My new car counts as "self-built" because I chose the colour for the seat covers

From the BBC:

Homeowners should not consider it a "pie in the sky dream" to build their own property, according to the new housing minister.

Mark Prisk told mortgage lenders that self-built homes should be considered as one way to boost the UK housing market. He said that only about 10% of new UK homes were self-built, compared with 60% in France and Germany...

I don't know about France, but the widely quoted statistic that 60% of new German homes are "self-built" betrays a complete a lack of understanding of the facts or the logic behind it, which makes that particular statistic completely irrelevant to anything or anyone.

As I explained before this is historically mainly tax driven:

1. There is VAT on the construction of new housing, and if you buy the new house together with the land, there is VAT on the whole lot. But there is no VAT if you just buy land.

2. There is Stamp Duty on the purchase of land and buildings, but there is no Stamp Duty on the construction of housing on land you already own.

So it makes perfect sense to buy the bare land first (saving VAT on the land element) and then have the house built (saving Stamp Duty on the house).

Further, the houses are not "self-built" in any way, shape or form.

Having bought your bit of land, you choose a house you like from the range of standard models offered by building companies; you chalk up a square on your land and he comes round and builds it for you.

Usually, the landowner/developer of a new development fits the drainage runs, utility connections etc, chalks up the squares himself and lines up a deal with a builder to build every house in the road.

Legally, the home buyer enters into two different contracts, one to buy the land and one to have the house built, but that's about as close to "self-build" that you will get and your "self-building" might be reduced to choosing the colour of the tiles in the bathroom and kitchen and whether or not you want a connecting door between lounge and kitchen. This is why German houses are so identikit, because they are as good as pre-fabricated. (They are very well built, large and attractive compared to UK houses, just a bit pre-fab that's all).

The notion that self-build makes housing cheaper is a nonsense as well of course. If you look at that price list, you'll see that you can get a perfectly decent new detached house built for €100,000 or so, but land prices soak up the difference. Where I used to live (a nice suburb of Munich, Zone 5) the land will cost you back about €1,000 per square metre.

To sum up, Mark Prisk is a complete fucking idiot who doesn't have a clue. I suspect he's from the "They own land, give them money!" brigade, but we'll see.