Self Build Housing Estate

The government has suggested that  people should be able to buy land and then build their own houses, however supply at affordable rates are quite few and far between and often remote from urban areas where the majority of people life and work.

My idea is for Bristol City Council to use its land and influence to create a site or sites where this could be implemented.

 

Why the contribution is important

Housing is dominated by a number of large developers where housing estates are constructed to a formula creating similar and standardised estates throughout the country. Many people watch programmes such as Grand Designs and would like to build their own houses, however individual plots are often bought an inflated prices which limits the access to many. By creating a serviced site this would open the estate to the masses attracting people who would not necessarily make Bristol their home. Furthermore these sites could be used to train and skill people who are looking for employment or a new career

by user658034 on November 23, 2013 at 01:03PM

Current Rating

Average rating: 4.2
Based on: 7 votes

Comments

  • Posted by user338616 November 29, 2013 at 17:38

    Supplying at affordable rates wouldn't alleviate the pressing budget problems surely,quite the opposite I would have thought.Land prices are governed by the open market, if theres a demand the price goes up, and theres a great demand at the moment as we all know.If the council has land for sale it should be trying to achieve the best price for it to offset the budget deficit, and reduce job losses.

  • Posted by user563181 December 11, 2013 at 00:33

    The value of Council owned land and land in general is contingent on the Planning Permissions associated with it.
    For instance a field has value as agricultural land but as soon as it has planning permission to build houses it becomes much more valuable.
    If the Council identified land in places in and around Bristol that was well placed in the transportation network, say near a good bike path or railway station, it could buy that land at the market rate, then give the land planning permission for self build housing and in that way self builders would be able to get the land more cheaply and get off to a good start!

  • Posted by user338616 December 19, 2013 at 12:57

    Sorry mb37 I cant see how that works?
    You want the council, whom I pay taxes to, buy land to sell 'cheaply' to wannabe house builders.
    I own a house, can i buy some cheap land too?

  • Posted by user903251 February 04, 2014 at 18:19

    Demahoney, its more about granting the planning permission. There's lots of land for sale, which is reasonably priced as is agricultural, greenbelt or pony paddocks, and lots of council owned land... however very little which individuals could get planning permission on. Periodically large swathes of land are sold to developers to build new housing developments, but this isn't available to the public. If the next "patch" was sold off as self build plots, rather than to a major developer, then members of the public could build their own homes which would be greener, nicer with better sense of community, and better for Bristol's rep. The council would get the same price for the land.
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