New build boring houses

C_Mababejive

Quarter million pound council house...

pixiepie99

This excellent Government quango (which hopefully won't get the chop) aims to fix all this by showing housebuilders the value of building well designed and attractive buildings (and even whole places!):
http://www.cabe.org.uk/

Greedy housebuilders always argue that better design will push the price up and put buyers off. They also argue that their current rubbish looking houses sell fine so they must be building what people want (ignoring the fact that we've got a huge housing shortage so they could pretty much sell anything as long as they called it a house).

Bland new builds on cul-de-sac ridden 'executive estates' really get my goat. I'd choose a nice bay fronted Victorian terrace over one of those any day.

Whinge over.

mudshark

Well there are some that like those new builds - actually my boss has something vaguely similar with a bland garden but she likes that sort of thing. I suppose new builds are more energy efficient and need less maintenance. It seems to me though that the land is the most expensive part of a property in many places so can't be sensible to scrimp too much on the building so I like to think the developers know what they are doing. The worst properties IMO are these pokey flats that have been going up in recent years often targeted at Buy-to-let people.

Owain_Moneysaver

axomoxia wrote: »

The last one is 20 mins to London Bridge. I wonder why its so cheap! For that price, I could put up with a lot.....

I think it's concrete, ie non-traditional construction. Possibly cold, damp, condensation, and unmortgageable.

Of course it might be lovely, but my rule of thumb is if I could afford it, it won't be lovely.

Mum_of_3_3

pixiepie99 wrote: »

This excellent Government quango (which hopefully won't get the chop) aims to fix all this by showing housebuilders the value of building well designed and attractive buildings (and even whole places!):
http://www.cabe.org.uk/

That Quango sounds great until I realised that Icon in Street was a case study http://www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/lime-tree-square?photos=true&viewing=7729 These houses are all Eco houses which sounds fab, but they are soooo ugly, it's unbelieveable, also they have the pre-requisite teeny, tiny garden. Also, they seem to praise the slab of concrete in the middle of the houses, ok so it has a couple of trees stuck into the concrete, but it doesn't really 'lift' the place, also there are loads of cars that park around, making it not so attractive in reality.

For boring new builds there seems to be no better place than Cornwall. All the new build houses there are completely soulless and terribly unattractive, with each house being of the same design.
Although I have noticed recently that developers have opened their eyes to the fact that not all Cornish people want to live in a house exactly the same as their neighbours.

However, like others have said you can't just make sweeping statements about older houses as there are some pig ugly Victorian buildings. Also, in places like Wells Victorian terraces are ten-a-penny and all of them seem to have very similar facades.

M_o_3

Person_one

Running_Horse wrote: »

Unlike those Victorians who built such large beautiful homes that would last:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30256718.html

My parents house looks a lot like that from the outside, except its an end terrace and a different stone.

It has four stories, each with two huge rooms and is often referred to as a 'tardis' by visitors.

Even when Victorian houses were smaller, of the 'two up, two down' variety, they at least had sensible layouts and square, usable rooms.

Maintenance is no joke on a 150 year old property though.

neverdespairgirl

axomoxia wrote: »

The last one is 20 mins to London Bridge. I wonder why its so cheap! For that price, I could put up with a lot.....

It's in Abbey Wood, that's why. A desperate pit of a place.

dannymccann

DPJames wrote: »

i cannot stand new builds. They all look so awful. Plain, small, dull, tightly packed. I can't understand people who like them. Well, i can, they're usuallly dull people who prefer to blend in than stand out. They probably drive silver Fords or Vauxhalls, love laminate flooring, only paint in shades of magnolia and have a 'feature' wall with large print wallpaper. It's like camoflage to them. Anything to NOT stand out. Well your house looks !!!!!!, it looks exactly like the other 350 on your estate.

I on the other hand love my new build (March 2010). I have a 3 bed mid terrace 3 storey, I have a large master bedroom with ensuite on the top floor, bathroom to the middle with another great size double and small double room (and a lobby area for my second set of stairs) and then my kitchen and living room on the ground floor with a cloakroom loo. Parking for 2 out the front and a decent sized garden - no point us having a massive garden at 22 because we arent retired so dont really need more space. It costs £40 a month for gas/elec/water because unlike your old house the windows dont leak and I dont have holes in my walls, I have proper size doors and a nice new GCH system.

And yes, we drive a silver Vauxhall Astra Diesel, and yes, the laminate in the kitchen and bathroom's is very practical :beer: :T

Davesnave

DPJames wrote: »

i cannot stand new builds. They all look so awful. Plain, small, dull, tightly packed. I can't understand people who like them. Well, i can, they're usuallly dull people who prefer to blend in than stand out. They probably drive silver Fords or Vauxhalls, love laminate flooring, only paint in shades of magnolia and have a 'feature' wall with large print wallpaper. It's like camoflage to them. Anything to NOT stand out. Well your house looks !!!!!!, it looks exactly like the other 350 on your estate.

Instead of berating people who like these houses, you should be grateful that they exist. They are like the people who go to the beach and don't go 200m from the car park.

Leaves more choice & space for you & me, eh?

BornAtTheRightTime

When_is_the_reset? wrote: »

Any new house designers on here? Own up - why are some (most) new build houses so dull to look at?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-27817312.html

Who would want to buy a house so dull for that much money? Surely it wouldn't hurt to make the windows a bit bigger or put some interesting architecture into the design?

I hope we can design better places to live soon rather than build as bland and cheaply as possible then (attempt to) sell as high as possible.

Is it just me?

I just knew that had to be the new houses in Lowford! It's a real shame because if you head north 3 or 4 houses there's a lovely terrace development built 2 years ago which shows what is possible with confined space.

Interestingly, those terrace houses were selling £225k (3-bed) to £265k (4-bed) at the time, which shows that prices have continued to rise in Lowford.