Self-Build and Custom Build. What is the Difference?

When doing your research you will probably come across both terms when considering the best route to follow to achieve your dream home. Essentially "self build" and "custom build" are two different approaches to creating a new home, each catering to different levels of involvement from you to achieve your goals.

Below we have tried to expand on the simplistic answer above so you can get a better idea as to which approach is best for you.

Self builds offer the most hands-on involvement but does require a significant commitment of time, expertise, and often a higher risk level.

Until recently the UK didn't offer much choice if you wanted a house to suit you and not what the standard developer builds which is normally a standard low-quality box that looks like every other house in the road or on an estate.

However, that is now changing for the better as Cherish Homes can provide a fully hands-off project managed self-build solution from personalised house design to obtaining building quotes and through to full project delivery.

This is known as Custom Build and is described below.

Custom Build

In the UK just 10-15% of houses are self-build or custom build with the majority of those - by far - being self-build. With all the hard work described above, it is easy to understand why it is such a slow and painful experience which dissuades people from even getting started.

For many, there are also two other barriers to doing a self-build namely:

1. What if you don’t have the skills or ability to do what is required?, and

2. What happens if you have a full-time job? Where will you ever find the time?

In fact in the UK there are still very few custom build houses delivered each year. Yet in Europe it is completely different.

It is quite normal for a home buyer to buy a plot of land and then commission a house to be built on it under a fixed price contract.

The timber framed house will then be built in a factory probably miles away (or even in another country) before being delivered to site to be erected. In some countries 90% of all houses are sold and built this way!

Custom build can be as simple as buying a plot of land from a custom build plot seller, designing the house you want (or maybe customising an existing design), submitting planning for the final house, signing a fixed price order.

Three months or so later the house is delivered on the back of a few lorries and then built on site in just four to ten weeks (depending upon the size of the house ordered).

As you can see, Custom Build is a much simpler and stress free approach than the self-build option and Cherish Homes would be delighted to discuss with you how they can help you to achieve your goals.