Those who aren’t already on the property ladder and are finding themselves renting have now turned to building their own homes. These are seen as the “generation-rent” becoming a new generation of self builders. There are a few in London who bidding for plots to build their own homes on what used to be some of the temporary sporting venues for the London Olympics. There are sites that could be released very near to where the handball arena used to be.
Many are finding it impossible to buy within the capital, so expressing an interest to the London Legacy Development Corporation has meant that they may be able to build their own. So far over 100 people have shown their interest with a week still left of the consultation. Obviously building your own property means you are going to need to make sure your landlord insurance covers everything.
This new scheme is part of the government’s efforts to increase the new self build sector. This is because of the housing shortage which is inevitably causing prices to rise. It is expected that in the next 20 years that the amount of households will grow by 232,000. Already in the last year 146,420 houses were built.
Jo Kernon is part of the sustainable living in community, Slice London and has said, “We want to own but the price of renting and house prices is pushing people out further. What happened in the atmosphere of the Olympics was really positive and it would be nice to carry on with that long-term.”
The self-building process often involves people joining together as a group and co-buying a plot of land to develop. They often end up sharing gardens and play areas but this does mean that bills are reduced over all. Not only this, but it also encourages more community interaction which really is very positive.
Ted Stevens is the chairman of the National Self Build Association and he has said, “Self-build has been people in their 50s or 60s selling a house on which they have paid off the mortgage and building a dream retirement home. Now, there is a new generation of young people in their late 20s and early 30s who can’t get a step on the housing ladder and are seeing this as a solution – get together and save 30% to 40% of the cost because of buying land cheaper together building together.”