NEWS
A work in progress
Jack Wooler speaks to Andrew Baddeley-Chappell, CEO of the National Custom and Self Build Association, on why England lags behind the developed world on levels of self-build, and what can be done
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elf- and custom-build homes make up around 40 per cent of new homes throughout the developed world, yet in England, they count for just 5 per cent. England’s housing market has had its long-term issues in many regards, but one that is less understood than most is the lack of custom and self-build homes.
With shows like Grand Designs dominating the field for creating aspiration to get involved, many are led to believe that self and custom building is about expensive, often life-consuming feats of architectural achievement. While of course this can often be true, the industry offers a whole range of options – which don’t always come at a premium.
Andrew Baddeley-Chappell, CEO of the National Custom and Self Build Association (NaCSBA), has been fighting to educate and support people in their journey into the sector. He explained to me that at its heart, self and custom build is nothing more than giving buyers the agency they get in any other purchase.
DEFINITIONS
Andrew admits there can be confusion about the difference between self- and custom-builds, and what each method actually entails.
“Broadly,” he explains, “self build is about a home on an individual plot, and custom-build is building on a site where there are many different plots available, and typically where there’s a ‘custom build enabler’ who lays out the site, prepares the roads, gets services installed to the plot and sets out how the house must be built – but still leaving the customer with the choice of house that will reside in their plot.”
He describes a custom-build ‘home park’ in Frankfurt, Germany, as a “kind of house supermarket,” showcasing over 70 different homes in one place. Visitors can enjoy a meal, then view the options, and discuss with the manufacturers how designs can be tweaked to meet individual needs.
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www.sbhonline.co.uk
The industry offers a whole range of options – which don’t always come at a premium
CUSTOMER CHOICE
“At its heart,” says Andrew, “this customer choice is what custom and self build is really all about.” He adds however that trying to get people to understand this is one of the biggest challenges for the sector currently. “It’s a problem that just doesn’t exist in every other developed country in the world, where it’s just a normal part of how houses are built.”
In most other consumer markets, it’s a given that customers are given choice and agency. Andrew uses car sales of the past as an analogy here for the current UK homebuying situation: “In many ways, building a home is like how buying a car used to be; you’d go along to a garage and choose a car that’s already there – but around 20 years ago manufacturers realised they could sell so much more by letting the customers tell them them what they wanted, and then build the exact car they need.”
He adds: “It’s what needs to happen in
the housing market.” However, in the volume housebuilding sector currently, there are a small number of major suppliers with a monopoly over new homes in their area, he says, and who “only attract a limited number of people, but enough for them to sell the homes for the price they need to. “Even their own surveys show that many people do not want to buy new build houses, and somehow in the UK we think that’s normal,” he continues. By contrast, with most other new products; phones, clothes, computers, he says, “everyone wants the latest.” The result is that many want to use older buildings to get a creative result. “If someone wants to have an exciting home, they buy an old house and start again, or build a modern glass and steel extension,” he tells Selfbuilder + Homemaker. “If new home builders were getting it right, buyers would say they want their old home to look like the new one they’ve seen being built up the road.”
nov/dec 2020
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