BISF Houses. Is BISF dodgy?? BISF BISF BISF!!!

islandview

We have lived in our home for 30+ years. we weighed up moving and buying a traditionally constructed house when we retired but having had no problems in all those years we decided instead to improve. We added a conservatory onto the fornt from the living room and a utilty type conservatory from the kitchen. Doors and windows were improved over the years. We have a sturdy, relatively spacious, well insulated, therefore warm in winter, home with plenty of garden. Similar of traditional build would cost twice as much! Go for it!:T

hazyjo

The thread's 3 years old, and the last post, four months old. If anyone is wanting advice on this, please just start a new thread or it gets confusing...

Jx

Running_Horse

My computer's playing up a bit.

Can anyone search what the house went for in the end?

ed110220

The first thing is that BISF houses were not, as is commonly believed, designed to be temporary. Some prefabricated houses were temporary, but BISF was not, this is reflected in the more substantial and less prefabricated construction (eg concrete render on lower walls). A government study found that with appropriate maintenance, they are expected to last as long as traditionally-built houses of the same age.

British house buyers are extremely conservative about construction type and are suspicious about "non-traditional construction" such as BISF, therefore BISF houses tend to be much cheaper than "normal" houses of a similar size and reasonable size garden (they are bigger and tend to have bigger gardens than significantly more expensive conventional houses). This is a peculiarity of the British market - most American, Australian, Scandinavian etc houses would be classed as "non-traditional construction" here. This peculiarity may be because "non-traditional construction" is associated with social housing in the UK in a way it isn't overseas. Also there is the folk wisdom that these houses were only temporary.

I would say that if you view BISF realistically and accept its modest disadvantages then it's an absolute bargain. If you imagine it will be the same as a "normal" house, then you're likely to be disappointed. Obviously you cannot expect to buy a BISF house and expect to sell it on at the price of a conventional house - but then you wouldn't expect to buy a one bedroom flat and sell it for the price of a three bedroom house.

geoffky

225k for that .....oh my god...