part 2)

Our previous lesson was all about effortless, easy searching. But if you want to find better value, it’s going to require more commitment, time and toil. Not to mention the sort of detective skills that wouldn’t be out of place in an Arthur Conan Doyle novel.

So this time, we’re going deeper underground as we explore tips and techniques for unlocking greater value and a larger choice of plots.

1. Visit planning departmentsPlanning departments are pure gold for self-builders. You can go into any planning department and ask to see the Planning Register, where all applications for planning consent — and decisions — are recorded. You might even find them on the local council website. You’re looking for recent applications; preferably outline ones, for single houses. If the application is for outline approval there’s a good chance they’re planning to sell. It’s a great way of getting in there early. So be bold and make a polite approach to the owner by letter or phone.

2. Tear up the existing plansDon’t worry if your dream plot has planning for a house that you wouldn’t want to live in. Developers often put plans in for straightforward, uninspiring designs, just so they can get outline approval and sell the land at a premium. The reality is that you could well be able to upgrade the planning to the kind of house you want.

14Finding land

3. Tell your family and friendsBe sure that everyone in your family, business and social group knows you’re looking for land. Plots are often found in the garden of an existing property, so spread the word that you’re open to ideas and opportunities.

4. Plug into the power of social mediaIt’s an extension of the above really. Be sure you also get the message out on Twitter, Facebook and any other platforms you use. If you’ve got a contact list of 200 or 300 people, put something up to say you’re looking for a site in the area. Ask if anyone has relatives or friends who might have a bit of land to sell. It’s a modern method that can come up trumps.

5. Look at the Local PlanPlanning departments prepare plans of their area that identify which locations are suitable for new development. The information is published in the Local Plan. An update of the Local Plan is usually in progress and it can provide valuable insights into sites that may be released for future development.

6. Read and use the local newspaperDon’t neglect the trusty weekly free sheet in your target search area. Buy it on the day it comes out to see if there are any land sales in there. And use it proactively too. Take out an ad — ‘Building Plot Wanted’ —and play up your credentials as private buyers looking for a lovely, quiet place to live. Often, people would rather sell land to someone they’d choose as a neighbour — rather than a builder.

7. Estate departmentsThere are loads of institutions, organisations and companies that own land and sell parcels of it off every now and then. These include universities, the railway management body, traditional landowners like the Duchy of Cornwall and district and county councils. It’s takes a lot of time to contact them all, but if you put the effort in you may discover one of them is selling something suitable.

Lesson 4

15Finding land

Lesson 5: thinking outside the box

Fortune favours the brave — unless you’re Napoleon or Steve Irwin. But when it comes to finding land, we think it’s definitely true.

This lesson is all about thinking outside the box and uncovering plots that aren’t actually plots yet. We’re talking about bits of land that belong to an existing owner, who may not have ever realised they had land to sell — a garden, garages, just about anything really. These potential plots can be found up just about every road. But it requires courage, effort and plenty of charm to find and buy them.

The first step is to explore your target search area in close-up. Ted Stevens picks up the story: “Grab yourself one of those large Ordnance Survey maps. I think they cost £75 and they are about two metres by two metres, and it’s got every single detail for that area, right down to the fences in everybody’s back gardens, manhole covers and lampposts.

“Start walking the streets with your map and figure out where there’s land at the back of somebody’s house that perhaps they don’t realise the potential for.

“Alongside that look on Google Earth,” added Ted. “A good tip I picked up was to look on there and if you spot a row of houses that has very large gardens, take a walk there and see if any are a bit tatty.

16Finding land

“If the back garden is overgrown, that’s when you want to think, mmm, I wonder if they might be prepared to sell a bit of their back garden — because it’s clearly too much for them to manage and maintain.”

“A lot of people will tell you politely, ‘no thank you’, but occasionally somebody will say, actually that sounds good. If you’re an elderly couple living in a big house with a garden and it’s just too much for you, somebody knocking on the door and saying I could give you £100,000 for a bit of your garden might be manna from heaven.”

It’s important to know the planning situation, of course. So you will need to speak to the planning department of the local council and see what’s possible. You’ll also need to be prepared to have a few doors slammed in your face, but there’s every chance — if you do your research well — you might just find someone who hadn’t realised they were sitting on a poten-tial source of revenue.

Spotting opportunitiesWhen you are out investigating an area, you can train your brain to spot good opportunities. Here are a few of the clues to look out for:

• Large gaps between and behind housesIt’s often easier to get planning consent for development in between, or next to, existing houses. If a house has space behind it as well as easy access to the road, then it’s got ‘potential plot’ written all over it. And if there’s a large back garden with access for vehicles to get down the side of it, that could also be a promising option.

• Narrow gaps that aren’t overlookedIf you’re planning to build a fairly small home, sites that at first glance might seem too narrow may actually be a potential plot. However, it’s only a potentially viable plot if the access and windows of the houses on either side aren’t affected.

Lesson 5

17Finding land

• Disused land and brownfield sitesYou need imagination to see a petrol station or scrap yard as the site for a beautiful home, but they all could be, subject to planning consent.

• Piecing a plot togetherIt’s possible to assemble your own site with sections of several neighbouring gardens. Professional developers often patch sites together in this way. It requires tact and patience, but it has been done.

So once you find a potential plot, you need to tread carefully. Approach the landowner and be nice. If you’re pushy by nature, you need to tone it down.

Lesson 5

18Finding land

Lesson 6: real-life case studyThe long road to finding a plot can seem daunting. It’s time for a pep talk. And who better to provide that than a couple of first-time self builders who not only survived the process, but through guts and graft, beat all the odds to find the building plot of their dreams.

Here’s their inspirational story. Why not use it to inspire your journey and help you stay the course? There’s also some additional audio at the end, where the guys give you their top tips for successfully finding land.

Case study: Dani and James McDonaldDani and James McDonald are no different to any other couple with a self-build dream. Their passion was to build a Huf Haus — a uniquely stylish and energy efficient prefabricated home that’s manufactured in Germany. The couple were sold on the efficiency, the quiet build environment and the sense of bringing the outdoors inside that a Huf Haus promised. But the brakes were on their dream until they could find a suitable parcel of land.

Plot searching became almost a full-time job for Dani, who was travelling back and forth from London most weeks. The couple’s list of requirements was pretty strict — it had to have good access to mainline rail, be away from roads and other buildings, and close to good schools. It also needed to be accessible to the large vehicles and cranes that would be used in delivering and building the house on site.

It’s the kind of detailed list that many self-builders have. And such a defined vision meant that when they did find somewhere, they were likely to face

19Finding land

stiff competition from other buyers — and have a real battle on their hands. “(Finding) plots is difficult,” said James. “We were living in London at the time so we looked at four or five counties. We were looking at Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent — so we couldn’t really narrow it down to a local area so easily. Plots are also very expensive, so we did look for a while.

Biting the bullet“We had one that fell through and eventually we bit the bullet, sold up in London and came down to this area (Hertfordshire), which was kind of our favourite area, and rented for a while and kept looking. We were lucky enough to find this one.”

James and Dani’s house has a great outlook, taking in trees on one side and a beautiful garden on the other. There’s not another house to be seen, which makes the plot pretty idyllic. It begs the question, how on earth did they not only find it, but also beat other buyers to the punch?

“Well I was doing a lot of the groundwork,” said Dani. “I was driving back and forth from London for almost 10 years, which sounds crazy! I wanted somewhere you couldn’t see anyone, but it also had to tick the boxes of good schools, a good mainline train, and access for the enormous articulated lorries and crane that building a Huf Haus required.”

Dani was realistic about the hard work involved in finding land they loved — and she was prepared to put in the effort to make their dream reality.

Full-time job“When we got offers we couldn’t refuse on the loft up in town (where they previously lived) I just spent every day up and down, up and down every road, putting my name in letterboxes, in the estate agents’ offices, look-ing through their filing cabinets, doing everything I could. Really it was a full-time job.”

Lesson 6

20Finding land

Dani puts some of their success down to luck — and the fact the vendor stayed true to his word, despite receiving further offers on the plot. But as they say, you make your own luck in life.

“This property came on the market on a Monday. It wasn’t even drawn up in a proper format, and one of the estate agents who I was working with gave us the tip-off,” she said.

“We went to see it on a Wednesday, made an offer on the Friday and it was accepted, which was great. Then he got further offers but he turned them down. So we were very lucky, because he shook our hands and he was actually a decent fellow. We decided, okay this is it, here we go, no looking back!”

“The other thing was that it did need to have a habitable property on it,” added James. “Dani was not prepared to live in a caravan, so we needed somewhere that had somewhere to live while we were getting the planning permission and designing the house and all that sort of stuff. Because obviously you can’t really design the house until you’ve got the plot.”

Hidden strengthsLiving in the existing house for a while gave the couple valuable time and space. It allowed them to design a home that really played to the plot’s strengths.

“The advantages of living in that house were that we watched the light, we watched the seasons. I couldn’t put a price on that,” said James. “Because you could really see how the sun fell in the winter and how it burnt through in the summertime. That very much determined where we were going to situate the various rooms of the house once we broke ground. And that was something an architect just couldn’t draw up. You know, you had to be here to see that.”

Lesson 6

21Finding land

Lesson 7: three potential pitfalls to avoid

Doing anything for the first time is bound to bring stress and worry. Find-ing land is no different. With it comes the very real fear that you might make an expensive mistake that you’ll live to regret.

There are plenty of self-build beginners out there who’ve been stung by unscrupulous agents and businesses. And we don’t want you to be the next victim.

This lesson is all about protecting fellow self builders, so we’ve produced a list of scams and pitfalls that you need to be aware of. We hope it’s a useful resource that stops you falling foul of the following self-build banana skins.

1. Planning permission problemsWe touched on planning before, but it’s worth returning to. Our advice is that you should never buy land without planning permission. Resist that temptation to buy a bargain piece of land on the basis that it will get planning permission one day. It’s fine to make an offer subject to the land getting the necessary permission. But if you sense it won’t, just walk away. There’s no reason why a feasible plot shouldn’t already have outline permission. It costs a mere £335 to apply for, so if the vendor really believed it would get planning, he’d likely already have obtained it. Land that does have consent comes in two types — outline planning permission (OPP) or detailed planning permission (DPP). OPP is consent in principal for development to take place, leaving the specifics of the build to be established at a later date.

22Finding land

2. Property scam cowboysDon’t get conned into buying land by individuals or businesses with no scruples. If someone is selling a wonderful plot of land at an unbelievable price there’s something wrong. And if you buy a site like this — usually still costing tens of thousands of pounds – you’re very unlikely to ever recover your money. Use your common sense. If a deal feels dodgy — it probably is.

3. Watch out for land bankingThis is a slightly less sinister twist on the above property scam, but could still leave you out of pocket. A typical land-banking scheme involves somebody buying a field on the edge of a village and slicing it up into ‘building plots’. These are sold off at prices way below the normal rate. They lure in inexperienced self builders by saying the land is likely to be zoned for development and that, when this happens, they’ll be quids in. But this never actually happens and you’re left with a piece of land that’s worth next to nothing. The tip is to get independent advice first, regardless of how attractive a deal seems. Several of these companies will actually refuse to deal with you if you try and take independent ad-vice, which should be all the warning you need.

So the advice is that if anyone offers you a bargain plot, unless it’s a generous auntie, it pays to be super-suspicious.

Lesson 7

23Finding land

About Ben Adam-SmithBen Adam-Smith is a switched-on communicator. With 15 years’ experience producing and presenting shows for TV and radio, he knows what it takes to entertain, engage and inform.

His production credits include BBC snooker and talkSPORT, and he’s presented everything from a documentary in Mozambique to highly rated radio shows across the South East of England.

Ben turned down the mic on his broadcast career in 2012 to pursue his passion for film-making, new media and the environment. Through his business, Regen Media, he produces films, podcasts and more for eco-friendly construction companies, with the clear goal of helping them market themselves more effectively.

One of Ben’s biggest motivations is climate change - and he believes everyone is capable of changing how they live. He’s a big supporter of the Passivhaus movement and wants the construction industry to take its environmental responsibilities much more seriously.

Ben also runs the House Planning Help website, which features podcasts, blogs and other resources that help people build better, more sustainable homes.

Ben’s pet hate is when he sees communication go wrong. That’s because he knows that with the right support and digital tools, every construction business can communicate better and build stronger, more honest relationships with their customers.

He’s a respected and trusted member of the eco-building community. And he’s determined to inspire more and more people to catch the self-build bug.

24Finding land

Thank you

Thank you for checking out our guide to financing a build. Hopefully you’ve found it really useful.

If you’re a Hub member, then we look forward to sharing even more great content with you every month.

If you are not a Hub member, see what you’re missing!

www.houseplanninghelp.com/hub