Retain construction value
Deliver homes to the Blank Canvas stage, retaining the construction opportunity and efficiency beyond the sale of serviced plots.
FOR HOUSEBUILDERS & DEVELOPERS
Make more of your custom and self-build allocation.
Developed by Custom Build Homes, Blank Canvas helps housebuilders deliver custom and self-build at increased densities and within wider housing developments.
Achieve compliance with S106 planning obligations for self-build and custom housebuilding, while keeping construction coordinated, land use efficient, and delivery commercially viable.
Make Self-Build and Custom Housebuilding work for the whole site.
Selling serviced plots for traditional self-builds or accommodating bespoke homes can harm viability. Blank Canvas brings the main home construction into your programme, with buyers taking responsibility for completing the final fit-out of their homes.
Make efficient use of land
Use house types and densities suited to the development, reducing reliance on large detached plots, helping protect the viability of the wider site.
Coordinate delivery
Build to an agreed specification and programme, with buyer decisions and interior completion planned around the development.
You build efficiently. Buyers make their home their own.
Blank Canvas enables homes to be delivered in groups while giving buyers meaningful input into the design and layout of their home.
A buyer reserving off-plan may have a wider opportunity to influence the internal arrangement and specification. A later reservation will work within the choices and parameters already agreed for that house type.
Housebuilders do not need to wait for every customer decision before construction can progress. Homes can be delivered to the Blank Canvas stage, with the interior layout choices and fit-out completed through a supported buyer process.
Same sized allocation. Varying densities.
Blank Canvas can be applied across detached, semi-detached and terraced homes, and apartments. That gives you more flexibility to accommodate custom and self-build within a housing mix suited to the wider development.
Different house types can accommodate more homes within the same land area, giving you greater flexibility in how the allocation fits the wider development.
Detached
4 homes
Semi-detached
8 homes
Terraced
10 homes
Apartments
6 homes per floor
× 4 storeys
24 homes
A clear route through your planning obligation.
Blank Canvas is designed to support delivery under the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015. National planning guidance requires the initial owner to have primary input into the home’s final design and layout.
We work with your team and planning advisers to establish how that involvement will happen and how the approach fits your site’s obligations.
01
Review the requirements
We review the relevant planning conditions and Section 106 agreement with your advisers, including the allocation, eligibility requirements, marketing period and any release provisions.
02
Establish the buyer’s involvement
We help define the design and layout decisions buyers will influence, when they must be involved and how their input will be evidenced.
03
Agree and document the approach
We work with your team to seek the local authority’s agreement to the proposed delivery and marketing arrangements, and establish the records needed to demonstrate compliance.
Understand the route if SBCH homes remain unsold
Where the existing Section 106 agreement includes a release mechanism, meeting its marketing and evidence requirements may allow homes to move to open-market sale without a further planning application. We help establish what is required from the outset.
The route depends on the wording of your permission and agreement, and the local authority’s acceptance of the approach.
From reviewing the allocation to progressing sales.
Custom Build Homes works with your team to prepare the Blank Canvas offer, bring it to market and manage the buyer journey.
01
Prepare the scheme
We review the site opportunity and constraints, the planning permission or obligation, pricing, and the proposed delivery and sales approach.
02
Put Blank Canvas in place
A licence provides the agreed use of the Blank Canvas brand, tools, and supporting materials. We establish the handover specification, buyer information, and support arrangements with your team.
03
Launch and manage sales
We prepare the marketing, handle enquiries, qualify buyers and manage reservations and sales progression, with viewing arrangements agreed for the site.
Our fees and commercial arrangements are set out in site-specific proposals, with a clear scope and payment schedule.
A purchasing route that suits your development.
Sales can be structured around the site’s delivery programme and the buyer’s funding.
Option 1
Plot purchase and staged construction payments
The buyer purchases the plot and makes agreed stage payments as the housebuilder delivers the home to the Blank Canvas stage.
Option 2
Purchase at the Blank Canvas stage
The housebuilder funds construction to the Blank Canvas stage. Buyers then purchase their homes and complete the interior.
For either route, the timing of the purchase and the buyer’s design involvement must support the agreed planning approach. We establish this with your team and advisers before launch.
A supported route for your buyers.
Buyers need to understand what they are taking on, what it will cost and who can help. Clear completion information and access to specialist mortgage, warranty and insurance support help them plan the next stage.
My Blank Canvas is being developed to bring design and technical information, choices, budgets, and documents together in one place.
Let’s discuss your site today.
Tell us where the site is, how many homes are involved and what the planning obligation requires. We can help establish how Blank Canvas could fit your housing mix, delivery programme and commercial objectives.