Your Own Grand Designs

Do you watch the property programmes on TV? There are so many that I cant keep up and to be honest they all drive me mad. There are only 2 that I really watch (when I get the time). The first is Homes Under the Hammer. I love how cheesy Martin and now Dion are and the music that they use is so literal it really makes me laugh! The other one is Grand Designs. I know Kevin can be a bit annoying and patronising but I like watching people overcome the problems to end up with beautiful homes at the end of it.

It always looks easy and I end up shouting at the Telly that I could do a better job and how I would do things differently. Have you ever considered trying your very own Grand Design? Well, I may have the chance for you. If you have been looking for a new home for years but cant seem to find what your looking for or even more pertinent cant get your head around moving costs and especially stamp duty then why not buy a plot of land and build your own.

Shame there isn’t any room in Leigh to build then? Guess what, I have a couple of plots available in Leigh for around £600,000 each (I should be a salesman). This would be a stamp duty saving of approx. £74,000 if you were to try and buy the finished article! Not to be sniffed at, I think you’ll agree.

Its going to take years to get planning permission! Forget about struggling with planning permission from the council. Fear not, planning permission has already been granted and you could build a house of approx. 3,000 sq ft to 3,500 sq ft. Trust me, that is huge. Plenty big enough for 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, enormous kitchen/family room, separate lounge and even additional room for your drum kit, model railway or just the general stuff you have accumulated.

New build houses always have tiny gardens though! Not these. Super, west backing rear gardens of approx. 70’ which back straight on to school playing fields with a lovely open aspect. And with a blank canvas such as a new build there is the chance to design your garden from scratch with the vegetable patch you have always wanted or the man cave or studio at the bottom of the garden you need to escape to.

OK but the location is going to be rubbish and not where I want to be. Wrong again, how about, within the West Leigh Schools catchment area, less than a mile walk from Leigh station, close to Belfairs woods & golf course and overlooking a delightful wooded green. Close enough to Leigh Broadway for a cheap taxi after a few drinks but far enough away that it is quiet and idyllic. There is even plenty of parking on the road, with the properties and possible garaging if you wish. That in itself is worth its weight in gold in Leigh.

But how much will it cost to build? That is really down to you. You could have a £10,000 kitchen or a £100,000 kitchen if you wish but as a rough rule of thumb if you worked out that the build cost including fitting everything out, landscaping and the lot shouldn’t be any more than £200 per sq ft. Therefore the build should cost you around £600,000 and in my opinion a property of that size in that location finished to a good specification should be worth in the region of £1,500,000 so you could even have a couple of hundred thousand pounds in equity.

More importantly though you will get exactly what you want. The chance to work closely with an architect and builder to give you all the things you have ever wanted. All the best bits from friends houses or properties you have ever seen can be stolen and incorporated into you new home design. So if you have always wanted a wine cellar, sauna or only need 2 bedrooms but want them 40 ft each then don’t bother trying to convert an existing house and paying for the privilege of someones else’s décor when you are just going to rip it out, start from scratch and build exactly what you need.