The amount of purchases in the commercial property market of the UK to have come from overseas investors took a huge rise to £8.1 billion in the first half of the year according to a report from the property company DTZ. The figures represent an increase of 80 per cent in comparison to the first six months of 2011 and it was also found that 53 per cent of the overall investment in the UK’s commercial property market came from foreign buyers. The overseas share of the UK market is as a result at the highest level it has ever been thanks to a sustained rise in recent times.

Among the findings from the report, it was alluded to that there was just a fifth of the UK’s commercial property market accounted for by foreign investments back in 2001. It was found that outside of Central London the most popular areas of foreign investment include Cambridge, Rugeley and Farnborough. Out of the amount of foreign purchases away from Central London the report showed that 40 per cent of these were from American investors, with 21 per cent coming from other European nations and 9 per cent from the Middle East.

Unless you have a plot of land that is miles from the nearest neighbours and conveniently hidden away among natural features in your area then you will need to follow a few rules when you build your own home. This will be more or less stringent depending on the surroundings – how close you are to neighbours, how visible your home is and so on.

Planning permission rests upon these rules being worked into the designs once a committee has looked at your proposals. You need to be prepared for some things to be called out while others may be considered perfectly appropriate. You and you design team must be flexible and consider a range of options so that if planning permission is denied you can adapt your designs to suit a new set of rules.

If you like you can try and pre-empt some of the things that may cause an issue. For instance, the homes on your road may all be finished with rendering and it may be suggested that your home should be rendered too in order to remain in keeping with the community.

When evaluating avenues to explore with the construction of your home you weigh up the pros and cons, but to have chosen a material with the great look, effectiveness and the built-to-last quality you really have made an excellent start to the process.

The benefits of timber include how pleasing it is on the eye – it has a way of combining the durability with the attractiveness. For this great natural look allied with the ability to carry out the task, it is little surprise that you so often see timber frames in high-end properties as well as within the more affordable ones.

Timber-based construction ticks the economically-sound boxes and the objective of those involved is to ensure that it moves with the times and keeps this unique appeal. The surroundings from which the timber comes also encourage the sustained approach.

Another big advantage that lies within the substance factor of timber in construction is the adaptability. You want to be sure that the material will work where you are and timber frame homes stand up to both ends of the weather spectrum, providing protection from harsh conditions and allowing you the relief from the hotter temperatures. Flexibility separates timber frames from alternative materials and as a consequence it rightly has a place in anyone’s vision for a perfect home.

The next step in building a timber frame house is a stage that other types of construction do not generally require. This step is simply the production of the timber frame itself. The drawings for the house will show in detail what timber frame components are required in order to get the house built and these plans will be followed to the letter as each component is cut accurately.

To maintain greater accuracy and to limit the amount of time you need to spend on site, it makes sense that the production of the timber frame itself should take place in a factory. Factory conditions are more conducive to precision and they allow your timber frame designers and engineers to focus fully on this stage of the job.

When production is complete, we can return to the actual site. The frame is pieced together by the team of specialists and the skeleton of the house becomes visible. In a very short time, the structure is made watertight so that construction can continue inside and out to deliver a beautifully made house to the developers’ exact specifications as quickly as possible.

If you want to learn about timber frame construction then it makes sense to do a bit of research into the processes necessary to get a timber frame house designed and erected. The process is obviously very technical and detailed, but it can be explained on the surface with reference to just a couple of important stages.

The first of these stages is of course the design stage. This is where architects, builders and developers meet to discuss the brief for the house. They work out the layout and they produce drawings that show in detail how the timber frame itself will be put together to produce a quality home.

At this point, the developer will talk to the builders and architects about the exact features he or she thinks ought to be included in the design. The designers will offer advice on how to fit these features in and they will test different drawings to demonstrate the best ways of achieving the right solutions with regard to aesthetics and functionality.

Naturally, the design stage requires considerable attention because a project cannot move ahead until all aspects of the construction have been covered in a thorough plan.

Timber is not generally thought of as being as strong a material to build with as steel. This is why so many builders decide to use steel in their developments and projects, but it can end up costing them a fortune. Steel prices are going up all the time and building with it requires a lot of heavy machinery and a large workforce.

It is worth looking back to timber and assessing how well it acts as an alternative to steel. Although it is a slightly more lightweight material, this does not mean that it is any less robust as a house building material. The way timber frame houses are put together using precision engineering ensures that the structure itself is incredibly strong and hardwearing.

The fact that timber is a lighter weight material also means that it is easier to work with and consequently houses can be built more quickly and more cheaply than with steel. The price is driven down further thanks to the fact that timber is a renewable resource that does not require huge amounts of energy to produce and then to build with.

It is brilliant to be at the point in your life when you can secure a plot of land ready to build your own house on it. Perhaps the best thing about building your own house is that the fact that you can finally make arrangements to live in your ideal circumstances without making any compromises on style and practicality.

It is often the case that houses you have lived in have either looked exactly the way you want them to or have had perfectly practical layouts that have suited the way you live. The trouble is that it is really rare to find somewhere that satisfies on both of these issues at the same time. There is also location to consider, so finding the perfect house can be a nightmare!

That’s why building your own is so liberating. You can arrange your own so that it has the perfect layout, but you can also make sure that it is really attractive as well. Once you have found the perfect location for you house and bought the plot, going about constructing your ideal home is a very exciting process.

If you have ever wondered about using timber frame as a building material either in your self-build project or in a development you are planning then this month you’ll get the chance to find out everything there is to know about the medium.

On Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th September the Timber Expo will be providing all sorts of information on timber as a material in construction. The event will comprise of four half-day conferences as part of TRADA’s In Touch with Timber theme, dealing with issues including design and architecture, the role of timber in the commercial sector, processes and performance and timber practices used abroad.

These sessions will be extremely useful for anyone who wants to know more about timber frame construction. It will discuss the latest developments in the industry and will give you a much deeper understanding of why timber frame construction is growing in popularity. The insight you gain from the insiders speaking at the conference could prove extremely valuable to your project.

Tickets for the conference, which takes place at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, are already on sale so make sure you book quickly to avoid disappointment.

The processes involved in building timber frame homes are also very energy-conscious. This means that the cost of building with timber frames is cheaper than with other building methods, which ultimately drives down the cost of setting up affordable housing developments as well as one-off projects.

The processes behind timber frame construction involve sourcing timber from renewable forests. These forests are strictly regulated to make sure that production does not have a negative impact on the environment. The only energy-consuming operations involving timber frame relate to forestry and delivery.

On the other hand, building methods which rely on materials like steel are much more expensive and ecologically unsound. Steel takes a huge amount of energy produce because of the high temperatures required in its manufacture. This makes it costly, both in financial terms and in terms of energy consumption.

These advantages to building timber frame houses as opposed to other forms of construction is seeing more and more people turn to the technique in order to improve the ethics of their operations and cut costs. If timber frame construction seems like a suitable route for your project, it makes sense to contact professionals for more information.

Timber frame homes are gaining in popularity with self-builders and developers, partly because of the financial advantages of using this particular method of construction. Modern builders have to be much savvier regarding cost-effectiveness and green processes than in the past and timber frame construction fits the bills for more progressive people operating in the industry.

Even though timber frame construction has a very long history, it is not the most widespread construction technique used in the UK. It has seen much more prominence in Scandinavia, Northern Europe and North America. However, this may change in the future because of a greater stress on tightening finances and finding greener ways of building.

Timber frame homes and known to be particularly energy efficient. They keep families warm in the winter and cool in the summer and release people from the burden of high energy bills. This is way they are seen as such a positive long-term option for self-builders and developers alike.

With families relying less on their central heating thanks to the insulation and energy-saving properties of timber frame homes they can bring their own finances in line with their lifestyles in order to improve their general living standards.