You’ve searched high and low, far and wide, and yet you still can’t find the perfect house. It either isn’t providing the space you want or need, it’s in the wrong area or it requires too much refurbishment.

One way around this is to build your own. Building a property is one way of beating house price rises as well as increasing housing stock for the future. It’s also a great opportunity for those struggling to find the ‘perfect’ property to have the room sizes they want, the south facing garden and the best energy efficiency – often at a much lower cost.

A 2013 report in the Investors Chronicle even suggested that self-builds consistently make an average 30% profit after land and building costs - and with Stamp Duty only being payable on the land when it’s valued over £125,000, many buyers are turning to self-builds as an option.

But a project of such scale can be a very daunting prospect if you have limited experience and there are several barriers you could face.

View more articles by Alison Broderick