'Double your money' on a self build home

One couple has reportedly spent £150,000 building their own home, which is now worth £300,000.

Nicky and David Abraham, a pair in their late 20s, got the idea for their self build home at university and have spent four years building a four-bedroom detached property in Foelgastell, Carmarthenshire, the Times reports.

After buying the land, the duo employed an architect to ensure their ideas were sensible, like "putting the bathroom over the kitchen for the pipes and building a house instead of a bungalow so we would get views over the valley".

The publication suggests that one of the most "appealing" elements of a self build is that loans for such projects are more generous than traditional mortgages, with most lenders offering up to 95 per cent of the costs and the money being released in stages.

By electing to pick their own plot, the couple could choose a location that was close to transportation links.

When it is your own work, you cannot help but "fall completely in love with it", the couple said.