Custom build homes come to Peterborough

Government cash is provided to local ‘custom build’ house developer to help prospective home owners design their own home in Peterborough.

Hempsted Green will be a custom-built new home development of 11 detached 3 and 4 bedroom homes by Urban Selfbuild Ltd (USB Ltd), one of the first of a new breed of ‘custom build developers’. The development is located within the new neighbourhood of Hampton Hempsted.

The development is part funded by the Government backed Custom Build Homes Loan Fund, administered by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), where £30m of funding has been made available to help unlock multiple plot custom build schemes.   

Stephanie Mills, Area Manager for the HCA in Cambridgeshire, said: “This money will really help light the way for Customer Build in the area. We have seen success from this funding up and down the country already but this is the first development of its type to benefit Cambridgeshire.”

Custom homes will be available as complete ‘turnkey’ homes ready to move in to, or as a self-finish home where customers choose to finish the property themselves, including elements such as kitchen, bathrooms fittings, tiles and flooring. Buyers can customise and specify their own home, both inside and out, either from an approved design or by creating their own bespoke design.”

Simon Pugh, Director of USB Ltd, said: “We realise that there is untapped demand from people that would like to commission a new home designed and built to suit their needs without the hassle and risk associated with ‘doing it yourself’. At USB we refer to this as ‘your home, your way’ and liken the process to the way in which cars have been specified and built to order for many years.”

The standard specification of completed or shell homes built by USB Ltd are extremely efficient, built using modern methods of construction (factory built timber frame construction) to provide a super-insulated and air tight external fabric, and include high performance windows and doors, with a system to manage fresh air and recover heat.

This in turn means that considerable savings for heating and hot water are possible for home owners. Bespoke customised homes can be built within 12 weeks of exchanging contracts once design, specification and finance have been agreed.

Prices depend on design and level of build, but a serviced plot for a generous 3 bedroom home can be purchased from £82,500; and a complete ‘turnkey’ home from £179,995. To help demonstrate what custom build can achieve for home buyers, USB is building one of the homes at Hempsted Green for people to visit for themselves.

The demonstrator home is currently under construction in the factory and is planned to be completed on site during early June, work continues on site with the common road, drainage and utilities infrastructure.