Realising the self-build potential of a large rear garden

A homeowner in the rural village of Alpraham in Cheshire approached CB Homes to find out what potential there could be for building a house in his large rear garden.

On inspecting the site, our team was confident that there was more than enough space to build two large houses on the plot. The location was perfect and we knew there would be a lot of interest from people looking to build their own houses, especially with the current shortage of land suitable for building.

Applying for planning permission to build in the rear garden

CB Homes applied for planning permission to construct two five bedroom executive homes on the site. Detailed planning and building regulation approval was granted and CB Homes purchased the site from the landowner.

A different route to self-build

Every year CB Homes is approached by a number of people looking to self-build so, once we had bought the site, we spoke to two of these would-be self-builders to see if they would be interested in either of these potential homes. We had the detailed architect’s drawings to show them exactly what the houses would look like once built. This is a slightly different route to self-building as, very often, self-builders usually want to have a lot of input into the design of their new home. However, this approach had the huge advantage that planning permission had already been granted.

Flexibility and total peace of mind

One self-builder was really happy with our design and decided to proceed with the build without making any alterations.

The second self-builder wanted a larger home and a few changes to the internal design. The changes included converting the space over the double detached garage into living accommodation and including a separate staircase to reach it, so we submitted another planning application on his behalf, which was also approved. The buyer also decided to source his kitchen from another supplier and remove that from the build contract, which we were happy to facilitate.

As always, our build contracts were drawn up on a fixed fee basis, providing peace of mind for both our self-builders, particularly in the current climate of rising costs of materials.

Building two new houses in the rear garden

The build of the two new homes was very straightforward. Again, as we had purchased the site, we knew that it was viable for building, with no hidden issues, giving us and the new homeowners total confidence. The only challenge that we needed to address was the question of surface water drainage as there has been some historic flooding in the area in the past. We resolved this before starting work on either of the builds.

New access granted

In an ideal world, a building plot has its own access but as this building project was a rear garden development, the only access was via the existing house. This meant that one of the first actions we needed to take was to create a new route from the road to the new development. This new access is now equally shared between the three homeowners. This is a great benefit for the original landowner, who not only reaped the financial benefit of selling off part of his land but also uplifted his own property value by having this new improved access. It has also enabled him to construct a new double detached garage, which he had long wanted to do.

Do you have land to sell? Get in touch today. Interested in building your own home? Talk to us about our complete self-build package.