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Risks of buying a non standard construction (concrete & steel)

Can anyone advise me on potential risks with non-standard constructions? I have a viewing on a concrete and steel ex council house in Leeds in a couple of days which is on the market for £130k (smaller brick houses across the road selling for £160k)

There have been no recent sales in that area on these type of houses for years. The ones I saw on Zoopla were for £80k 4 or more years ago so I suspect this was residents buying their houses from the council.

I've heard it may be difficult to get a mortgage on one, although I think Halifax do them.

But we're also concerned about potential structural issues and if we want to remortgage/resell, could this be potentially difficult for us in the future?

Has anyone had any experience of these that they can share please? It’s a real bargain for the price but as I'm a first time buyer I'm wary of my lack of knowledge and don't want to end up losing money on a house.

Thanks.
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Comments

  • 00ec25
    00ec25 Posts: 9,123
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    edited 17 July 2017 at 10:20AM
    you have identified the issue that matters:
    - difficult to get a mortgage if (big if) the actual type of construction is indeed one of the "problem" ones. You need to know the exact type it is "concrete and steel frame" is not enough
    - therefore, difficult to sell afterwards as your buyer will have the same problem

    read earlier thread:
    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=231763
  • Ogriv
    Ogriv Posts: 97
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    My only experience of them is that my lender (Coventry) wouldn't lend on one that I really liked. So I pulled out, and it has been on and off the market a few times since, perhaps for the same reason.
    And also in the same block I notice that people seem to have trouble selling their properties.
    With either the right lender or being a cash buyer you should be fine to buy it.
    But it raises questions about potential structural issues that I am not informed enough to answer.
    I eventually turned my affections towards more conventional builds.
    Good luck.
  • Clowndog
    Clowndog Posts: 5 Forumite
    00ec25 - I did find a list from Leeds City Council online that stated the construction type as 5M. But I didn't find much information about this type through Google so I'm not sure if it is a problem one or not!

    Ogriv - Yes, its a worry that we could end up with an unsalable property should we wish to move in the future :(
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741
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    Clowndog wrote: »
    It’s a real bargain for the price but as I'm a first time buyer I'm wary of my lack of knowledge and don't want to end up losing money on a house.

    Thanks.
    It's probably not so much a bargain as simply priced to reflect its down-sides, one of which is a limited resale market.

    You'll get more square metres for your money and you may even get a structurally sound house, if you have a full specialist survey and maintain it well, but you'll not be able to influence others' opinions on it, or lenders policy towards advancing money on it in the future.
  • Cakeguts
    Cakeguts Posts: 7,627
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    It is cheap because it has a problem. There are not many people who would want to or could afford to buy it so it is priced cheaply. Anything that appears to be cheap for what it is will have something wrong with it. There are more buyers for the brick houses so they are priced higher.
  • stator
    stator Posts: 7,441
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    Firstly you need to identify exactly what type of house is it?
    If it's a BISF house and it's been well maintained then I wouldn't be against buying it. There are loads of them around and likely to be mortgageable as long as it's maintained properly. You'd need to pay for a proper, instrusive survey from someone who knows what they are doing.
    In the future you can always knock it down and build a larger house (subject to PP)

    If it's a different kind of house, like a Cornish Unit then you have very little chance of getting a mortgage unless it has been 'converted' to a standard construction house. IF it has been converted then you will need the paperwork from the conversion to get a mortgage. If all this has been done then there's no reason to not buy it.
    One of the problems is that the council may have converted the house from it's original design and they won't have the paperwork for the conversion because they didn't need a mortgage for their own housing, they won't have the right certificates. So if it was converted before right-to-boy you won't have much hope.

    If you want more information on types of non-traditional house you'll have to find out exactly what type it is and what state it's in.
    Post a link to streetview and we can have a guess if you like.
    Changing the world, one sarcastic comment at a time.
  • Clowndog
    Clowndog Posts: 5 Forumite
    Thanks for the info. I can't post a link but the postcode is LS6 3LX
  • movilogo
    movilogo Posts: 3,186
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    Concrete houses are fine. For some strange reason people in this country believe any house not made of brick is a problem :)

    There are banks who do lend on concrete houses (I know HSBC does). If the house is good otherwise, grab a bargain.
    Happiness is buying an item and then not checking its price after a month to discover it was reduced further.
  • Our house was standard construction. The house was on the market for some time, but we thought we were lucky that nobody had snapped it up earlier, and glad we'd got such a bargain. Fast forward 6 years, and it took over 9 months on the Market to get an offer, despite dropping the price by over £25k (Over 15%)!

    Although you may not mind the issues now, you need to think about what others will think when you come to sell it.
  • 00ec25
    00ec25 Posts: 9,123
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    stator wrote: »
    Firstly you need to identify exactly what type of house is it?
    If it's a BISF house and it's been well maintained then I wouldn't be against buying it. There are loads of them around and likely to be mortgageable as long as it's maintained properly. You'd need to pay for a proper, instrusive survey from someone who knows what they are doing.
    In the future you can always knock it down and build a larger house (subject to PP)

    If it's a different kind of house, like a Cornish Unit then you have very little chance of getting a mortgage unless it has been 'converted' to a standard construction house. IF it has been converted then you will need the paperwork from the conversion to get a mortgage. If all this has been done then there's no reason to not buy it.
    One of the problems is that the council may have converted the house from it's original design and they won't have the paperwork for the conversion because they didn't need a mortgage for their own housing, they won't have the right certificates. So if it was converted before right-to-boy you won't have much hope.

    If you want more information on types of non-traditional house you'll have to find out exactly what type it is and what state it's in.
    Post a link to streetview and we can have a guess if you like.
    OP has already stated the council says it is a 5M house (see #4)

    the online info on 5Ms is limited, but it is apparent it is not one of the defective types listed in legislation so there is no funding available for any remedial work.

    it is also apparent that the Council of Mortgage Lenders do list 5M as non standard and therefore it is down to the policy of each lender whether they will touch anything on that list or not. Future saleability must therefore be a probable issue.

    https://www.cml.org.uk/documents/non-traditional-housing-in-the-uk-a-brief-overview-report/pdf_pub_misc_NontradhousingBR.pdf.pdf.
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