Brick build and British Steel construction

ramagates

I had a look at the property last weekend and its well nicely maintained. however the build is steel frame. (they told be British Steel construction) was build after the war

is there any disadvantage on the it compare to brick build? is it good to goahed with this?

some people say hard to resell and i am not sure, apart from this any disadvantages or any advantages?

its an X council property and it was privately bought very long time back

[Deleted User]

I think only a few companies offer mortgages for this type of build. I personally wouldn't buy one.

propertyman

It's a case of averages. The average person wants to buy an average house. While you can get financing for these, and any particular problems that they have should be investigated, you will have to consider that a future buyer will have the same concerns.

You therefore should consider if the house confers any specific advantage that will outweigh that. I for example bought a concrete house that was x local authority because it offered a good investment for sharers working at an airport, and continues to perform well. I am under no illusion that the surrounding properties, the majority in private ownership, are not as easy to sell as conventionally built houses.

ramagates

thanks for your reply.

thinking ....

ramagates

apart from mortgage is there any other issues on this type of construction?

ceegee

I think I read on another thread that insurance might be an issue? Here is a link....


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3528229

ed110220

ramagates wrote: »

I had a look at the property last weekend and its well nicely maintained. however the build is steel frame. (they told be British Steel construction) was build after the war

is there any disadvantage on the it compare to brick build? is it good to goahed with this?

some people say hard to resell and i am not sure, apart from this any disadvantages or any advantages?

its an X council property and it was privately bought very long time back

The advantages of BISF houses are they are typically much cheaper than conventionally built houses and they are also a good size (bigger than a typical new house). None of the internal walls are structural and so they lend themselves to DIY/changing the arrangements inside. Insulation can be added fairly easily compared with older houses with solid walls.

The disadvantages are that many buyers are wary of non-traditional construction and believe it is inherently faulty/undesireable. Most of the major lenders will provide mortgages for BISF, but some eg Nationwide will not if the original asbestos roof is still on. Halifax will even with an asbestos roof.

I found that a BISF house was half the price of an equivalent traditional house, and at that price the disadvantages are so outweighed it's a no-brainer.

ramagates

thanks for your comments

ed110220

I would compare the price of BISF with conventional houses in your location and also find out how quickly they tend to sell.

Although all BISF houses are pretty much identical in their original construction, their location is going to make a big difference. In some places, typically where other houses tend to be expensive and where the BISF houses have been well maintained, they are often snapped up pretty quickly. In other places, say less desirable locations, where the houses have been poorly maintained, they may be very hard to sell.

In Bath where house prices are relatively high, BISF tends to sell well. For under 140 000 in Bath, apart from the BISF house, the number of houses for sale could be counted on one hand and all in the least desirable locations (ie the handful of streets in the city where you might find gardens filled with junk, old sofas, fridges etc). For 125 000 BISF was a no-brainer in my opinion... nice size, good sized garden, better location etc.

I would also try to find advice from people with actual experience of BISF as there is a lot of folk wisdom that isn't useful. People without experience tend not to distinguish BISF from other types of "pre-fab" that were either temporary or turned out to have serious defects, neither of which apply to BISF.

heretolearn_2

My friend and her OH bought one last year. They did a bit of research and found that it's a perfectly good type of construction, the house was very sound, the only problem was the mortgage as not all lenders will accept those. It took longer than usual for the mortgage to get all sorted out too.

But it's a lovely house, they are delighted, and it cost them around £40,000 less than brick built houses on the same street!

ed110220

This one was 50 000 less (only 70% of the price) than a much smaller conventionally-build terrace house on the same street with virtually no garden. The BISF is semi-detached with a good size garden.

The other house was admittedly very nicely decorated, while the BISF had 1970s granny furnishings, but that's pretty cosmetic.