Shall We Just Knock Our House Down?

Shall We Just Knock Our House Down?

I’m often asked to explain the pros and cons of Refurbish versus New Build, so here goes.

To totally re-furnish an existing building that’s detached, whilst can be a much “cheaper” alternative to new build, you will always be restricted by the existing structure, design and spaces.

Demolishing, say an existing bungalow, gives you the freedom to change the entire style and tailor the proposed house to suit your needs. This will make your new home, truly “Bespoke”. I believe that if you are developing your forever home, then what’s the point in doing it half hearted. I think its so hard to come across a decent residential site that suits your needs and when they do come up are snatched up by aggressive developer’s panic buying and paying over market value, that a pragmatic approach if often essential.

I think that thinking outside of the box and starting with an existing dwelling can often lead to having exactly what you require at the end so long as you do a really good job and do not end up building something not to dissimilar to what you started with.

You will also get the benefit and saving of the services already being in place along with the drainage. As previously mentioned in our last blog, a new build currently carries a discounted VAT rate of 0%, therefore if you knock down an existing building and rebuild, you actually save 20% across the entire project and wouldn’t if you refurbished.

It has also become much easier to finance a new build using aself-build mortgage over the last few years and I will be writing a blog soon to hopefully help explain this as much as I can.

So go on, go out and buy a cheap,“disposable” static caravan (possibly all part of the fun), pack up the family for an adventure and stop dreaming.

I do hope this helps slightly if you are deliberating and if you are serious and what to talk further, please call our offices 01179 248335 and someone will be more than happy to help and discuss the feasibility of your proposed scheme.