concrete built, why would it be difficult for mortgage

mirrorimage0

hi all

was looking at a property earlier and spoke to the nieghbours who warned us when they bought thiers they couldnt get a mortgage because it was concrete built,

what is the difference, why would this be? thankyou

taxsaver

Because many concrete houses are prefabricated using steel reinforced sections. Often the steel, over time, has corroded and led to problems with the strength of the structure as a result; often referred to as 'concrete sickness' I believe.

Personally I would avoid them.

Werdnal

Anything that is considered by mortgage companies to be "non-standard construction", ie not built of bricks and mortar, is usually considered a higher risk because the building could have inherent structural weaknesses.

By concrete construction, I think there are a variety of different forms, but it is usually the reinforcement bars inserted within the concrete when it is built that rust and corrode, meaning they property can suffer cracks and other problems. In some cases the corroded rods can "blow" the concrete off the outside.

You can sometimes get special mortgages, but they are often more expensive, and have clauses on how much loan to capital they will lend.

You may also have problems with building insurance, and the overall value will be less than a similar sized standard construction property, which will reflect when you eventually sell.

Our house is made of cob, and be have major problems getting insurance cover, as many of the main companies run a mile!

mirrorimage0

ok thanks for this, i managed to find out a bit of info on it, my heads pounding after today lol cant think straight.


what we wanted to do is buy the property basically for the land and then knock it down to build what we want so would be a new building. we can afford to buy it outright but would need to borrow the money for the build, roughly around 80 to 90 thousand, has anyone else done this and how did you find the best way to do it.
thankyou

taxsaver

Important point is to ensure that the council will give consent to build a new house on the plot... it doesn't automatically follow that they will and once the original house has been removed you lose all 'pre-existing' planning rights.

mirrorimage0

thanks taxsaver, the plan is to phone the coucil tomorrow to arrange an appointment so hopefully someone can come look and tell me wether its going to be ok to do that or not, most of the bungalows down that street have been turned into 3 or 4 bedroom houses , and the one next door is the most recent to do it roughly around 6 yrs ago i think it was so im pretty hopefull,

problem im having is hubby is away for the month so am having to ring everyone and do appointments myself and try to retain everything and relay back to hubby who then has other questions that i have to go back and ask, (do you think the people would mind not putting on the market until hubby is home lol)