The self build platform for the UK
Hausmarket turns “we want to self build” into a configured 3D design, a realistic total build budget and a shortlist of builders who can actually deliver it — before you talk to a single salesperson.
Free to start, no account needed. Hausmarket is independent: we are not owned by a housebuilder, and nobody can buy a better match score.
Hausmarket is the online platform where you describe, configure, cost and compare a new house — and then find the builder who will build it in the UK.
Most self builders start by visiting companies one at a time. Each visit produces a brochure, drawings that are hard to read, and a price that later turns out to exclude things you assumed were in. Weeks pass between each question and its answer. Hausmarket compresses that into an afternoon.
You start with a conversation rather than a brochure. You describe the family, the plot, the budget and how you actually live. Hausmarket builds a house profile from your answers, matches it against models from registered builders, and explains in plain English why one fits — including what it would cost to change.
Every house is an interactive 3D model. Change the elevation from render to timber cladding, widen the living room, add a sauna, move a window: the model updates and the cost updates with it. You see the financial consequence of a decision at the moment you make it, rather than a fortnight later in a revised quotation.
Hausmarket then estimates the whole build rather than the house alone — groundworks, service connections, planning and building regs fees, structural warranty, garage, terrace and landscaping. The number you plan against becomes the number you actually spend. When you are ready, the builder receives your full configuration instead of a name and an email address.
Six steps from a vague idea to a builder meeting you are genuinely prepared for.
Write what you have in mind in ordinary language: where you want to build, how many will live there, your budget, the rooms you need. Hausmarket asks the follow-up questions a good architect would, and builds a house profile from your answers.
Hausmarket searches models from registered builders and ranks them against your profile, showing a match score and a plain explanation of why each house fits — or where it falls short of what you asked for.
Walk around the outside and step in. Change cladding, roof covering, windows, flooring, kitchen, bathrooms and sauna. Where the builder allows it, move walls, resize rooms and change the footprint.
Every change is costed immediately against the builder's own upgrade pricing. No “price on application”, no waiting a fortnight for a revised quote just to learn what a decision costs.
Hausmarket adds groundworks, service connections, planning and building regulations fees, warranty, garage, terrace and landscaping to the house price, so you are budgeting a finished build rather than a headline.
When you are ready, the builder receives your configuration, materials, budget and plot details. The first conversation starts roughly where it would normally end.
A configurator shows you options. Hausmarket is built to have an opinion — about layout, materials, cost, and what you will think of this house in fifteen years.
Ranks houses from registered builders against your requirements and explains each match in plain English.
Not “here are 400 houses”, but “this one gives you four bedrooms and a study inside budget, and its compact rectangular footprint makes it cheaper to build than a comparable L-shaped house”.
Every house is an interactive model you can walk around and walk through, changing exterior, interior and — where permitted — the architecture itself.
Cladding, roof, windows, doors, terrace, garage, solar, flooring, kitchen, bathrooms, staircases, wood burner, sauna and lighting packages.
Shows a running total that updates with every single change you make.
Costed from the builder's own upgrade schedule, so the figure moves for the same reasons their quotation would.
Suggests how to get what you want rather than only recording what you chose.
Ask for a bigger kitchen without a bigger house, and it proposes which walls to move and shows the result in 3D.
Continuously looks for ways to spend less without losing what matters to you.
Brick on the visible front elevation and timber to the rear and sides; a house 40 cm narrower that loses almost no usable space but reduces foundation, roof and frame cost.
Explains why one material beats another for your house, and compares whole-life cost rather than purchase price.
Cost, maintenance interval, expected service life and environmental impact, with a straight answer when you ask which one it would choose.
Places your configured house on your actual plot and analyses what that position gives you.
Orientation, garden aspect, driveway, slope, approximate muck-away and buildable footprint under local planning policy — plus what rotating the house would do to afternoon light in the living room.
Normalises quotes from different builders onto the same line items so you can compare them honestly.
The cheaper quote is often the one that excludes the foundations, the decorating or the MVHR unit. Hausmarket says so.
Keeps the configuration, drawings, quotes, contracts, budget, approvals and decisions in one place once you commit.
Hausmarket stays useful after the introduction, through the build and up to completion.
The most expensive part of a self build is usually the decision you made without knowing what it cost. Hausmarket removes the delay between the two.
These figures illustrate how the cost engine behaves; they are not a quotation. Real prices come from each builder's own upgrade schedule, apply to your specific configuration and region, and are shown with the date the builder last updated them. Figures exclude VAT.
Builders advertise the house. You pay for the build. The gap between the two is where self build budgets break, and it is almost always made of the same handful of items.
| House, builder's price | £355,000 |
|---|---|
| Foundations | Included |
| Groundworks and site preparation | £24,000 |
| Service connections (water, power, drainage, broadband) | £14,500 |
| Planning, building regs and structural warranty | £11,000 |
| Kitchen upgrade | £18,000 |
| Garage | £32,000 |
| Terrace | £14,000 |
| Landscaping and driveway | £19,500 |
| Estimated total build | £488,000 |
* Typically excluded from the advertised house price, and the most common reason a self build ends over budget. A structural warranty is not optional in practice — most lenders require one before they will release funds.
An illustration using round numbers, not a quotation, and excluding the price of the plot. Your own figures depend on the plot, the local authority, the ground conditions and the builder. Hausmarket estimates each line for your configuration and flags which items are estimates rather than firm prices.
None of this is a criticism of housebuilders. It describes what happens when the only way to price a decision is to ask someone to re-quote it.
| The usual route | With Hausmarket | |
|---|---|---|
| Finding out what you can afford | Several builder meetings spread over weeks | A configured house and total cost in an afternoon |
| Understanding what a change costs | Request a revised quote, then wait | The cost updates as you make the change |
| Comparing builders | Incomparable PDFs with different inclusions | Quotes normalised onto the same line items |
| What the price covers | The house, usually | The whole build, itemised |
| Seeing the house | 2D drawings and one brochure CGI | Interactive 3D you can walk through |
| Your requirements | Repeated from scratch to each builder | Entered once, reused everywhere |
| What the builder receives | “I'm interested in the Model 174” | A complete configuration, budget and plot |
Purchase price and whole-life cost answer different questions, and self builders are usually shown only the first. A cheaper finish that needs redecorating four times is not cheaper.
| Material | Initial cost | Maintenance | Typical service life | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Painted timber cladding | Low | Repaint every 8–15 years | 30–60 years | Rural and contemporary rural designs |
| Fibre cement board | Medium | Occasional cleaning | 40–60 years | Low-maintenance modern designs |
| Facing brick | High | Minimal; repointing after decades | 100+ years | Traditional houses and long holds |
| Render on insulation | Medium | Recoat every 15–25 years | 30–50 years | Seamless contemporary elevations |
| Standing seam zinc | High | Minimal | 40–70 years | Exposed coastal and contemporary sites |
Ranges are indicative and vary considerably with exposure, detailing and product quality — driving rain on a west-facing coastal elevation is a materially different test from a sheltered inland site. In the configurator, Hausmarket compares the specific products your builder offers, at your builder's prices.
Hausmarket turns your range into an interactive 3D sales platform and sends you buyers who already know what they want, what it costs and why they chose you.
List your housesShort, direct answers. If something you need is missing, ask us — the questions people actually send are how this list grows.
Hausmarket is an online platform for describing, configuring, costing and comparing a new house, and for finding the builder to build it. You start with a conversation about what you need rather than a brochure of models, and finish with a configured house, a total build cost and a shortlist of builders.
Yes, for the parts most people need. Browsing houses, AI recommendations, basic 3D configuration, saving and comparing houses and contacting builders are free and always will be. Advanced planning tools — quote comparison, plot analysis, the AI architect, the project room — are part of Hausmarket Plus.
No. You can configure and cost a house before you have a plot, and Hausmarket will flag which of its estimates depend on plot-specific factors such as ground conditions, slope and connection distances. Once you have a plot, adding it makes the estimate considerably more precise.
In most cases yes. The DIY Housebuilder Scheme lets self builders reclaim VAT on eligible materials for a new dwelling, which on a project this size is frequently a five-figure sum. Hausmarket shows costs excluding VAT and flags which line items are typically reclaimable, but the claim itself is between you and HMRC and worth confirming with your accountant.
The house price and its upgrades come from the builder's own pricing, so those are as accurate as the builder's quotation. The surrounding build costs — groundworks, connections, fees, landscaping — are estimates based on your region and configuration, and are clearly labelled as estimates rather than firm prices.
No. Hausmarket is a platform, not a housebuilder or main contractor. The contract is always between you and the builder you choose. That independence is the point: we have no reason to steer you toward one builder's model over another's.
It depends on what each builder permits, and Hausmarket shows you the difference. Some models allow only material and finish choices; others allow moving non-structural walls, resizing rooms, changing ceiling heights and extending the footprint. Structural walls are marked as fixed so you never configure something that cannot be built.
Yes. Upload the quotes you have and Hausmarket normalises them onto the same line items, so you are comparing the same scope. This routinely changes the answer: the cheaper quote is often the one that excludes the foundations, the decorating or the MVHR unit.
Your configured house, the materials you selected, your budget, your plot details if you have added them, any changes you asked for, and the estimated value of the build. Instead of “I'm interested in the Model 174”, the builder sees a configured project and a buyer ready for a real conversation.
A catalogue shows you what exists and hands you to a salesperson. Hausmarket works out what suits you, lets you change it, costs every change as you make it, estimates the whole build rather than the house, and compares builders on identical terms. The catalogue is the smallest part of it.
A score out of 100 that rates a house on objective criteria rather than opinion: energy efficiency, cost efficiency, layout efficiency, maintenance burden, natural light and future flexibility. It is designed to be comparable across builders, which star ratings are not.
The vocabulary is most of the barrier. These are the terms that decide what a quotation actually includes.
Tell Hausmarket what you have in mind — even if it is only “we want to self build, somewhere outside town, for about this much”. That is enough to begin.