Best approach for selfbuild mortgage

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Sorry if this is posted in the wrong place but I'm just looking for some advice on the best approach for getting a mortgage on a selfbuild. We are recently married and would hope to get started building a house asap on a site which will be gifted (on my family farm).

I had a fairly good job up until recently but was made redundant and have been holding off for a few months to start a particular job which at this stage will not start until towards the end of the year so while I had an excellent savings record for the previous few years I am just scraping by on the Jobseekers benefit now and using a small amount of savings (most of my redundancy payment went towards paying for the wedding + honeymoon). Therefore it could be the middle of next year or even longer before I'd have a savings record suitable for an application.

My wife is also about start into a new job so have a number of months probation etc.

Overall between my previous savings and my wife's savings we should have in the region of 80 to 90k (this would not be using up all savings) add this cash gifts from our parents we should have in the region of 100 to maybe 110k along with the site.

Firstly is there any chance a bank would lend early next year when we are both in new jobs and neither have a saved much/anything in the previous 6 months (due to being out of work and getting married) but having a large amount of previous savings and a site.

The other option I am considering is to build as much as we can for cash. 110k would make a very good start (planning, engineer/architect, fees, ground works, foundations, structure to below roof level potentially etc). This would take some time and give us a chance to get the regular savings going again. My questions is how would a bank react about being approached for a mortgage for finishing a partially built house? We are looking to build a fairly big and well finished house so we could be looking for around 200k of a mortgage give or take. Would they consider the work already done in place of a deposit? We would need 20% as my wife is not an FTB and we may even have enough left over in savings to make this up but it would not be used towards it which I guess wouldn't matter once we had it.

Anyway long post but just really looking for some thoughts, the real reason at looking at option 2 is to expedite things if the situation was different we would just apply for the mortgage at the start.
 
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So you've a site and no planning permission? First, the site has value, more if it has planning. I would consider getting started by work with an Architect or Arch technician to get plans drawn up and costed by a quantity surveyor. It may take a few iterations but you need to understand what choices affect the budget. A simple box shape, nothing fancy is cheaper than multi level, basement, lots of house sections etc! That took me 2 years to realize and I changed Architects once in the process and started over! 6 months to live with the design and change things is time well spent. Lines are much easier to change at this stage, once you go for planning / start buildings it gets much more expensive and will cause delays too.
So, go for planning, get that secured, local needs etc, and now you have land with planning secured to act as your mortgage deposit when you approach the bank Q3 next year after 6 months in your new job. See what they say then.
In the meantime visit as many self build / ideal home / love your home shows as you can. Buy a few self build magazines for inspiration / get them online. Research / find good professionals with solid recommendations you can work with. I wouldn't start building unless you're a tradesman or know you have enough money to finish.
There are various ways of building your house, I'll PM you on idea to get a factory built house, very warm with a swift build time, turnkey. If you can handle submitting the plans for planning approval (they do country vernacular styles not suited to urban sites or I'd have used them!) it's a cheap way of achieving your goal. They offer a few styles and you can stretch their sizes to suit. Simples!
 
I would never recommend starting the build and then hoping to get a mortgage to finish it, ideally you should apply for a mortgage before you even start building even if you then decide to use savings first to get it to whatever stage you can before drawing down on the mortgage.

You'd need to be very sure you were complying with all the lenders requirements if you are going to chance applying halfway through the build.

Obviously thought it's the jobs that are the issue now first and you will have to have probation finished before most lenders will even consider an application. Maybe ask a broker when is the soonest you will be in a position to apply for a mortgage, they should know the main lender requirements.
 
Hi Brendan - Wasn't sure of forum rules - they usually don't allow naming particular companies so preferred to play safe! Just read them to clarify and it appears to be ok. I was just going to recommend Scandanavian Homes near Galway. - no relationship / business affiliation. I'd approached them previously about a house build but their style suits rural rather than urban which doesn't match what I'm after. They have a couple of designs and if you can find one you like, they can stretch it to meet your needs. The great thing is they offer a turnkey service, if you can submit their drawings for planning, it can save you a bit of money.
Anyway, just a good option to delivery a comfortable house and save some of the research you might otherwise have to do.....they have a showroom you can visit too.
 
The bank will want to see detailed costs for a self-build and full planning before entertaining any real conversation. So as mentioned above, by starting with design, architect and planning, you could see the guts of 12months spent getting all this sorted, so by then I think you would have had a chance to have probation periods finished and savings records established again.

I wouldn't suggest starting the build without having the funding to complete.
 
Many thanks for the replies and apologies for not responding sooner.

So, go for planning, get that secured, local needs etc, and now you have land with planning secured to act as your mortgage deposit when you approach the bank Q3 next year after 6 months in your new job. See what they say then.

Maybe I'm being overly optimistic but we would really like to aim at being building by the summer if at all possible, but definitely by autumn.

There are various ways of building your house, I'll PM you on idea to get a factory built house, very warm with a swift build time, turnkey. If you can handle submitting the plans for planning approval (they do country vernacular styles not suited to urban sites or I'd have used them!) it's a cheap way of achieving your goal. They offer a few styles and you can stretch their sizes to suit. Simples!

Thanks for the suggestions and there are some ideas there but overall these houses wouldn't be for me from a build materials or design point of view. We would be wanting a traditional block build house and we would want our own custom design lay out the house as we would want and have all the different rooms we want. Most set-designs (not just the ones linked) lack multiple things which we would very much want, for example in the factory built houses you sent most bedrooms lack an en-suites and walk-in-wardrobe, this is something we would want in all bedrooms. I guess this custom requirements could very much be the reason my timeline is unrealistic as I know what I want but I really haven't an overall picture of how it will all fit together so I can see some iterations with an architect and not sure how the planning will force things also.

I would never recommend starting the build and then hoping to get a mortgage to finish it, ideally you should apply for a mortgage before you even start building even if you then decide to use savings first to get it to whatever stage you can before drawing down on the mortgage.

You'd need to be very sure you were complying with all the lenders requirements if you are going to chance applying halfway through the build.

Obviously thought it's the jobs that are the issue now first and you will have to have probation finished before most lenders will even consider an application. Maybe ask a broker when is the soonest you will be in a position to apply for a mortgage, they should know the main lender requirements.

I get what you mean but I would still be tempted to get start things by paying upfront to get things moving faster. I don't see much issue in getting a mortgage with the savings history and amount of deposit we have etc aside from the lack of regular savings which would hopefully be started again in the mean time. I will give it plenty of thought though and will discuss the implications of getting a mortgage part way through though from taking to some people since my original post it appears to be something people do, i.e. start building and only go for a mortgage when they get as far as they can with money they have saved.
 
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You need an Architect for your bespoke design. Take a bit of time to ensure you are happy with the plans and not changing them onsite.
You can't self certify if you're turning to the bank for funding half way through. An architect will want to see an assigned certifier / designer appointed from the get go. Hint: costs more.
The biggest blocker is planning, that could take a year alone as you need to agree plans with the Architect, get them drawn up and submitted and see if planning passes / what conditions are attached. That's if there are NO objections, a further 4 weeks for appeals to the decision. Once final planning is granted you could issue a commencement notice, pay your council contribution fee and start two weeks later if the builder is lined up, mostly likely you'll be waiting. You can't break ground until this is done.....
Have you checked access to services / costs? Water, Sewage, electricity etc
Get the plans costed via a quantity surveyor. Unless you're taking the grand design approach?!! What's the point of building big if you run out of money before you finish?

Best of luck with the project!
 
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