UK's first plot shop opened

Housing Minister Alok Sharma has opened the UK’s first ever ‘plot shop’ in the town of Bicester.

The shop will sell plots of land on the Graven Hill site in Oxfordshire to those wishing to build their own home – whether from scratch or through customised design.

The Department for Communities and Local Government claim that, once complete, the Graven Hill development will be the largest of its kind in the UK.

Custom buildings, popular overseas in Holland and Germany, removes the usual burden and risk traditionally associated with a full self-build project and has the potential to deliver over 40,000 homes a year in the UK.

Over 18,000 aspiring custom and self-builders have signed up to their local registers since councils were required to hold a register of those seeking to build their own home in April last year.

Sharma said: “We need to get creative with how we build our housing in this country, to deliver more of the right homes in the places people want to live. With the opening of the UK’s first ‘plot shop’, the journey to building your own home can now start on the high-street.

“As confirmed in our housing white paper, we are committed to doubling the number of custom and self build homes by 2020 – so that anyone who wishes to design their dream house can do so. Through diversifying the housing market in this way, we can give people greater choice over the homes they live in – whether that’s buying on the open market or by commissioning and building their dream home.”