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  • HPH291 : Having the freedom to build what you want – with Werner Brouwer

    HPH291 : Having the freedom to build what you want – with Werner Brouwer

    Werner Brouwer explains why being able to build a house without restrictions in Oosterwold is also about working together to build a community.

    Interview with Werner Brouwer

    Since its conception 50 years ago, there has been much interest in the Oosterwold development of the Almere area in the Netherlands.

    From the first houses being built around five years ago, there are now around 500 houses, from a total of 15,000 which are expected to be built.

    Werner Brouwer works for the municipality of Almere as Director of Development at Oosterwold.

    “The very special thing is you can choose anything you want, but the difficulty is you have to choose.”

    Without many regulations in place, or indeed a designer or planning officer, decisions need to be made by the residents. While this appears on the face of it to be an exciting prospect, it does leave them with the problem of having to make those decisions, even if they’re difficult to do. For example, with even the road-building needing to be self-organised, it is left for future neighbours to cooperate together.

    “That’s not an easy part because everyone has a different budget, different ideas, and you have to come to one end.”

    The difficulty is not in building the house

    Building the house, or getting someone in to design and build it for you, can actually be relatively easy, in comparison to other aspects of being a homeowner at the Oosterwold site. For most people, it will be the first time they have done something like this, and what they are finding is that it took a lot more time and was considerably more difficult than they thought. As novices, trying to find out how to go about building roads and wastewater treatment systems, and particularly in collaboration with your future neighbours, can be extremely challenging and time-consuming.

    Road building can be a contentious issue

    At Oosterwold, when you buy a plot you will have a drawing that shows where the road will need to go. As you can only start building your house once you have a road, you are dependent on that cooperation with your neighbours for getting the road built. While this can be a chance to bond with them, it can also lead to tensions.

    There are some regulations about the dimensions to ensure it is suitable for emergency vehicle access, but beyond that it is for the neighbours of their particular area to agree on what it is going to be made from, and how to divide the cost. They could decide the percentages will be based on the number of houses, the size of the plot, income, number of cars owned, etc.

    Werner is already involved in a legal procedure where people are in dispute about the road.

    “People choose things that are not common, and you have to fit in with them”

    Plots are allocated in sequence along rows, so when you see a plot you like you have to contact the one there before you. It is the nature of the development that people might want something outside of the norm, but in order to achieve that there has to be collaboration with your new neighbours. For example, if someone wants a circular plot, they will need to find someone that wants a concave plot for next door.

    The freedom to make their own choices means there is a lot of diversity, with houses being built out of straw, car tyres, wood, steel, and shipping containers, all next to each other. With no say about what your neighbour can build, it’s a development that might not suit everyone!

    Community sustainability contributes to the conscience of behaviour

    Sustainability in terms of energy consumption is generally done at an individual level, but a big focus is on developing a sustainable community. As part of this there is an obligation to contribute 50% of each plot to city farming for food production. This could be by way of keeping sheep, planting fruit trees or a vineyard.

    Wastewater and sewerage is also dealt with locally in the development, with residents being responsible for their own treatment systems. One positive that comes out of this is it has meant that individuals at Oosterwold have an awareness of the circularity of water and what their own needs are.

    However, lessons have been learned that it’s actually a very technical solution so they are planning for the government to take back some of the responsibility for the wastewater treatment.

    The process is the same for schools and public transport

    With a development of this size there will need to be community facilities, but these follow the same rules as for the house building. In Holland, there is a financial deal whereby if an initiative and backing are raised to build a school, then the government will have to pay for it. But that initiative, like all the others, will have to take its turn, be involved in the road building for that section, and provide the necessary agricultural space.

    Developers are not allowed!

    Werner accepts that while sometimes developers could do it better or faster, this provides an alternative for people who don’t want to live in a standard home. With a shortfall of one million houses that need to be built in the country, Oosterwold draws on the experience gained from fast development at Almere to offer choice for those that would like to build a house themselves.

    Time needs to be taken to implement lessons learned

    With Oosterwold covering an area of 4,300 hectares, Werner says one of their objectives is about slowing down development. If 1,000 people rush into building, it could mean 1,000 mistakes being made. Better to let it move at a slower pace and have time to respond to issues.

    There is currently an evaluation taking place looking at what has gone well, what has gone wrong and what could be done better.

    Find out more

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  • HPH222 : How easy is it to buy land at Graven Hill? – with Karen Curtin

    HPH222 : How easy is it to buy land at Graven Hill? – with Karen Curtin

    With the first phase well under way and residents already moving in, Karen Curtin, Managing Director of Graven Hill Village Development Company, talks through the process of finding and buying a plot at Graven Hill.

     

    Interview with Karen Curtin

    Karen Curtin has been in post as Managing Director on a permanent basis since July 2017. When we spoke with her predecessor, Philip Singleton, the first plots were being prepared for release and he gave an overview of the opportunities available and the vision for the scheme. Since then the site has been taking shape with plenty of landscaping, infrastructure going in and the first homes already completed and occupied.

    The current masterplan is for 1741 units, with 30% being affordable housing. So far they have sold around 100 of their “Golden Brick” self build plots, 50 affordable housing plots and 30 of their custom product.

     

    Inspiration for the Plot Shop came from the Netherlands

    While Graven Hill is a pioneering development in the UK, similar schemes exist elsewhere in the world, most noticeably Almere in the Netherlands. Inspiration for the Plot Shop came from there, with the idea being it could be an information hub providing details about the different products available and offering hints and tips about how to build a home.

    The Graven Hill Plot Shop is currently based in Bicester, a short drive away from the development. With so much building work going on there it has been important to consider the health and safety implications of members of the public visiting, but they plan to move the shop to the site once it is safe to do so.

    Monthly tours to the site are provided so people can get a feel of what it’s about and see the areas that have plots and houses for sale.

    At the Plot Shop a floor map shows all of the residential plots that are for sale, colour-coded to indicate the size and whether they are allocated for Golden Brick or custom projects. The map shows the plot locations (with some locations having different design flexibilities in terms of getting planning compliance within 28 days), notional house types with the number of bedrooms possible, the size of the plot and the maximum gross internal area.

    The sales team are able to tell you what the foundation type is for any given plot and provide a land price, but not advise how much the Golden Brick will actually cost. Until they know what the building design will be they won’t have the structural calculations to know how much it will cost to support the structure. Not knowing the Golden Brick price on reservation can be challenging for buyers, but the team are working on a product where they can offer a combined price for land, Golden Brick and superstructure.

     

    Golden Bricks are sold as serviced pieces of land

    Often an expensive element of building from scratch can be connecting the utilities to the site. At Graven Hill the services are delivered to the edge of the boundary where they can be brought into the property as required. Also included in the purchase of the land is the foundation for the design, the warranty and insurances, with the added benefit of having no VAT to pay.

    In order to streamline the planning process, purchasers are provided with a Plot Passport which lists the freedoms and constraints of the plot design. If the design is compliant, planning permission can be guaranteed within 28 days. Projects which don’t fulfill the Plot Passport criteria are allocated a Delivery Liaison Manager to offer advice and navigate the process through the reserved matters route.

     

    A beautiful village community of like-minded people

    Key to the success of the development is making a community where people want to live. The site has areas of mature woodland which are being retained along with plenty of green open spaces.

    On the village green will be a pub and there will be a school opening in 2020/21. There will be a retail area which might have a supermarket, coffee shop, health provision and smaller offices, and in Phase 2 there will be a million square feet of commercial space made available.

     

    Customers need to be fully educated about how the process works

    Part of the job of the sales team at the Plot Shop is to ensure that customers are fully educated about the process before making the purchase. They usually work with purchasers for around four to eight weeks getting them ready to be able to buy a Golden Brick plot. This will include making sure they are financially qualified and have engaged with suppliers to fully know what they’re doing, how much it’s going to cost, and the timescales in which things take place.

     

    Timescales are of great importance

    Once a plot has been reserved a purchaser has seven months to get to the position where they can exchange, then four to eight weeks before the foundation is delivered, and a further two years to complete the build.

    The timescales are important to ensure that people aren’t continually living amongst building sites, with plots only being released in phases to ensure projects are moving along at a similar pace.

    “The important thing for me is that I want people to come and live on Graven Hill and know that whilst they are like-minded people building their own houses, wanting to live on a unique community such as Graven Hill, there is a point where you want to be able to sit in your garden, have a glass of wine, look at the hillside and not see cranes and not hear people doing brickwork or landscaping work. So, that importance for me is about bringing that phasing on at the right space and time.”

     

    Experience from Phase 1 will feed into Phase 2 design

    When it comes to delivering Phase 2, careful consideration will be given as to what has sold well and been most popular in Phase 1. So far the plots that have sold best have been the larger plots and also the one and two bedroom plots, with the three bedroom ones being a bit slower to go. Everything learnt from the pioneers, Phase 1A and 1B, will feed into probably delivering an altered masterplan for Phase 2.

     

    Financial advice is available

    Like other developers, all of the finished products are eligible for the Help to Buy scheme. Karen says they are also lobbying the government to consider a Help to Build fund for people wanting to build their own house.

    Graven Hill have been working with BuildStore to make sure there’s a lender panel available there, along with independent financial consultants who can give advice. BuildStore also oversee the financial qualification process. This checks that if you’re a cash buyer you have the money to go forward with the transaction, or if you need to get a mortgage then you have to have a decision in principle, to ensure you have the funds to not only buy the land and the Golden Brick, but also complete the build.

     

    Health and safety on site has been one of the biggest challenges

    On a traditional site, members of the public are kept away until the houses are ready and can be moved into. With houses here working to different schedules and owners being responsible for their own plots, there has had to be a very strong health and safety presence.

    “It’s one of the most important things to me because in order for a site like this to work, everybody’s got to comply. That’s from wearing PPE to driving around the site at the right speed limits, making sure they book their deliveries because what we don’t want is three or four cranes on site at the same time.”

     

    More whistles and bells on the houses!

    Karen explains that with the saved equity from self building and cutting out the developer, rather than focussing on it being 20% cheaper, people often end up using that money to pay for premium finishes as they intend to live there longer than they might have done on a traditionally built site.

     

    Register with Right to Build

    Local authorities are required to research demand and maintain a list of people wanting self build plots in their area, and make plots available. Karen encourages people to register their interest in self build with their local authority to make sure that enough land is being made available to meet demand.

     

    Find out more

    Visit the website of Graven Hill

    Follow Graven Hill on Twitter

    Find out more about the Right to Build register

     

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Karen Curtin.

     

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  • HPH006 : How to Save Money When Buying Land – with Ted Stevens of NaSBA

    HPH006 : How to Save Money When Buying Land – with Ted Stevens of NaSBA

    Ted Stevens, Chairman of the National Self Build Association in the UK, gives his advice on how to find a good plot of land at a reasonable price. Plus, why Almere in Holland could be a blueprint for other large scale self build developments across the world.

     

    Interview with Ted Stevens

    Ted details how he became interested in construction at an early age, inspired by his technical drawing teacher at school. After running a student newspaper at university he then got a job at an architect’s magazine called Planning, before setting up his own marketing company. When an opportunity arose to sell his business and take early retirement, he seized it. However, the retirement didn’t follow! Over the years he’s renovated a few properties, but between 2004 and 2005 he built his own house and soon after that, he got a call from a friend who wanted him to oversee the publishing of Build It magazine. It was during this time that Ted realised nobody was championing the self build industry in the UK, which was when he got together with other key figures from the industry and the National Self Build Association was born.

     

    The Self Build Market is Small in The UK

    Ted reels off an amazing fact about the UK market: only 10% of new homes are built using various forms of self build. In most other developed countries that figure is between 30-50%. Ted explains that the process used to be simple and that you’d buy land from the local farmer and build your house. However, due to being slightly more populated and having slightly less land, this has gradually changed. The UK is also unusual when compared to its European neighbours, in that it has big national house building companies filling the space where the self builders might be.

     

    The Government is Keen to Diversify UK Housing Market

    The then Housing Minister Grant Shapps was shocked by this data and wanted to see much more self build delivered in the UK, perhaps increasing to 20% or more. This would mean that there wouldn’t be such a dependency on the national house building companies and it would also add variety to the new housing stock as self builders will have very different agendas (no shareholders to satisfy, etc.).

     

    Self Builders Don’t Tend to Move!

    With self build you put more in, but you also get more out. Ted highlights the fact that home owners move on average once every 6 years. Conversely, self builders move on average once every 25 years! It’s partly because or the blood, sweat and tears along the way and partly because you have a place that is purpose built to you – there is nothing else on the open market that meets these needs.

     

    ‘Self Build’ is a Misnomer

    Self build is not a great term to use as only 15% of people put one brick on top of the other. 85% take another route and they hire:

    • A kit home company. All they normally have to do is organise the concrete slab underneath.
    • An architect and builder.
    • The brick-layers, electricians, plumbers, etc. and they project manage them.
    • Professionals to do some of the work, while they do the rest.
    ‘Custom build’ is a term that better describes what most people do – you are commissioning and procuring a home custom built to you.

     

    Spend 3 Years Planning and Then 6-9 Months Building

    Ted likes the advice that Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud gives: spend 3 years building up your knowledge of exactly what you’re going to do and then nothing will go wrong and it will be built in 6-9 months. Doing it the other way around, with only three months of planning, it might take 3 years to build and cost twice as much! So preparation is everything.

    1. Go to see other self build projects
    2. Visit the exhibitions
    3. Read the self build books and magazines
    4. Do research on the internet
    5. Get advice from people who have been there and done it

     

    If Land Has Been Advertised, Expect to Pay More

    The easiest thing to do is sign up to a plot finding website. Unfortunately, you will then be in direct competition with the other people signed up to the service and inevitably the land will go to the highest bidder. The same is even true if you see land advertised by your local estate agent or in a local newspaper. Thus you need to be more innovative in your approach if you want to pick up a bargain.

     

    Be a Detective and Discover a Plot of Land!

    Ted looked at over 100 plots when he built his home. He says 90 of them were not places in which he wanted to live – they were next to railways, sewage farms etc. Ted reiterates that it’s very easy to find a rubbish plot that nobody wants! His strategy for buying land at a good price is to find it yourself.

    • Decide where you want to live. Narrow it down to a particular area or village, etc.
    • Order up a giant scale map of that area. In the UK, the Ordnance Survey maps cost about £75 each and are 2 metres by 2 metres, but they have every detail. Google Earth may work just as well.
    • Look at the map and work out where there might be a bit of land at the back of somebody’s house. Check out these areas on foot. If a large garden is overgrown, perhaps the owner is struggling to keep it up and may be willing to sell it to you? Don’t be afraid to knock on doors – they will probably say no but you’ll never know unless you try.
    It’s also worth posting up on Facebook that you’re looking for land in a particular area. Your friends or relatives, or people that they know, might be able to help you.


    The Self Build Portal

    The National Self Build Association has set up a website to help self builders in the UK. If you’re starting out, it’s got an interactive game that allows you to juggle the numbers and figure out what you can afford to buy at a particular location. The Self Build Portal is packed full of information and advice to help any would-be self builder.

     

    Green Belt vs Brown Field Sites

    Generally speaking, although there are plenty of exceptions to the rule, if a site has been built on before it is far easier to get permission to build on it again. Whereas building on green belt land, an area of outstanding natural beauty or a national park will be near impossible.

    Also be aware of defining boundaries. For example, villages and rural areas normally have, in planning terms, a red line drawn around them. If you purchase land outside these markers you will probably struggle to get planning permission. You can ask your local planning office for more information.

    Quite a popular route these days is to find a small bungalow or chalet that is falling apart and then you may be able to negotiate with planners about knocking it down and building a slightly bigger, new house.

     

    Almere in Holland – a Blueprint For Self Build Communities?

    Ted talks about an innovative project in Holland, where they are building an extension to the town of Almere. It will take 3000 new self build homes when complete, but midway through the development it is already regarded as architecturally diverse and a vibrant place to live. By doing a lot of planning upfront, the councillors were able to create a quick and easy process, with very few rules. Plots were divided up and priced on a proportional scale according to the amount of land required. Where planning permission had taken between 3-6 months, the turnaround was reduced to 3 days!  The key point is that they trusted the self builders not to create eyesores and the results speak for themselves.

     

    Self Build Towns Could Be The New Wave of Garden Cities

    People can be quite negative about planners, but good planners are some of the most visionary people going. A century ago it was planners (Sir Ebenezer Howard) who came up with the idea of garden cities. Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth were seen as both innovative and scary at the time. Nearly a century on and they are fantastic places to live. Could a self build development, like Almere, be exactly where we should be heading in the 21st century? Also, the bonus of self builders constructing their own town is that they are not just building a house but a community. They know their neighbours and they get on famously. They also play their part in delivering the services for the area and deciding where the amenities will be, etc.

     

    Ted’s Top Three Tips For Tackling a Custom Build Project

    1. Increase your knowledge by reading books from the people who have done it. Also visit as many self build projects as possible.
    2. Don’t expect it to happen overnight. It can be mentally and physically draining. Expect to make lots of decisions.
    3. Be innovative when it comes to finding and buying land as it can save you a lot of money. Be a detective!

     

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Ted Stevens.

     

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