Hopefully, you'll have come here from reading our guide to house sizes - the a starting point for working out how much land you need.

So - how much land do I need for my selfbuild ?

As with floor areas of the house, the plot size can vary enormously depending how much space you want around your house.

A picture speaks a thousand words - and we found the Custom Homes site to have a VERY useful diagram showing a typical 4-bed 1800sqft house on a variety of plot sizes. It's also worth knowing that the average 4-bed estate house is built on approximately 1/12th - 1/10th of an acre (about 38ft x 95ft, or 11.5m x 29m).

Custom Homes also provide a chart to convert plot sizes between acres, square metres, square feet etc etc - when plot hunting you will find different measuresments in use. 

However, avoid the temptation to fix a size in your head, and discount any other size plots. Land is hard to come by; you will have to be flexible in your requirements and be willing to compromise. We originally set out to buy a plot suitable for a 150-200 sqm 4 bedroomed house, and ended up with a quarter acre plot, with planning permission for a single 250sqm 5 bedroomed house and enough room for a very large garden. Why ? It was an opportunity not to be missed - a level plot in a village location with nice views already with detailed PP - such plots are few and far between.