Building a house in stages over 5 years

Atomic Pineapple

A bit of an odd one this, and possibly not the correct forum but hopefully I can get some helpful pointers at least.

We've just recently purchased a brand new semi-detached 3 bed in a housing estate. We done this just to get on the property ladder and get off renting, which we had been doing for almost 10 years.

Our longer term goal is to build our own house in a rural setting, we already have land for this. Since moving into our newly purchased house we've come to realise that, for various reasons, we've made a mistake. Not ideal!

Because of this we now want to accelerate the building of our own house, and rather than waiting 5 years and then trying to sell our current house, I was wondering if building it piece by piece over 5 years is a viable project. I would like to save as much as possible, top this up with a small loan and get a phase of the house built, then repeat this cycle over 5 years (It may be less than 5 years depending on cost but 5 years is the most realistic timeframe). This would keep us mortgage free and allow us to sell our current house with little pressure.

But is this feasible? Will builders take on piecemeal work like this? Do housing projects have to be complete within certain time frames? Does planning permission run out if the house isn't complete in a certain time frame?

yurtyaherne

What could possible catch you from a planning permission perspective is the fact that you now own a house.

To have a "rural housing need", you must meet certain criteria regarding links to the locality and also have a housing need.

The fact you own a house would be deemed as not having a housing need.

Atomic Pineapple

yurtyaherne wrote: »

What could possible catch you from a planning permission perspective is the fact that you now own a house.

To have a "rural housing need", you must meet certain criteria regarding links to the locality and also have a housing need.

The fact you own a house would be deemed as not having a housing need.

OK, we could probably get around that by just selling the housing and moving into parents if required? Not ideal but I assume we can still try for planning permission to see if that comes up? We do have links to the locality and maybe needing to be closer to family would work in our favour. We currently live almost an hour away.

sydthebeat

yurtyaherne wrote: »

The fact you own a house would be deemed as not having a housing need.

That's not the criteria in every county

Atomic Pineapple

sydthebeat wrote: »

That's not the criteria in every county

In Louth, where we would like to build, the criteria seems to be having already got a house in the rural area you would like to build. Our house is urban and not in county Louth.

It does state you have that you must have "a rural housing need", which is very ambiguous. The land is on farmland that my wife is will inherit, it is an inactive farm at the minute with the land being rented out but she will be required to manage when her parents pass. Not sure if this counts.

Is it a solicitor or architect who will be able to check this for us with the least expense?

sydthebeat

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

In Louth, where we would like to build, the criteria seems to be having already got a house in the rural area you would like to build. Our house is urban and not in county Louth.

It does state you have that you must have "a rural housing need", which is very ambiguous. The land is on farmland that my wife is will inherit, it is an inactive farm at the minute with the land being rented out but she will be required to manage when her parents pass. Not sure if this counts.

Is it a solicitor or architect who will be able to check this for us with the least expense?

your first port of call for any rural planning application should be to a local architect / engineer / technician / planning professional etc as they should have extension experience as to how these applications are dealt with

JoeA3

Agree with the above - consult a local reputable engineer, because it seems to me the rules vary from county to county, which is nuts in itself.

In my case (Galway) - the co-co don't seem to care if you already own a house, so long as it isn't a house you built (obtained planning permission for in your own name).

antiskeptic

You can stagger stages from a build tech perspective with little enough problem. The builder who does stage A might not be the builder who does stage B.

Each piece can be attractive to a builder, especially since each isn't super time sensitive. Builders love infill jobs for when there's an unexpected delay on a start elsewhere.

Beware mission creep though. If he smells the possibility of long fingering he will long finger. Have him front money on the job and keep him hungry until he's got the stage over the line.

Your problem might be finance. We're overdue a recession, the Fed is lowering interest rates, China is slowing and we've the poss of a hard Brexit around the corner.

Downturn will see banks pucker up ducks asshole-like on property in general, self-builds in particular and your somewhat unique scenario most certainly.

A ghost self build beckons over the timescale in question.

Dual wheels

One big piece of advice go direct Labour, as you have 5 years to build your in an excellent position, you will save yourself at least 100k

antiskeptic

Dual wheels wrote: »

One big piece of advice go direct Labour, as you have 5 years to build your in an excellent position, you will save yourself at least 100k

So long as your're equipped to oversee such a prospect.

Indeed, what equipping do you have at all for self build?

C3PO

Dual wheels wrote: »

One big piece of advice go direct Labour, as you have 5 years to build your in an excellent position, you will save yourself at least 100k

The OP lives over an hour from the site and (would appear) to have no building experience .... hardly sensible advice?

Atomic Pineapple

Yep, unfortunately direct labour would be too much hassle for me to take on.

We've started the process of checking our eligibility for a once off build anyway and we now feel that if by some miracle we get it, we will scrap the 5 year plan and do whatever it takes to sell our current house and get a mortgage for the new build.