Mike Jacob explains how Kiss House is using timber component based production to deliver homes to the Passivhaus standard.
Interview with Mike Jacob
Mike Jacob’s journey from project manager of quirky conversions and renovations to co-founder and director of Kiss House happened organically, and stemmed from his ongoing desire to do things in a better way. He continued developing his education and qualifications, learning more about sustainable architecture at the Centre for Alternative Technology, and working for a Passivhaus startup.
Kiss House “brought itself into being”
After a decade spent delivering one-off, complex housing projects, Mike and his colleagues felt that there must be an easier way of transferring their lessons learned into a vehicle that could benefit more people, rather than starting from scratch each time. In doing so, they saw the benefit of scaling up a business that had a repeatable housing product, which felt like it had been individually designed, but without the risk, uncertainty, and stress that often goes along with that.
A bespoke house that a colleague had designed for a private client, started to get enquiries because people thought it was a configurable, repeatable house. This kickstarted their thinking that this could be their vehicle for transferring their lessons learned, and began exclusively working on Kiss House.
It was important for their designs to have an identity
The Kiss House design is a contemporary, cuboid, minimal piece of architecture, drawing on their previous experiences and inspired by landmark projects from the 20th century, to offer more of a mass customisation approach to housing. Although the company is still in its relative infancy, as they develop new housing types they intend to stay within a kind of aesthetic language, being contemporary in nature.
The custom build style alleviates many of the risks
In Mike’s experience, many of the truly bespoke projects tend to come unstuck and have tensions for a number of reasons. Often this will happen when trying to incorporate high levels of energy efficiency, and can either end up with compromises on the architecture or the performance.
The Kiss approach aims to be a simple, stripped back, clean lines aesthetic, with uncompromising performance. It can be configurable to an extent, but is ideally suited to a custom build market. Moving forward, they will be building a portfolio of individual Kiss houses that all have commonalities, and beyond that they’re having conversations with local authorities and developers who are interested in different typologies, all recognisably Kiss, for delivery of housing at scale.
Each house will be built to the Passivhaus standard
Together with developing their system, they have developed the architectural language for that system which enables them to have a much more flexible kit of parts approach to housing typologies that are more site specific. They are also working hard to ensure that each house will be Passivhaus certified.
They will have their own manufacturing facility in the UK
Mike explains that by vertically integrating themselves with their manufacturing partners, they’ll be able to de-risk the supply chain wherever they can. They’ll be bringing as much in-house to their manufacturing facility as possible, including the manufacture of the triple glazed windows, to become a one-stop shop for their housing product. And by being more in control of their supply chain, they’re able to offer a better service to their customers.
“We’ve tried to come up with something that addresses all of the pain points, or as many of the pain points as we believe are there, so that our customers maybe even enjoy the experience!”
The ambition is to use only UK grown timber
Currently, the only imported material they use is sheet timber, which they use sparingly and are trying to find workarounds for. They are trying to galvanise the domestic supply chain and are looking at ash and beech for things beyond the structure, such as for furniture and flooring.
Working with the Bio Composite Centre at Bangor University for the last couple of years, Kiss House are also looking to bring to market a UK manufactured natural fibre insulation.
The house is partially pre-fabricated off-site
The kit of parts is manufactured at their facility in the south of England, and is made up of two different types of columns, along with cassettes and panels of various shapes and sizes. They are manufactured digitally on a semi-automated basis and to high levels of precision. The components that leave the facility are insulated, and sometimes with internal lining boards and external cladding. These are then transported to site, where they are assembled without the need for a crane or scaffolding. A typical house would take just a few days on site before it’s airtight/weathertight, and then a further 4-6 weeks for the fit-out stage.
The first house will be a demo
Mike explains that they’re currently manufacturing their first house, which will be a demo house built at the factory. Their first live projects will be delivered on site as soon as they can get them through the planning system, where they’ve been experiencing horrendous delays.
It has taken plenty of perseverance to keep going against the odds!
Having lost around two years because of things like lockdown and planning delays, it has been a challenging journey to get to where they are today. However, they, and their patient investors, have kept faith and are at an exciting growth stage where they are joining forces with their manufacturing partner to embark on a new round of fundraising.
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.
Lee Fordham from Architype simplifies some of the terminology you might come across if you’re thinking about doing a sustainable self build.
Interview with Lee Fordham
Shortly after qualifying as an architect in 2004, Lee spent time travelling and working for architecture practices in New Zealand and Australia. When he returned to the UK he decided to pursue his passion for sustainable design and started working at Architype, one of the UK’s leading sustainable architects, where he is now an Associate Director.
A beginner’s guide to terminology
For those that are just setting out in their self build journey there can be an overwhelming array of technical terminology used that can be baffling to anyone outside of the industry. Lee takes us through some of the common terms that you might come across in a sustainable self build.
Passivhaus / Passive House
Passivhaus (Passive House in the United States) is a building standard that was developed in Germany around 30 years ago. Using physics, the aim is to reduce the performance gap between how the building is designed to perform, and how it actually performs.
Liz and Mike Hill’s Passivhaus – designed by Architype
The experts will use the Passivhaus Planning Package (which you’ll hear referred to as PHPP), which essentially is a very complicated spreadsheet of data that allows them to design a building that will meet the Passivhaus criteria. The contractor will use that information to construct the building, and a certifier will guarantee the work and certify it if it meets the required standard.
Passivhaus plaque
MVHR
You’ll commonly hear a Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery system referred to as an MVHR. They’re most likely to be used in Passivhaus buildings, but not exclusively. It is a ventilation system which extracts the used air from inside a building. It takes the heat from that air and mixes it with fresh air which is being brought into the building from outside, to provide every room with fresh, pre-warmed air.
The air is filtered coming into the building, and different filters can be used according to whatever is in the external air in that area.
A key benefit over natural ventilation is the element of control over any given space, ie removing moisture from bathrooms etc.
An MVHR for a domestic dwelling is roughly the size of a combi-boiler and will need to be incorporated into the building’s design.
MVHR unit at Landsdowne Drive Passivhaus – Green Building Store
Foundations / Footings
These will usually be designed by a structural engineer and are what sit under the building to evenly transfer the weight of the building to the earth. The type you use might be dependent on what your ground conditions are like, but some examples are pile foundations, deep strip foundations and raft foundations.
U-value
A complicated one to explain, but essentially it’s a way of measuring how thermally conductive a component or a series of components (like a piece of glass, wall or roof) is. It is the rate at which heat travels through. The lower the U-value, the better it is.
The aim is to have fairly consistent U-values across all the components in a building. Having just one element that isn’t consistent could act as a magnet for moisture and potentially damage the structure. This can partly be achieved by better insulation, triple-glazed windows etc.
The U-values form part of the data that feeds into the PHPP system.
Airtightness
At a very basic level, this is about eliminating drafts in a building. It’s relatively easy to achieve but needs to be thought about at the design stage. At Architype they denote the airtightness layer on their detailed drawings using a red line, which shows the contractors where to take particular care in the construction so as not to damage it.
To meet building regulations, when the building is finished an air test will be carried out. The building has a giant fan attached to it and is either positively pressured, ie blowing air in, or negatively pressured, ie extracting air. The rate at which the air leaks gives you your air test result. It is a measure in pascals of the pressure of an internal area. Building regs require you to get a result of 10 or less.
The method in a Passivhaus building is slightly different. This takes an average reading from the building being both positively and negatively pressured, to give an n50 value which is how many volumes of air changes there are in an hour. The Passivhaus requirement is that it should be less than 0.6, so significantly better than building regulations.
Pre-fabrication is where components, or indeed whole buildings, are made off-site. This could be from wall panels, to timber frames, to bathrooms that are fully plumbed and tiled, to entire houses.
MAKAR production facility
You can even go to the factories and choose your handles, paint finishes, floor finishes etc. When they reach the site they are connected together. The advantages of building the elements off-site is it can be quicker, they’re not subject to delays or damage from the weather, and often it can result in better quality and working better when brought to site.
Huf Haus
Zero carbon
Lee says that this is a difficult one to explain as there are many different interpretations of what it means.
Generally it refers to off-setting the energy use in a building. So the better your building is, ie a Passivhaus, the less carbon you have to off-set because you’re not using as much energy.
Looking deeper into it, some people will be referring to zero carbon in use, which is the energy that is used starting from the point of when it’s been built, through to its end of life.
But there’s also embodied or sequestered carbon, which takes into account everything to do with the design and construction of the building, together with the in-use energy and sometimes through to the demolition. This is more complicated to account for, although there are tools which can help explain for instance, how much energy is used in getting a tree from Germany to the UK to use in a timber frame.
Custom build
Whereas self build has many decisions for you to make, whether or not you’re doing it in the purest sense of building it yourself, or whether you’re commissioning someone to carry that out for you, custom build can take some of those decisions away from you. There will be an offering from the custom build company, but with options for you to customise it. That could be in terms of the style of the house, the layout or the finishes. It might not be as individual as you would get with a self build, but it can take away a lot of the headaches!
Potton Homes design
Solar shading / brise soleil
Effectively the same thing, brise soleil or solar shading would be used on the south facing side of a building to limit the sun coming in during the summer months when you don’t want the building to overheat, but allowing it to come in during the winter when the heat is required. Generally it would be a horizontal component that sits over the south facing glazing, whether that be a roof overhang, external canopy or series of louvres.
On an east or west elevation you would usually have a vertical component, and that’s just to do with the angle of the sun at certain times of day and certain times of year. Windows on the east and west elevation can be harder for dealing with glare and overheating issues.
Lee says the ideal situation is to have the building facing south where the solar gains can be controlled more easily.
Design team
The core members of a design team are likely to include: an architect, structural engineer, civil engineer, mechanical and electrical (M&E) engineer, and possibly a project manager.
Beyond that, depending on your site and your level of involvement and interests, you might also have: landscape architect, ecologist, arboriculturist, quantity surveyor, Passivhaus designer etc.
Renewables
Renewables refers to technology that generates energy. This could be photovoltaics, wind turbines, hydro power etc.
Air source and ground source heat pumps
An air source heat pump takes energy from the temperature in the air. Any air above zero degrees has energy in it and this can be taken and transferred into heat or hot water for your house. Similar in size to a washing machine, they’re put on the outside of a building.
The ground source heat pump works in much the same way but will take the energy from the ground. They have pipes which can either be spread horizontally in the ground which will require a lot of space, or as a vertical spread of pipes, which need less space but are a lot more expensive.
Plans, elevations, sections and details
These are examples of the different types of design drawings, created by Parsons and Whittley for Ben Adam-Smith’s house:
Plan – This is an aerial view, looking down onto the building. You can have different plans to show each floor of the building, but they can show the roof, doors, walls and windows, together with the internal layout.
Elevation – An elevation is a drawing of what the outsides of the building look like from where you’re standing. A south elevation for example would be the side of the building that is facing towards the south.
Section – This is like slicing down through a building to show what’s inside. It will show the components of the walls, floors, roof etc.
Details – By taking a section drawing and zooming in you will create a detail. They can be various scales, such as 1:2 or 1:10, and are an in-depth analysis and instruction for the contractor showing how to construct that part of the building. It would show them where the airtightness line is, where the insulation is, and how wide cavities would need to be.
Soft landings and performance monitoring
A soft landing is about making sure that once the building has been constructed, that the operator of that building knows how to use it. Obviously if you’ve built it yourself then this wouldn’t be necessary, but if you’ve largely commissioned other people to complete the project then you should have someone tell you how it all works.
Performance monitoring can take place throughout the build process but in particular Lee refers to monitoring once the building is complete. This uses sensors to check on things like the internal temperature, humidity and CO2 levels, to make sure the building is performing as it was designed to do.
Tender
The way you tender will depend on what kind of contract you will have, but essentially a tender is a set of information that is put out to someone for a response. They will price up the aspects on the tender and return it with their figure and requested documentation. It can be a tender for a design team or for a contractor. The returned tender documents are then scored and weighted according to whatever your priorities might be. For some that might be 80% of the marks will be based on how competitive the price is, but for others they might weight it more heavily in favour of quality and not necessarily who is the cheapest.
A key thing is to make sure the information and drawings you are sending out are as comprehensive as possible. That way it can be priced accurately for what you will be needing. Without that detail they will be adding an element of price risk to their response which will invariably make it much more expensive.
Window parts
Sill – The ledge at the bottom of the frame.
Head – The top of a window where it meets the wall. It can be internal or external.
Jamb – The side of the window
Reveal – The part next to the jamb. Can be internal (usually plasterboard) or external (usually timber or brick). If the reveals are set very deep into the thickness of a wall they can provide some shading to the window
Mullions and transoms – Found on traditional Victorian style windows, the mullions are the vertical bar in the middle of the window, and the transoms are the horizontal bar.
Roof parts
Trusses – The pieces, usually made of wood, that actually make the roof structure
Joists – A horizontal structural element that supports the floor and/or ceiling
Eaves – The part of the roof that overhangs the wall. Usually if it’s a sloping roof it would be the part which overhangs the gutter
Soffits – Underneath the eaves, the soffits are the horizontal section that you can see
Ridge – The point right at the top of the roof, usually where two pitches come together
Verge – The part at the side of the house. Usually there would be a bargeboard or piece of wood that goes down the side
Parapet – Usually a piece of wall that protrudes up above a flat roof
If you’re new to self build and looking for more information, then be sure to check out The Hub. It’s full of great resources, video diaries and support from a community of like-minded self-builders.
Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs shares practical advice on how to approach an ecological build, and comments on how architecture needs to change to address the climate emergency.
Interview with Kevin McCloud
Kevin McCloud has been synonymous with self build for the last 20 years. No doubt anyone planning their own project has had conversations with friends, family and colleagues about Grand Designs, as the programme has inspired a generation of people to dream about building their own home and, for some of those, to make it a reality. As well as being integral to the success of the TV show, Kevin is also the founder of HAB custom build houses.
Grand Designs has diversified
The busiest period of filming for Grand Designs is between May and October when Kevin can be filming up to fifteen hours a day, for three days a week. Because it’s impossible to know whether a project is going to take several months or several years they’re never quite sure what is going to end up in each series.
Kevin attributes the show’s longevity to being able to find interesting stories that they haven’t covered before, whether that might be about a Passivhaus construction, a new technology or building for a disability.
The Grand Designs brand has expanded to include ‘Grand Designs: House of the Year‘ in association with RIBA, and in 2019 also brought us ‘Grand Designs: The Street‘. This followed a number of self build projects taking place on a single street on the Graven Hill development in Bicester, with plans to return and film another series.
Kevin says one of the most significant films he made was in series one, which was a community housing project in Brighton called The Hedgehog Housing Co-op, that used a Walter Segal construction method. In the future he would be keen to follow another community self build co-housing scheme, but says that they’re sadly very hard to find.
There have been some stand-out eco projects
Some of Kevin’s favourite projects have been ones with a focus on sustainability. One he particularly enjoyed was Ben Law, who in 2003 built his house out of his own coppiced wood. He describes it as being a beautiful story where nothing went wrong to create a fabulously beautiful house.
“It was a film in which the word sustainability was mentioned once by Ben and I thought that was great. It elegantly told the story without hammering it on people’s heads.”
Another memorable one was the Lammas Project, which followed a couple building in Wales. He says it was a beautiful film about super low-impact living that was as much about the lifestyle as it was about the architecture.
“It’s rather like ecological cars. They don’t exist. There’s no such thing as an ecological car. It doesn’t matter whether it’s full of batteries or it runs on dog poo. The point is, it’s all about our consumption and use of vehicles that determines whether their use has an impact on the planet. That’s where fundamentally the largest amount of environmental impact happens, in use.
“And it’s the same with dwellings. So, you can build yourself an eco-house but if you continue to drive fifty miles to work every day and continue to live an exorbitant lifestyle, it doesn’t really achieve very much.”
Being asthmatic himself, Kevin had a keen interest in Elinor Olisa’s healthy home that featured in the last series. With two children that suffered from life-threatening allergies, Elinor researched every product coming into the home to check for VOC levels and potential triggers. She has worked with the University of York to monitor the environmental performance and the results have been staggering.
“A fabric first approach is glorious”
A theme of the recent series and also in his own work, is a leaning towards a fabric first method of building, rather than bolting things on to make them seem more sustainable. Invariably the latter is an expensive and unnecessary way of working, but choosing the right materials and using them in an intelligent way is a far better approach.
“It’s like the argument about the Americans and the Russians in their Space Race. The Americans spent tens of thousands of pounds developing a ballpoint pen that would write upside down in space, and the Russians used pencils. I don’t think that’s true but I just love the story.”
A sense of responsibility
Kevin believes the responsibility as architects and builders should be to build buildings which are super-efficient in terms of how they use energy and their resources, but they should also ‘deliver a quality of life that makes their arguments utterly compelling.’
Achieving this takes a combination of good design where homes cost very little to run, where the experience of being in the buildings is uplifting and where people want to stay and build a community.
“It’s the idea of how you use the spaces in between buildings to create social sustainability which has in itself a collective reduction in demand on the planet’s resources. In other words, if you share an allotment and you grow your own food; if you join a car club because you know your neighbours and you want to do it; if between you, you buy a bicycle for the street; or buy one trampoline for five households for the kids; or one shed; or one lawnmower between five homes; what you’re doing is actually, you’re sharing cost, you’re saving yourselves loads of money, and you’re also saving resources and making your collective imprint on the planet lighter.”
People often think of self build as a collection of ideas at the start
These ideas might be around what sort of bathrooms, kitchens, taps, sofas, lights etc that people like, and they assemble the home based on aspects which are more associated with the interior design than the architecture.
Kevin sees architecture as being:
“a process of design which is very good at resolving all kinds of issues to do with how buildings, places respond to where they are, to site, to the environment, to their location, to the passage of the sun, to how they function in engineering terms, but also how they provide uplifting and exciting spaces for their occupants that lift the spirits.”
For him architecture is about creating a connection with the outdoors, while also problem solving things like storage space, and a lot less about the taps!
Enable more people to self build, as it can be truly empowering
Kevin says that it’s pretty much established that the middle classes can go out and build for themselves, and he would like those opportunities open to more people. He believes that through community you get a far greater sense of attachment to a place and an accompanying sense of empowerment from building your own home. It’s a combination that could be life-changing for many people.
To do this, self build needs to be:
More widespread
Facilitated by local authorities
Have dedicated sites, with communities of self-builders working together
Truly affordable
Have more co-housing community schemes
Have housing associations working with groups of their residents as clients to build accommodation
Kevin would like to see people being empowered in as many ways as possible, and yet the system in the UK is set up to favour the large developers controlling the market. While he wouldn’t suggest a future entirely dominated by self build or community self build, he would like to see a diversity of offerings which would create a healthier market.
Large numbers of people wanting to build together within a community can put pressure on the authorities to deal with their land assets in a different way. There is even a question of whether land in public ownership should have a financial value attached to it, because of the net social capital that can be created by building together, and which is very evident in schemes across Europe. And if that community can be further enhanced with car share, improved cycle routes and better public transport and sharing generally, then that social capital has been increased even more.
Development is a dysfunctional industry
In considering what it would take to solve the housing crisis in the UK, Kevin says he would need to be the Prime Minister as the industry is so dysfunctional!
“I would empower small and medium enterprises; I would mitigate against the large housebuilders; I would mandate every single local authority to allocate land. I’d use the Right to Build Act in fact.
“The trouble is, everything I’m describing has already been tried. And that’s the difficulty. It’s not one problem. We have a crisis in numbers; we have a crisis of quality; we have a crisis in affordability; we have a crisis in planning. We have only half of the number of planners that we need. And we don’t have within central government a statement of faith. And what I would personally like to see, if I could do one thing, I would announce a national statement of faith in social housing.
“We need to move back to a world where we integrate, where tenure is blind, where you can’t tell who owns and who rents, where housing is considered a basic human right, and we need to create the mechanisms to make that affordable not just to own but to rent, to share, and to occupy by whatever means. There are plenty of tenure models around the world which work.
“So, what we have is a binary system in the UK which is hilariously out-of-date and a market delivery mechanism which is dysfunctional and broken. So, we’ve got lots to mend, lots to do, but by just saying, ‘we believe in council housing’ or ‘we believe in providing high quality housing for all and we will do everything we can to achieve that’ would be a wonderful thing.”
Grand Designs Live
The Grand Designs Live exhibitions take place in the UK twice a year. Kevin is proud that they offer tangible opportunities for people to touch and feel products and experience their quality. As part of the exhibition there is also an exchange of ideas where you can get help and advice from experts.
Milk bottle house at Grand Designs Live
With his passion for innovation, Kevin is excited by the new technology being showcased, with exhibitors now selling products on their stands that only a couple of years ago were in the ‘Green Heroes’ section.
Managing Director of Potton Homes, Mark Stevenson, looks at how self build, custom build and speculative development differ.
Interview with Mark Stevenson
Mark Stevenson has spent most of his career working for house builders and developers, including in the role of Construction Director for ten of those years. For the last seven years he has been the Managing Director of Potton Homes, a company that specialises in making the process of self building homes as simple as possible.
Potton Homes Centre
Self build is about self-commissioning
While this isn’t the case in all projects, for the most part self build isn’t about physically building the house yourself, but about getting in the right team of people to build it for you.
Even the biggest risks can be managed
Mark cites obtaining planning permission as the being the biggest risk to a self-builder. He wouldn’t advocate buying a plot of land without a permission on it, but instead suggests identifying a piece of land, securing the rights to buy it with an option and then getting planning permission. Once that has been secured the sale can be completed.
“So from a risk point of view in self build, it’s all manageable. It’s about the choices you make in how to limit your exposure to those risks, and make sure you’ve got a way to get out of a problem without it becoming too expensive too quickly. So I don’t think self building is actually that risky, if managed properly and managed professionally.”
Custom build is a government re-brand of self build
Their intention was to encourage potential self builders who didn’t have the confidence, or want the risk, of buying a plot of land, seeking planning permission or organising the build themselves. They wanted to explain to the market that planning permissions could be put in place on plots beforehand, builders are on hand to build them, and they just need the individual to customise the design to suit their requirements.
Schemes like Graven Hill offer sites for both self build or custom buildA Potton self build project on the edge of a developer estate near Peterborough
Mark agrees that there are plenty of blurred lines between the two, with different offerings between custom build companies. To some, such as Potton, it means helping the owner move their plot forward and asking what house they would like to build there. Another company might offer a plot of land with a selection of five houses to choose from.
Potton show homes try to provoke a response – be it positive or negative
Potton provide a diverse mix of show homes at their centre with the intention that people walking round can immediately react to what they like and dislike about them. Provoking these responses helps mesh the ideas and concepts together of what would work for that individual.
“By walking around the physical property you can start to understand how you could commission something that’s all about you and your family, and deliver something that functions in the way that you want to behave and live together as a family. And that’s just about spaces and how things work.”
The centre is about being able to develop your brief with the subjective attributes that you perhaps hadn’t thought of before, but have been triggered as a response to being in those spaces.
A speculative development can be one house or many
A speculative developer tries to predict what someone would want to buy at the end of the entire process. They make the choices about what a purchaser may want, how it should look and how it should perform. In doing so they are trying to maximise the value of that asset in the hope they can sell it and make a profit. There is a fair amount of risk involved as they are speculating on the profit, which is only realisable at the point of sale.
An individual buying a single plot with the intention of building a house to hopefully sell for a profit, is a speculative developer in much the same way as volume house builders, but without the economies of scale, the bigger margins and bigger profits to make.
Mark estimates that a developer would be looking to make a profit of around 15-20%. Individuals might be happy to take a bit less as they don’t have the overheads. The volume builders may take decisions in the development process to maximise their profit in order to sustain their business, and push harder to cover their large overheads.
Take emotion out of the process
This is Mark’s first piece of advice to anyone wanting to undertake a speculative development. As soon as you start becoming emotional you might start incorporating things you yourself like, but others may not and therefore perhaps not add value to the house. It’s about keeping a keen eye on value and offering products, contents and functionality of the house that someone will give you the money back for.
“Development is about a systematic approach to making the fundamental choices that maximise value and reduces your risk. And in doing that and controlling your costs, you make sure the return is as large as possible.”
Market test to see what demand there is for what you’re offering
With Ben’s intention to build his development to the Passivhaus standard, Mark suggests he market test to see what kind of demand there might be, and even if there is a demand, whether it would be likely to achieve a higher price. With the mainstream market being conditioned to accept that a house might not have great performance, sales are more commonly driven by factors of location and functionality.
With far fewer people in the market looking for a Passivhaus, Mark questions the likelihood of finding one of those who is looking for that product, in that area, with the architectural design that has been chosen for them. With so many variables it may mean struggling to find a buyer for what has been created.
Mark would advise being careful how it was marketed, highlighting the low energy bills, rather than emphasising it being a Passivhaus, in order to appeal to more of the house-buying community who may not know what the term means.
Self build is driven from a personal viewpoint, speculative development is a business proposition
Mark describes self builds as being about individuality and making sure you deliver on what is right for you and your family. You’ll invest and spend whatever you feel is appropriate.
A speculative development on the other hand is a business proposition. You’re trying to appeal to certain types of individuals who might offer that bit more money to maximise profits. It becomes a set of business decisions based on whether you will get your money back and if there is a profit to be had.
Developers appeal to the mass market, instead of pushing boundaries
Mark says while it’s great to be individual, providing a safer, more standardised offering will produce more customers willing to buy your product, and ultimately raise prices and profit. And this is why there is a proliferation of the four bedroom executive house with a central front door and four windows, because someone somewhere has worked out this is the formula for building at the least cost to maximum return.
For a lot of people, what’s the alternative?
For many people with busy lives, who don’t have the time to shop for a second-hand house and spend several months doing it up, buying a developer home is about convenience. The only alternative is the nice new site just down the road, with the extra bedroom and space they need, offering a good price, part-exchange and legal fees paid. And, Mark says, that’s why we’ve ended up with a sterile development environment.
Custom build can be a middle ground
Mark sees custom build succeeding where it incorporates the individuality of a self build, and takes away the risk of speculating what someone might want to buy by asking them in advance and negotiating a price that both parties are happy with.
Tips for tackling a small scale development
Anything you do well is normally driven by passion, and this is no exception. You need to really want to do this to do it well, and passion will carry you through the weight of the work
Be impersonal and keep emotion out of it
Do market research to understand what people want and how you can incorporate those things – perhaps even contacting local estate agents to find out what houses people want to buy
“But just don’t go off on a leap of faith that your beliefs are the ones that everyone else should have, because it’s not necessarily the dream that everybody shares that you might have.”
Paul Ellis, Chief Executive of Ecology Building Society, explains their approach to mortgages that reward energy efficiency and sustainability.
Interview with Paul Ellis
Paul Ellis was an early investing member back in 1981 when Ecology Building Society was formed, and has been Chief Executive since 1995.
Founding members had a shared interest in environmental causes
The ten founders had met through their involvement with the Ecology Party; the forerunner of the Green Party, and had a shared interest in self-sufficiency and low-impact living.
They were individuals looking to buy properties to renovate to reasonable energy efficiency standards, and without doing too much work. What they found was lenders were very restrictive and uninterested in providing support. They would demand certain works such as ripping out stone floors and putting in damp-proof courses that weren’t really needed, but that they felt would minimise their risk.
“So, they’d often say they’d lend the money, but only once all the work is done, which wasn’t the point because everybody wanted to do their own work, be self-sufficient and learn building skills. So, they would be forced immediately into trying to get others to do the work and they were probably not going to have those kinds of funds available.
So, the building society was setup to really encourage that ability to take properties and bring them back into good use to a reasonable standard, but not to provide expensive kitchens.”
They are the youngest building society
At the time they decided to set up a building society, there hadn’t been another done for quite a while beforehand, and they are still the youngest in the country. Paul believes a change in the regulations is the reason for this. In 1981 they only needed ten investors with a maximum of £5,000 to actually start the building society. The authorities caught wind of it and changed the rules to increase that amount. Luckily they managed to get the paperwork signed with five minutes to spare before the rules came into enforcement!
Building their own premises seemed a natural step
With the business growing it was necessary to find new premises, and after considering renovation they decided that building their own offices would be the best way forward. It could incorporate some of the techniques they were asking their borrowers to consider, and be a bit of a test to see what the issues were. And while the building has largely been successful, there are certain things they would now do differently.
The building dates back to 2003, before Passivhaus was well-known in the UK. If they were to do it again, or when they extend it, they would use Passivhaus concepts.
Paul says they were fortunate at the time to have the advice of eminent energy efficiency experts, although they had to compromise some of the ideas slightly to create a warm, welcoming space to live and work in.
There are two distinct elements to the building. One part focuses on long-term energy use, with large amounts of concrete but highly insulated and built to a good level of airtightness.
The meeting room area of the building was entirely constructed from straw bales, with a clay plaster render on the inside. Some of their members even came along to help with the construction while learning the techniques of building with straw.
Throughout the building they have tried to make as much use as they can of recycled, reclaimed and other materials that have low embodied energy.
Get early advice
Paul would encourage anyone at the beginning of their self build journey to take a look at their website or give them a call to discuss their plans. While they wouldn’t immediately be able to give approval, they might comment on their ideas of budget and whether they think it could be viable for what is being proposed.
In some cases they can be communicating with people for years who haven’t yet found their plot, but the majority of time people will already have a deposit and a plot.
“For us to make a decision, we have to be sure that there is something here which is going to work in terms of energy efficiency or wider environmental considerations, and so it’s hard for us at the outset to give more than a rough picture of what we can contemplate because we don’t know the nature of the building.
For us as a lender, the actual nature of the building, the finished product, is quite important to us. For other lenders, it would be more of a focus on the finances. For us, it’s what the building will achieve.”
During initial discussions they would ask about the techniques and materials the borrower plans to use, and take a view on whether or not they think it’s a project that will work, by getting an understanding of whether the individuals understand those techniques and whether it will work in practice against their budget.
Paul says that a good development has been more borrowers these days employing architects who have a strong knowledge of these techniques.
Payment stages are flexible
Typically, their projects will have staged payments, although they aren’t set at a predetermined, fixed stage. Instead the borrower contacts them to say they’ve done a certain amount of work, at which time they will get it valued and release money against that.
“That introduces a certain level of flexibility. Obviously, internally, we do track and monitor the progress of the building to make sure that it’s remaining on track. And that’s because we’re looking after our members’ money. We’re making sure they’re secure. But within that, we can be quite flexible when those releases will happen to suit the circumstances of the borrower. And that might be that they’re tying into other financial resources as well. They might have monies that are not quite available or whatever, so we’ll take that into account.”
Understand your plot
Paul advises buyers to know their site well, to avoid unexpected costs and delays. Understanding issues with boundaries, hidden structures and general groundworks will be an advantage.
He also recommends a budget contingency of ten percent, which is something they will look for in the costings.
Renovation projects are encouraged
Ecology have a varied client base, but not too many first-time buyers. Those they do get tend to have been gifted a plot or had help with their funding, and more commonly are carrying out renovations.
While Ecology like to support renovation projects, which was mostly their emphasis in the early days, the tendency now has been for more self builds.
“And you can see why, in some respects, because there’s been a lot of development in green building techniques, in products, and you can start with a blank sheet and design in energy efficiency from the start.”
From an environmental point of view, Paul sees the need to improve the existing housing stock. They are working with companies, cooperatives and government departments to find a way they can create models to encourage more people into taking on renovations and retrofits, by providing systems of support and information, and making it easier for people to engage.
Their self build clients tend to already be fairly well informed and have carried out research and engaged with organisations like the Passivhaus Trust or AECB. And for those less well versed they might question certain aspects, for example, whether they need all the renewables when they haven’t really considered insulation.
Another form of construction they are keen to encourage are kit homes that are semi-constructed off-site. They often come with some guarantee of energy efficiency and avoid many of the pitfalls that can occur on site.
Financial benefits for the most energy efficient
Ecology provide discounts for the full term of the mortgage, based on the property’s standard of energy efficiency upon completion, with Passivhaus giving the maximum discount.
Progress is being made
Paul believes in their early days they were lone pioneers, but gradually now they are seeing advances in the green building components industry, with exciting new products and more companies trying to do the right thing.
“So, it’s almost like despite the drift of government policy, business, companies, individuals, cooperatives are leading the way on this because they know it’s not only good for the planet, it’s good for society, it’s creating sustainable jobs, and it is beginning to happen.”
He is also seeing a push on the Green Finance Initiative, looking at ways to increase the flow of funds to green investment products.
Something that Ecology are doing to assist with this is they’re working on a project to create an energy efficiency mortgage model that would be available across Europe. It would enable more mainstream organisations to create preferential financing for mortgages on properties that are making a difference to our carbon footprint.
Sarah is an architect, and author of The Not So Big House and The Not So Big Life series of books. As well as helping clients, she has re-modelled her own life and found a happy balance where she is able to commit time to doing the things she loves.
The site impacts on the character of the house
Sarah explains that it is very rare that a pre-made plan for a house is going to automatically be suitable for a site that you acquire. She sees part of her job as helping to make a house grow out of the site very naturally.
Use all of the space every day
From seeing more houses being built with ever greater square footage, Sarah embraces building smaller houses where all the rooms get used. One way of doing this is to have convertible spaces, such as a home office that can double as a guest bedroom.
“We don’t buy a bigger piece of clothing just because we can. In the same way, we don’t need a bigger house just because we can. Let’s tailor it so that it really fits us. “
‘Bigger is better’ is a misconception
Sarah explains that when people want a better house, they often equate that with being a bigger house.
She gives the example of one of her clients, who could afford pretty much whatever he wanted to build. On seeing his original house designs from another architect, she challenged him by saying she could design a house that was half the size but be the most interesting and appealing of houses that people would want to visit because it would be so enjoyable to be in.
Despite his reservations he ended up loving the house, which became the talk of the neighbourhood.
“Once people see what you can do when you spend money effectively rather than just on more, they’re sold. It’s instant. It’s obvious.”
Client expectations were often unrealistic
Sarah’s clients would come to her with images of what they wanted their dream home to look like, but would not have the budget to match. This common dilemma for most of her clients is where The Not So Big House movement began.
“Obviously, the budget was not likely to change. The quality of what they could build could change or the quantity. And of course, most people who are coming to an architect, they cared about the quality. So, I had to figure out a way to show them how to build less quantity but get a better house.”
She says that helping people understand their use of spaces allows them to think outside the box and create a house that’s tailored to them, rather than a generic idea of how they should be living.
Build ‘safety values’ into the design
These are places where cutbacks can be made if necessary. For example, if money needs to be saved then a porch could be added at a later date, or granite worktops can be substituted for a cheaper alternative and then be upgraded several years later.
“So, you just have to be realistic. There’s a huge part of realism in this whole process and I think when we are thinking about either building new or really rethinking the existing house, we think, ‘this is my dream and it’s got to be perfect.’ And I try to help people see that there are incremental steps that you can take to making it just the way you want it.”
Don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board
Even with these safety values, sometimes a project may still come in way over budget. It is at this point that Sarah says you shouldn’t be afraid to treat it as an expensive lesson and start over again with the designs. As painful as that can be when your dreams have been embodied in a plan that you can’t then afford to progress, sometimes a re-design is just what’s required.
Embrace the learning from the process
Sarah explains that sometimes we think the point of building a house is the end product, but actually going through the process is really the point, as it is such an immense learning experience.
To her the point is living through whatever it is that we’re making, and that applies whether it’s building a house, writing a book or raising a child. They are about how you are as you engage in the process, and even when there are frustrations you can look at what you are able to learn from the situation.
Life doesn’t inherently have to be too busy
As well as writing her Not So Big House books, Sarah has also written about the Not So Big Life.
Spending time re-modelling her life she became aware that she was often describing herself as being too busy, and questioned why that was and what her beliefs and fears were that made her feel she should be going ever faster.
“But it’s really about learning what it means to be present in what you’re doing. When you’re completely present, it’s vibrantly alive. So, no matter what’s happening, you can be having a very frustrating day, but it can also be vibrantly alive because you’re learning and you’re seeing things about yourself that you couldn’t see if you weren’t present in the process.
Going through that process helped her to recognise that her true passion was for writing, and subsequently made time to write. By putting effort into something you love, Sarah says that your world organises around that.
“So, I’ve got fingers in a lot of pies, but I am not nearly as busy as I used to be. That’s the big one. It sounds like, ‘how can she do all those things?’ But I’m doing them in a much, much more balanced way. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
“Due diligence is the vital, critical research that any person buying land has to conduct in order to provide security to their purchase and ensure that whatever they’re buying is right for their objective for that particular site.”
Even with due diligence carried out, things still can go wrong. But the more you do, the less risk there is likely to be.
Create your network first
Establish your team of key people before you get started. By first making contact with a recommended architect, they will be able to provide access to the relevant consultants to conduct your due diligence.
Carry out initial brief checks
On finding a piece of land, the key people Rob would first contact would be:
Solicitor – to provide a quick red flag check on whether anything may crop up from a legal perspective;
Ground consultant – they would do a quick check of local maps in the area;
Architect – usually the sites Rob would be interested in have planning permission, so the architect would assess the quality of the planning permission and any conditions that are attached to it.
If further information was needed following that, options might be to go to an ecologist, services consultant or traffic consultant.
Understand the ground conditions
In terms of the site, the key piece of due diligence to explore is understanding the ground below the site to determine what foundations and ground works will be required. While virtually all pieces of land can be built on, the costs could be high if the ground conditions aren’t favourable.
A ground investigation should comprise a phase one and a phase two. Phase one would be engaging a ground consultant to carry out a desktop study, using historical mapping and records to show how the land has been used in the past. This would cost in the region of £500-£1,000.
The ground consultant would then be able to advise to what extent you need to do a phase two, ie a physical investigation of the site where boreholes and trenches would be dug. If phase one has revealed any doubt that there could have been mining or contamination on the site previously, then there would need to be a more rigorous phase two investigation. This could be around £5,000-£10,000 for a small site.
A ground investigation can also provide some information on how good the drainage would be, but there is the option to carry out further drainage and flood surveys. Drainage design for foul and surface water will need to be submitted as part of the planning application or as a condition of the planning approval before works commence.
The extent to which archaeology and ecology surveys are needed would be dictated by the local authority.
Check how you can connect utilities
One option is to employ a services consultant to look at and assess what services are in the immediate locality. Alternatively you can go through the local authority and contact local service providers who can give you this information and advise how much it is likely to cost to connect to your house.
Ensure there is adequate site access
Access fundamentally covers whether you can get emergency services, waste trucks and other vehicles in and out of the site.
The first thing to bear in mind, is ‘visibility splay’: whether you can reverse out of your drive and adequately see traffic, and whether you can be seen by that traffic. Planning applications will need provision for adequate access, and a traffic consultant would be able to provide that information.
Explore legal considerations
Ensuring you have a legal right of way onto your land is crucial. A solicitor would check if you are legally able to access the land from a title perspective and covenant perspective, whether there are ransom strips, and if you’re crossing unregistered land to get to the site. Taking out an insurance policy of generally a few hundred pounds would cover costs if an applicable unregistered piece of land was later claimed for example.
Go with your gut instinct
“If you’ve always had an element of doubt about a particular site or ‘there’s something not right here,’ there probably is.”
Rob advises that if you don’t have confidence in the site, then don’t go ahead with it.
“Don’t develop a bias in terms of eagerness to pursue a site, just because you want to or you’re desperate to get on to a self-build project. Take your time.”
Do a trial run
If you find a piece of land that is out of your price range, or not in the area that you want, Rob suggests doing a dry run and practice the due diligence process. Consider it from access and legal perspectives, chat to a local architect about it and try and find out why it hasn’t sold or what the positives and negatives of the site are.
By doing this practice, when you do find the site you want you’ll have that experience and a sharper eye to know what to be looking out for.
Dean Scott takes Ben on a tour of the Graven Hill development, and of his own energy-efficient self build.
Interview with Dean Scott
When we last spoke with Dean, he and Hannah had expressed an interest in a plot at Graven Hill and were making preparations to push ahead with the purchase. That was nearly two years ago and Ben recently returned to find out how much progress they have made and, particularly, what has been unique about building at the Graven Hill development.
As well as new homes on site, the infrastructure is changing too
With all the construction and infrastructure work going on, some roads are being closed off while others are being opened up. This can make following directions quite challenging (as Ben discovers)!
Proximity to other houses under construction can influence schedules
Some houses are being built with a metre distance of neighbouring plots. So with just a two metre gap between buildings, and scaffolding for each being a metre wide, there can be a problem with sequencing.
Their direct neighbours had their scaffolding up before Dean and Hannah were ready, which meant that they couldn’t dig their service trenches down the side of the house, so this has had to be put on hold.
With the scaffolding needing to be tied together, they’ve had to use the same lift heights as their neighbour, as will the neighbours that follow on the other side.
With three or four different scaffolding companies being used and joining onto each other, Dean thinks it probably would have made more sense to have used a single one. He is unsure about whether there might be issues when they start being taken down, particularly if one neighbour is ready before the other.
Planning requirements might depend on what your neighbours are doing
“I think there are some planning requirements we have to go through, but because everyone’s developing at different rates, it sort of depends on what your neighbours do.”
Dean and Hannah submitted their designs before their neighbours did, so there were no planning restrictions because of their house. This means they haven’t had to use frosted glass on some windows where otherwise they might have needed to.
The house follows a cube design
Dean has taken 3 months off work to concentrate on the build and be on site as much as possible. Two months in, and construction work has so far brought about an almost weather-tight shell, with the Cross Laminated Timber frame, cladding, windows, doors and roof installed.
With the plot being eight metres wide, and the building spread over three storeys to get the floor area they wanted, Gresford Architects came up with the concept of a cube design for the house. The windows are all square and Dean is currently working on the detail of the front door, to try and follow the square theme around the rectangular frame. The cube shape also allows for two areas of double height space, for the sense of drama.
The windows they are using are from the Idealcombi Futura+ triple glazed range, and open inwards. They are tilt and turn, so Dean is hoping they won’t be awkward and get knocked. Despite them being large he has found the mechanisms to work efficiently. They shouldn’t have any overheating in the house, but to be sure, they are installing external roller blinds on the windows.
Do what’s needed to move in, then treat it as a long-term project
Dean and Hannah are looking to move in as soon as they can. They are currently renting a home so are keen to divert those funds into this house. Some of the decoration may have to wait, but the big things that still need doing for Building Control will be flooring on the upper floors, fire doors, fire treatment on the inside of the walls, window reveals, service runs, electrics, MVHR, gas boiler etc.
Dean is unsure how he will define ‘finished’ on this project but expect they will move in before all the decoration work has been completed. They may for example get the family bathroom done, but leave the en-suite until later.
This does have to be balanced against the VAT reclaim. What they don’t want to do is move in and then buy lots of things they’re unable to reclaim the VAT on.
“I think I’m definitely prepared to relax what I feel is a finished state, just to be able to live here and just to get on with life again.”
They under-budgeted, rather than over-spent
Dean and Hannah think they are probably around 8-10% over their budget, or as they prefer to think of it, they under-budgeted by 8-10%. They haven’t spent more on luxury items, it’s just been the cost of delivering what was planned.
“I think ultimately what it means on the budget is that gone are the dreams of any sorts of luxuries, essentially. It’s just barebones basics to get in and then we’ll develop it over the next two, three years or whatever it takes. But as long as we get in and it’s comfortable, which I’m sure it will be, then we can just get on as a family and we can take it on from there.”
It does mean they may have to take on more of the work themselves and be cautious with remaining quotes. A trickier issue for them currently is cash flow.
They have been using Ecology Building Society for their mortgage and found them to be brilliant. They have had three revaluations as they have gone along, to then be able to have funds released. And on occasions when they have been caught out by an invoice, they have emailed asking for another release of funds and the money has been in their bank account later that day.
“So, we’ve got value still to release, which is good. That money is there. And that’s the good thing. We have built the value. We’ve not got ahead of ourselves. So, the building is worth what we’ve spent on it, if you like, which is good news.”
Despite the hard work and stress, he hasn’t fallen out of love with the house
Dean is hesitant to say that he has actively enjoyed the self build process, but he does get joy from entering the house and being in the spaces they have created. He says it feels more like he’s working on someone else’s house, and that it doesn’t yet really feel like it’s theirs. But as contractors finish up and they’re able to start tidying up inside, it’s starting to feel more like a home.
Images of the Graven Hill Development
One of the things that stands out at the Graven Hill Development, is the diversity of houses being built. These images show some of the self build, custom build and affordable housing being built in the first phase on the site.
In the last few days we have launched our new Facebook page, www.talkselfbuild.com. This group is a place to discuss the challenges you might be facing, get fresh input on your ideas, share resources and inspire each other through what can be a roller-coaster ride. Although it’s free it is a closed group so please do take a look and join.
For those that would like access to more resources, video case studies, step-by-step modules, and monthly progress calls, then join our community at The Hub. In fact, Dean Scott was our first member!
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.
