I wasn't planning on buying, but ended buying in Bradford got a great deal that I couldn't turn down. I bought for cash so I didn't have to borrow anything.

It really does depend on the locations of the ren prop and where you want to build the new property. My personal opinion is to go for building from scratch. A friend of mine built his own house in the UK for £160k it was a 4 bed detached property he sold 3 years later for double that. not a bad profit.  Plus he had total control over the layout and evrything that went in it too.