There are a number of reasons why building your own home is a popular choice for many people:

• For profit or for savings - the completed market value of a self-build property is typically 20-30 percent above the costs of development, meaning that self-builders are effectively buying their property at cost price.
• To have full control over the choice of the location and positioning of the property.
• To have greater input into the design and materials used, room sizes, dimensions and layout. This allows you to build house to suit a particular lifestyle, by adding extra bathrooms, a snooker room, a bar, a larger lounge or dining rooms etc.
• To minimise tax expenses. Stamp duty is only paid on the land and even then only when the purchase price for the land is over £60,000. There is no duty payable on the cost of the build. Self-build also raises the possibility of reclaiming the VAT spent on the project. This is done at the end of construction and it is possible to claim for VAT on all goods and materials that are incorporated into the building or site, as long as they are bought from a VAT registered supplier.

• Those who want specialist help but also to have significant involvement in all the key design and construction decisions, but who won't carry out any of the work themselves. This is the most common group of people, with the self-builder acting as the brains of the operation.
• Those who only need finance and are willing and able to carry out the whole project. This is more involved and sees the self-builder act as a hands-on project manager to liase with all third-parties and maybe even get their hands dirty on some of the activities.
• At the other end of the scale, there are those who only want to make a few key design and construction decisions, leaving the day-to-day responsibility to other parties.