The Essential Plothunter's Checklist

Whatever other considerations may follow, the first questions that any self-builder must ask when viewing a plot are emotive. Put simply, do you like it, is it where you want to live, and could you envisage realising your dreams here?

After that comes the serious business of checking the plot out and assessing whether, after the initial excitement at finding it in the first place, it’s the right one for you.

Successful developers may kid themselves that they are entirely objective in their appraisal of any site but even they have to be enthused by the prospect and their very success depends upon their ability to get the best out of a plot, to overcome any difficulties, and to provide, in the end, a prop erty that the housebuying public want to live in.

What many developers have – which selfbuilders often lack – is the ability to see things as they are going to be rather than as they are. It is absolutely essential that the prospec - tive self-builder learns to look through the dross, ignore the mess on site and imagine the completed home. Unless you can do that you’ll find yourself constantly missing out on plots and forever gazing with wonder and jealousy at what others have achieved.

The Financial Decision Making Process

If a guide price has been set for the plot and it falls within your budget then that’s probably the reason you’re looking at it in the first place. But prices can be misleading, particu - larly where the property is set for auction of tender — they are designed to attract interest rather than set the final value.

Most developers and self-builders in the know start with the ‘third, third, third’ princi - ple, where one third of the final value of the home forms the land cost, one third repre - sents the building costs and the final third is the available profit margin. But most know that this rule only really holds true in a decreasingly few areas.

However, the value of the plot must bear a relationship to the final value of the house that could/should properly be built upon it. So if the planning or proposal is for a four bedroom house, it’s relatively easy to determine the value of a house such as that on the plot.

The build costs are again relatively easy to establish by reference to The H&R Average Build Cost Guide. That’s when you have to start to juggle the figures. Because the value of the land – the most anybody could pay for it without going into negative equity – is the difference between the build costs and the final value of the property. But that wouldn’t leave a profit and, although self-builders could decide that profit wasn’t the true motive, there really should be some margin of error built in and some reward for all the hard work. So the land cost plus the build cost plus a margin of 20% should add up to the final market value. And if it’s less, then either the margin can increase or the land cost can go up.

And then there’s the ability to see, as many developers do, further potential. If everybody else is thinking in terms of one house whilst you can envisage two, if all of the predictions are based on the premise of a house and you see that a bungalow would be more valuable, there’s an advantage that you can realise.

The Practical Elements

All sites need access. In most cases that’s vehicular. If this is not available and there’s a ransom to be paid, that should come off the cost of the land.

And don’t forget access for site vehicles and deliveries. Most estate agents devolve the responsibility for checking out the availability of services to the purchasers. A quick look might suffice, but on some sites there may be some considerable investigation needed to establish whether services are available and, if not, what alternatives are available or practical.

Solicitors will be checking the title. They will also be checking rights that the plot may have or others may have over the plot. Ultimately, however, it behoves the diligent self-builder to make sure that what is proposed is practical.

The Design Decisions

If you’ve been sensible you’ll have avoided the trap of getting hooked onto a particular design and then looking for a plot to fit it onto. Instead you’ll have left your design ideals to the bare minimum of a wish list and perhaps one or two layouts.

Although it is the site that dictates the design, design can and should have an influence on the eventual value and the thought parameters of others may not be as bold as yours or your designers.

Never forget that a planning permission is the Trojan horse for a fresh application; and if you can unlock potential through design that others have failed to spot, you’re on to a winner.

Unless you’re planning to live there forever and eventually go out through the door feet first in a wooden box, you’ll have to pay some cognisance to the market. And the market isn’t as far advanced in its thinking as the average self-builder so, whilst selfbuilding has been the catalyst for many innovations in design and equipment, make yourself aware of what the market will stand. Look at the upmarket design and coffee table magazines. Study the readers’ homes in H&R and see what’s leaping off the page as ‘up to the minute’. Importantly, learn to distinguish between those and short-term fads.

The Planning Assessment

What turns part of somebody’s garden or the corner of a field into a plot? The answer is, of course, planning. Without planning permission – either the actuality or the certainty of it – it is not a plot.

• Study every detail of the consent. Check to see if it is in time and if it’s an Outline Consent; check to see that any Approval of Reserved Matters has been made in time.

• If there isn’t a consent or the consent has expired, don’t pay for the land until such time as a new permission has been established.

• Agree to buy the land and tie things up legally with the owners so that if and when you do get consent they’re contracted to sell to you, but don’t pay for it until or unless that consent is granted.

• Read the conditions on any consent. Make sure that they are either satisfied or are capable of satisfaction within your control. Don’t get into a situation where it’s you that has to pay off neighbours, clear a ransom or restrictive covenant — that’s the responsibility of the vendor.

• Don’t forget the neighbours. Did they object? If so could you move to mollify them? If not, and their original objections have been overruled by the planners granting consent, will they be repeating or enlarging upon their objections, and what steps do you need to take to negate them?

Click on the attachment below to print out the Plothunters' Checklist

Further reading:

• The Costs of Plots
• Choosing Self-build Building Plots
• A Guide to Buying Land at Auction
• Site Specific Solutions for Problem Plots