New Build or Old House

TammyBright

My partner and I have managed to save some money and thanks to the bank of dad scrapped together a deposit, mortgage broker spoken to and mortgage in principle agreed…next step find a house we like
We have seen some new build houses (2 bed 2 bath) developer build. We would hope to buy 70% using the developers scheme, paying the ‘loan’ off over 10 years. Bigger mortgage than the ‘old house’ but all the perks of a new build in a nice area.
Other choice a house built in the 70’s (2 bed 1 bath). Buying the full amount of house (well mortgaged). Not so nice area, lacking perks of new build.
New build = nicer area, really nice house, no work to be done, more expensive repayments
Older house = cheaper monthly repayments, meets our needs, probs need work doing over the years
Are there things I have missed considering? What advice would you give on the ‘new build’ or ‘older house’?
Thanks for your help!

Doozergirl

Is the new build a bigger house? Are you genuinely happy paying nearly 50% more for it?

New builds are overpriced, it's well known.

If I didn't know anything about houses and I wasn't interested in making money out of making them better, but still trying to be sensible, I'd buy house that's about 5 years old. It's still quite new, but it's pretty energy efficient. The environment has softened a bit and started to gain character with shrubs etc and people have spent the money doing the things that don't come with new builds, which will cost a small fortune - curtain poles, fittings, blinds, garden landscaping etc. and more random things like hooks, towel rails etc. And you can get an idea of the neighbours because they already live there!

And with that extra expenditure, it's somehow lost some of it's value. Bonus.

IRL I can't get enough of older houses. Making my own stamp, having more space

elsien

Garden size - new builds tend to have less outdoor space. Older house may possibly have slightly higher maintenance costs, but may be more solidly built.
And are they semis, terraces or detached and what's the soundproofing like?

TammyBright

They are very similar houses, the new build is much nicer and the area is much nicer. similar outside space (small). But the older house is 160k and the new build is 235k it will be tight going for the new build so that is leaning us towards the older one. But we are going to be spending so much time in the house, which ever we choice as getting a mortgage has meant we have stopped going out!

Doozergirl

Then I would buy the older one. No brainer. No way would I pay 50% more for similar things! And even if the older house wasn't quite right, I'd find a different house. The new build is nicer because it's new and they have a nice showhome and they give you coffee and stuff. You can buy that wallpaper and stick it in a sensibly priced house. In reality, the furniture in the showhome isn't proper sized, your house will never look like that and you will gauge plaster out of the walls when you try and move a real sofa in. And when you open the doors too quickly, the door handles will start making themselves little nests in the plasterwork. And you don't actually need two bathrooms in a two bedroom house - sensibly sized rooms would be better!

Stuff it full of insulation, get a proper survey to highlight anything that needs dealing with in the shorter term and negotiate with the vendor to make it affordable.

You don't need to go out nearly half as much when you own your place anyway. Half the time you go out when you're younger it's to get away from someone else in the house!

Kind of sounds like you might have made up your mind but I've been on this board long enough to see people sucked in and spat back out again

hethmar

Why does it have to be a choice between these two? Spend some more time looking round for something that meets your criteria more satisfactorily. I dont think of 1970s houses as "old" Have you thought of something quite a lot older which may be in a nice area but cost less than the new build. New builds, particularly ones where you are actually sharing some of the cost with the builder will be well overpriced.

I can see that your heart is with the new house and head with the older one. Try to find a third house where heart and head are in union

CheeseCat

What sort of 'old house' can you get for 235k? Id bet something a damn sight better than the new build!

I would continue searching for something between those two prices that ticks ALL the boxes.

ETA - Hethmar said what I wanted to say much better than I did cross posted

jasmin10

I think only you can decide on which option is best for your situation.

I have had 2 New Builds and would never touch them again with a barge pole. We since have moved back into an older house (1980's) and feel relieved to be rid of the hassles and problems.

Our first one was with Barratts, we wanted to get on the mortgage ladder so part exchanged, but boy did we pay the price. House was nice lookng and a lovely area. Then the snags starting appearing from the shoddy workmanship and various mistakes they had made. Admittedly Barratts sorted out mose of the problems, but the two bigger problems we didnt envisage. Answering a knock at the door we found our neighbour had complained he was short of land in his garden. After weeks of looking at it Barratts said that they had put the fence in the wrong place to our disadvantage of 4 foot. So the garden was dug up (as we had put plants etc in )and the fence moved. Then we had problems with the garage in that when we pulled up outside it we couldn't open our car door as the neighbours wall was right there. The wall had been built in line with the frame of the garage door and not in line with the brick work. They then said that they had actually built the house and the garage in the wrong place and would need to demolish the garage. Our neighbours were looking forward to this at it was joined to theirs and were hoping for some compensation, but when we decided to accept an offer from barratts and put up with climbing out the other door, our neighbours were none too pleased at missing out and made our lifes . They would block our path to our house with their car so we had to carrying shopping etc through the hedge and garden. Anyhow we moved from there to a Bellway. We were the first to move in and it was nice, a few more residents came and thought it would be a nice place to settle. Then people started buying to let and the place got swamped by tennents leaving rubbish and washing machines outside. Not only that but we found that we could never get cheaper gas as Bellway had used an IGT (Independant Gas Tranporter) to save them money when building the house. The only thing is, is that all the householders had to pay their providers an additional annual premium that will always be with them. I think most new houses now have this. There was again more snags and shortcomings as things hadn't been fitted or plumbed properly.

This has been our experience of new and never again. However I know people that have never had a problem (although not many) . At the end of the day yes it's nice moving into a house with nothing to do, but you can end up with more than you bargained for. And then you dont know that they have told you everything. We weren't told about IGT's.

We have been in our new 'old' house for 3 years now and are the happiest we have been in the last 8 years. Don't get me wrong we have had our problems with this house, but at least we knew what we were letting ourselves in for. It has cost us a lot of money to make things how we want them, but now we know that this is going to be the last house we have as we love it and the area so much.

Remember you can always change wallpaper and layouts in an old house, but some of the things that are wrong in new builds (like what we had) can not be changed and can be an emotional rollercoaster.

I wish you lots of luck in making the big decision you have and hope that it all goes well in whatever you decide.

Londonsu

personally I would never buy a new build I have seen too many of them go up and they all look very insubstantial .

I live in a victorian house at the mo- original features including cast iron fireplaces, thick walls and well proportioned rooms and a 100ft garden

Before that it was an Edwardian flat, high ceilings picture rails and again original fireplaces, infact the 'youngest' house I ever lived in was the council house I was bought up in which was built in the 30s

hcb42

I live in a Victorian house too, and would be unlikely to opt for a new build...mainly as I dont want estate type living.

but 70s is neither one nor the other, but if you can find that house, there will be more for less than the price of the new build...which will have more risk in the price paid Iexpect.

PasturesNew

I bought an old house once, same time that my friend bought a new build. Over the next 5 years or so, the differences I noted were:
1] I then had to spend about another 15% over the 5 years to try to get it less annoying, some of which was essential work (it had no central heating, needed double glazing; plaster fell off walls when I removed the wallpaper ... and more). She just moved in and got to buy nice things
2] She had a lovely integral garage, which wasn't big enough to fit her car into; I had a huge garage, that leaked.
3] She had one problem with her boiler overheating her water, that made the water tank explode and it all flooded out and down her wall, which she had to redecorate.
4] We'd started off paying about the same, I didn't enjoy my house as it had issues; she just moved into hers and enjoyed it.

For "real figures":
a] I paid 10% less than her originally.
b] I ended up paying 5% more than her after my bits and bobs were done
c] She spent more on getting the garden straight and carpeting it (5%), which I didn't have to do
d] Mine was worth 15% more than hers by the time I sold it

But .... the important thing is, she got to enjoy hers every day and live in it, while I was living with something that was cold, draughty and had issues.