That is exactly what Robert Sydney and his wife, Elaine Sutton, did. They wanted to build a house in Spain to retire to. In January 2001, they bought 15,500sq m of almond grove for £35,000, near Calpe, in the Costa Brava. The estate agent told them there was verbal planning permission and said he could help find an architect and builder. They managed to find a cheaper architect themselves, and submitted the plans. Then they waited. And waited. Nearly two years later, not a brick has been laid.

“It is very frustrating,” says Sydney. “We paid £3,500 to the architect, who then said she wanted a further £1,000. When we refused to give her any more money, she stopped answering our e-mails. They now say the house will cost twice as much, as labour and materials costs have doubled.”

The couple plan to fly out to Spain to resolve the situation. “One of the difficulties is we don’t speak Spanish,” says Sydney. “Plus, you have to be patient and know the system. I don’t suppose it is any more complicated than building here, just different.”

His wife is less calm. “We hoped to retire and move out to our dream house later this year,” she says. “That seems unlikely now.”

Patrick Mycroft and his wife, Jenny, had more luck in the south of France, where they retired four years ago. “We looked at lots of houses, but none of them suited us,” says Jenny. “So a friend suggested we build our own house. We thought, why not?” Their first stop was to the salon d’immobilier in Montpellier. This is an annual event that brings together local builders and architects. “We found an architect we liked, and he showed us some of his designs,” says Patrick.

“He also insisted that I go with him to visit some of the houses he had built. Then we bought some land with outlying planning permission, and he submitted his design to the planning people.” Permission took nearly seven months to come through.

“Our architect, who charged us about £3,000 for the plans, also runs a team of builders, complete with a clerk of works. The diggers moved in in October and began marking out the footings,” says Patrick.

This is when the first disaster nearly occurred. “My husband spotted that they had laid out the house facing the wrong direction,” says Jenny. “I don’t know what would have happened if we hadn’t noticed.”

Both she and her husband agree that being on site is essential for a project to go smoothly. “There are so many decisions that you need to make immediately,” says Jenny.

“Patrick was working overseas, but I rented a house locally. They give you a detailed list of the building materials and the cost of laying them. But their estimates are for the cheapest materials available. One morning I was told to pick the door handles. I picked one I liked, but was told it was outside our budget. They had only allowed £2.50 for door handles. You don’t get much for that.

“I also learnt that every time I went away, so did the builders. You have to keep on top of them or nothing happens. I am sure it is the same in England.”

The Mycrofts suggest factoring in a further 10% on any estimate — and in some cases, the price may increase by as much as 30%. “When they were digging out the footings, they hit rock,” says Jenny. “This slowed them down and affected the price.” However, Jenny says the builders were good at giving them a credit if a certain job proved to be quicker than they had estimated.

The Mycrofts have ended up with a four-bedroom house with swimming pool and terrace, overlooking hills and vineyards. They estimate the cost at £200,000. “We could have bought something more cheaply,” says Jenny. “But that way you don’t get what you want. For instance, we wanted large rooms with an open-plan feel. And we did not want to be on an estate.”

Would they do it again? “People underestimate the hassle factor,” says Patrick. “The house took a year to build. But then there was another two years of work on the garden. I am not desperate to build another house, but if we found that the hill opposite was going to become a housing estate, and we couldn’t find another suitable house, we would do it. Having done it once, we know what to expect.”

Many developers in Spain and Portugal sell plots on their schemes for buyers to build their own houses, with as much or as little help from them as they require. Plots on La Reserva de Sotogrande on the Costa del Sol range from 1,500sq m to 4,600sq m, and cost £75-£160 per sq m. Sotogrande introduces clients to project managers and architects who can look after the work, including planning and building consents, from start to finish. From handover of plot to completion usually takes about a year. A building cost of £1,000 per sq m is a reasonable ballpark, says David Vaughan, who represents Sotogrande in Britain.

John Kiernan, a company director from Essex who had holidayed on the Marbella coast for more than 20 years, was one of the first 50 people to invest in La Zagaleta, a golf and country club a few miles inland from Marbella.

Kiernan bought the freehold of a 1Å-acre plot on the southern side of the development for £500,000. It was a good speculative buy. The land doubled in value before the building was complete. It took 18 months from start to finish: from scrubland to six-bedroom villa with marble bathrooms and vaulted ceilings. The garden cost £60,000 to landscape, with its orange and lemon groves.

La Zagaleta is quite strict about what is built on the development. It stipulates that houses must be in a classical/traditional style with antique roof tiles. The development offers project managers on a 5% fee. Kiernan was keen to oversee his dream project himself, and so flew out from Britain every six weeks. He employed a team of local builders to carry out the work.

“It was my dream, to create a place you can identify with. And it’s in the sun,” says Kiernan. The Kiernans are now selling the villa through Knight Frank for £2.8m. But bitten by the self-build bug, Kiernan has his eye on another plot.

His top tip for self-builders on the Costa del Sol is get a solicitor with an English office and get any paperwork translated into English — all of it, don’t settle for a synopsis.

Ian Croft, a former British Airways pilot who retired two years ago, and his wife, Jill, never intended to build their own house. They wanted to live in Portugal. Housebuilding was accidental. “Our love affair with the Algarve began on our honeymoon,” says Jill. “Then, when Ian retired, we came down here again for a holiday. I think it was on the first day that we looked at each other and said ‘Why aren’t we living here?’ ” They looked around Val de Lobo in the Algarve, but decided it was too expensive, particularly for the golf. Then they found an apartment at Pestana golf resort in Carvoeiro, further west along the coast.

“It was perfect,” Ian says. “We moved straight in and became members of the golf club.” However, Jill was seduced by the idea of having a villa. “It is nice to have a bit more space,” she says, “particularly as we are thinking about living here full-time.” They were given the choice of five building plots near the 17th hole of the Gramacho golf course.

“It was very easy to choose which plot to buy, because I wanted to be southwest-facing to get the evening sun,” Ian says. They paid £50,000 in May 2001 for the plot, which is about 1,000sq m. Then they looked at the architect’s designs, which they more or less approved without changes. “What changes there were were mainly cosmetic and internal,” Jill says. “For example, we wanted to move the bathrooms around. And we made the pool deeper and wider.”

Building work took about a year, with the Crofts paying in 12 instalments. The building bill came to £250,000, although extras came to £15,000. “We chose just about everything,” Jill says. “There is a suite in the resort’s technical block, where you go and choose from a range of products. We were given some good advice beforehand, which was not to pick different fixtures and fittings for every room. Keep it simple. We are very happy with the result.”

The Crofts say they were very happy with the building process, but they recommend keeping in touch with the project — and the builders — on a regular basis. “We were lucky because we still had the apartment,” says Jill.

“We came out every month or so. Although there were a few surprises, with windows put in the wrong place, there were no problems changing things and putting them right. We probably could have built a place on our own, but this was so easy.”

Their neighbours include the golfer Ronan Rafferty, so they are hoping to lean over the fence and pick up a few putting tips.

The Crofts have just moved into their new villa, but already Jill is planning another project. “I would quite like a house right on the golf course,” she says when her husband is out of earshot. “I may have to go up to the Pinta course, where there are still a couple of plots available.”

Practical tips:

If you’re buying in a development, speak to other owners first

• Don’t rely on verbal planning permission

   

• Be prepared to fly out at least once a month so you can keep tabs on the building process, or employ a project manager

   

• Be prepared to pay at least 10% more than estimates. If you are building on a slope add a further 10%-15% for micropiling

   

• Get all documents translated into English.