Love the idea of designing your own dream home? There are two paths you can take to achieve just this – a self build vs custom build.
Both options involve building a new home from scratch. However, there are slight differences in how you design and build each one. Below are some of the different factors to weigh up with each one.
Responsibility
When opting for a self-build, you’re in charge of everything from finding a plot of land to selecting architects to hiring the right contractors. This is ideal for people who want to be in command of every detail, but for others it can be quite a lot of responsibility. If something goes wrong, you’ll also have to pay to put it right.
With a custom build, you’re essentially hiring a company to take over this responsibility. They help you find the right plot of land, supply an in-house team of architects to design your home and hire all the contractors you need. If anything goes wrong, it’s up to them to correct it (in fact, most custom builds will have a warranty).
Customisation
Self-builds give you total freedom to design a home how you want (providing that it adheres to building and planning regulations). You could experiment with architectural styles, materials and all kinds of other elements. You could even convert existing structures such as barns, churches or mills if you like living in a historical building.
Custom builds, on the other hand, are typically built following a template. You still have quite a bit of freedom to customise them, but you generally won’t have the complete freedom and flexibility that you do with a self-build. Many custom build companies will have display homes that you can look around to give you an idea of the general style. There then may be catalogues that delve more into customisation options so that you can gauge your limits.
Cost
A self-build could be much cheaper than a custom build or it could be much more expensive, depending on the level of construction quality you opt for and how willing you are to shop around when it comes to contractors and materials. If price were to be your main focus, you could probably build a home much more cheaply using a self-build approach than a custom build approach. However, most people want to add a few luxury features – which pushes up the price. There are also likely to be many unexpected costs when managing a self-build, making it harder to accurately budget ahead.
With a custom build, there may be set price packages in place. Alternatively, you may be given an individual quote. In either case, you usually have an accurate idea as to the price upfront. There shouldn’t be any extra surprise costs along the way, which makes it easier to budget. You may not be able to build a home as cheaply as you would when self-building, but the total outlay is much easier to gauge from the start.
Which should you choose?
Self-builds provide greater freedom when designing and building your home, but also creates far greater risk. If you have fairly alternative ideas and you don’t mind taking on more responsibility, a self-build could be the best option for you.
Custom builds are a better option if you want to take a more hands-off approach to designing and building your own home. There’s much less risk involved and the costs are considerably easier to forecast and financially plan.
Self build vs custom build – weigh up all the pros and cons of each so that the decision you make is the right one.
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