Bring your plans to life with a carefully coordinated residential new build, whole or in stages, across Cambridge and Cambridgeshire.
We take on new-build work across Cambridge and Cambridgeshire, working from your approved architectural and structural drawings. That covers single houses, self-build plots and replacement dwellings, priced as a whole build or in stages. Our current new-build work is the mixed-use scheme at Harston described below, where we carry four packages rather than the whole building.
Brickwork is one of our specialisms, so the part of a new home everyone sees is done by people who do it every day. Every job has a project manager, an itemised quotation and written payment stages agreed before we start.
Architectural, planning and engineering services are appointed separately unless our written quotation expressly includes them. We work alongside your architect, engineer and building control from day one.
A new-build package can take in every stage, or only the stages you want us to cover:
Each stage is priced line by line, so you can see what is included, what is an allowance and what is excluded. Costs depend on size, specification, ground conditions and access, so we price from your drawings rather than a rate per square metre. Our new build cost guide explains what drives the price in Cambridge.
Your contract confirms the split for your project.
A new build brings every trade together on one site. The masonry is described on our brickwork page, and our current new-build package at Harston, alongside the extensions and refurbishments we have completed, is in our project records. We build across Cambridgeshire, including Great Shelford, Histon, Trumpington and Milton. Our full range of work is listed on the services page.
Planning and quotation guidance: Read our Planning Permission Guide and Builder’s Quotation Guide. For budgets and the VAT position, see our New Build House Costs guide.
Tell us what you want to achieve, and send whatever you already have. No drawings needed to start an enquiry: photos and drawings help, but plenty of projects begin with a description and a site visit.
Written project terms - Scope agreed before work starts
We can price the whole house, or take on only the stages you want us to cover:
For detailed pricing, the following information is especially useful:
We are on site at a ground-up new build at Harston, south of Cambridge — a supermarket at ground floor with six flats above — carrying the brickwork, rendering and carpentry packages along with the windows and doors. It is a timber frame erected on a concrete slab, with a brick outer leaf built up alongside it.
Roof trusses went on in early August 2026 and the roof was closed in with a breather membrane over sheathing, the site fully scaffolded and netted throughout. By the end of August the internal first fix had started, with full-height stud partitions set out ready for services. The build continues through autumn 2026.
Carrying four packages on one scheme means our work has to land in sequence with everyone else’s, to a programme run across the whole site. We photograph our sites as the work progresses, so when you enquire we can show you how a build comes together stage by stage, rather than only the finished result. Our Harston brickwork case study shows the masonry phase of a new build in exactly that way.
We aim to respond to every enquiry within one working day.
The work is planned around the approved drawings, agreed scope and written contract before construction begins.
Share the site address, a short brief and any plans, surveys or photographs you already have.
We look at the approved drawings, planning conditions, structural information, services and access, then discuss any points needed for a clear quotation.
The scope, costs, allowances, exclusions, contract, payment stages and build sequence are agreed.
The work follows the approved project documents and agreed build plan, with changes recorded before they proceed.
The completed work is inspected, snagging is addressed and the project is handed over with the applicable information.
Learn more about the new build process with our answers to the key questions.
In Cambridgeshire, £2,200–£3,200 per m² of finished floor area for the construction, with £2,600 a reasonable middle figure. That is our own budgeting band, built from Homebuilding & Renovating’s (February 2026) and MyBuilder’s (August 2026) published ranges and adjusted for local costs. A 120m² three-bedroom house is roughly £264,000–£384,000 to build; a 200m² four- or five-bedroom house £440,000–£640,000. A new dwelling is zero-rated for VAT, so there is no 20% to add. Not in those figures: the plot, professional fees (commonly 5–15% of the build cost), site investigation, the £610 planning fee, Building Control, a ten-year structural warranty, utility connections, landscaping and a 10–15% contingency. We itemise every line in the quotation.
Your architect or planning consultant normally handles it before we are involved. A full application for a single new house costs £610 (from 1 April 2026). Send us the decision notice, the approved drawings and the conditions, and we price the construction from those. Two Greater Cambridge points worth asking your consultant about: the Proposed Submission Local Plan’s water-efficiency proposal of 90 litres per person per day for schemes of fewer than 100 new homes, and the Community Infrastructure Levy now going through examination, which will add a per-square-metre charge once adopted.
Design and approvals add months before anyone is on site. Once work starts, a typical three- or four-bedroom detached house takes roughly 4 to 5 months to weathertight and 9 to 12 months to handover, depending on the construction method and — the biggest variable — the ground: on shrinkable clay near trees the foundation design can change once the site investigation is in. The quotation carries a written programme with the stages set out.
Yes, through a written variation: we describe the change, price it and get your approval before the work proceeds, and it goes on the programme. Decisions made before we start — kitchen, glazing, finishes — cost nothing to change; the same decisions after the walls are up can cost weeks.
The ones on the approved drawings and specification — that is what Building Control and your warranty provider inspect against. For the shell that usually means two-leaf cavity walls: a blockwork inner leaf, an insulated cavity and a facing-brick outer leaf, as on our Harston new build. The facing brick is chosen against the local palette — Cambridge gault or red multis — and the roof coverings, windows and insulation to the current Part L standard.
Not on the construction. A qualifying new dwelling is zero-rated, so a VAT-registered contractor charges no VAT on the building work or the materials built into it — on a £300,000 build that is roughly £60,000 that never enters the budget. Separately appointed professional services, separately hired plant and some fitted goods are generally standard-rated; a garage built with the home and some design-and-build arrangements can qualify differently, so confirm the treatment for your project before finalising the budget. If you manage the build yourself and buy materials in your own name, the DIY Housebuilder Scheme refunds the VAT on the eligible materials after completion; it does not refund VAT on services, which should be zero-rated at the point of supply.
If you are borrowing to build, your lender will usually want a structural warranty or an architect’s certificate. Tell us which warranty provider your project uses when we quote. They inspect at set stages, and we programme the build around those inspections.
Yes — single houses, self-build plots and replacement dwellings are the new-build work we price. Send the plot address, the planning position and any drawings, and we will tell you what we need to price it. A warranty provider needs to inspect during construction, so the ten-year structural warranty should normally be arranged before we start. Some providers will cover a finished house, but that depends on their assessment and the evidence available, and it usually costs more.
Yes. New-build work runs from your architect’s approved information: we build to it and raise any queries with them before work is affected.
Selected project feedback from a Prestige customer.
Customer feedback from a Prestige extension project
From the initial quotation to the completed project, Daryl and Prestige were exemplary. All of the stages of construction of our house extension were performed professionally and to a high standard …
Tell us what you want to build and upload any plans or site information you already have.