Anyone Happy with their New Build?

Chlorine7

Hi,

I'm looking into buying a place and possibly taking advantage of the government scheme.

I've read a lot of horror stories as these are obviously much easier to come across but I'd like to know if anyone is happy in their new build and how long they've been living in there. Did you have any issues and were they easy to rectify?

I'm currently looking at Barratts builds that is available now or one that has yet to be built.

I think I could get a one bed place without the Gov scheme and not a new build but I'd like to investigate this route first.

Furts

Design, plot sizes, small gardens, lack of off street parking, small or non existent garages,...are some of the downsides with new build.

A lot of people are happy with their new builds, but a likely statistic is 100% have defects. These vary from quite minor to down right shoddy through to dangerous.

The mindset with purchasers, encouraged by the builders, is "everybody expects snags in a new build home". So the issue becomes how many snags and how serious are they? Follow this up with: will they be put right? or will they be bodged? or will you be expected to live with them?

The builders actively work to lower quality standards on materials and workmanship.

Add to this many current purchasers would not know a poorly built house, and many more do not care. This is a situation the builders and the warranty companies are happy to encourage.

Purchasing off plan and buy to let have been paradise to the house building industry - it can become a smokescreen for poor quality. You will notice on sites everywhere there are not unsold stock houses open for the public to inspect at the varying stages of construction. There is a reason for this - the builders do not want you to know! However, the reason they give is "it contravenes Health and Safety"!

Purchasers requesting a good standard can end up being one of the tens of thousands, every year, in a dispute with their builder or warranty provider.

Buying a new built home is worthy, it provides work for the UK workforce (including me on numerous occassions) and for UK industry. I applaud this, but it really is a case of "Buyer Beware."

Relocationrelocation

Assuming you wanted to hear from someone who has actually bought and lives in a new build...

My partner and I have been in our 3 bed terraced new build house for 8 weeks and we love it. Masses of space (compared with the rented flat we lived in) really good quality finish (no defects as yet) and standard of after care customer service has been good so far.
The site manager has been back to help us put the right fixings in the walls and to check we're happy with everything. No major snagging issues, save for marks on the walls (which were repainted for us after we'd moved in). Good size garden, garage, parking space + two visitor spaces (we might be lucky) and over all we have been delighted with our new home... we've met our neighbours and all seem to be similarly happy as well.

We looked at a LOT of developments, most of the builders out there so it's useful to shop around and see what you can get for your money.
We didn't want to continue renting and spend years saving for a huge deposit, so for us new build provided a really good opportunity and we have not looked back.
Oh just to add - family member is an architect and was very impressed with our house...

Chlorine7

Yes, relocation, you are exactly the type of person I want to hear from. Thanks!

I do appreciate Furts response too but I'd like the opinions of those who are currently living in a new build, happy or not.

I wouldn't be worrying about parking spaces or a garden etc. I'm looking in London, can't drive and have no children. I do have a partner but our relationship will probably be ending fairly soon so I don't foresee having children in the immediate future. This also means that having loads of space isn't a too much of an issue. I lived in a studio for 2 years so whatever I buy will be bigger than that!

dumpallhere

Lived as the first tenant in a new build flat in London for 3 years.
Had to move out of London due to work and found another new build flat that I rented. Been living here for 3 years now.

So, 6 years in 2 new build (flats) - 0 problem till date.

Was looking to purchase since Jan '12 but none of the old/period properties we viewed since then appealed to us (told OH that it may be because we had become used to living in new build). Our personal experience regarding new builds and the horror stories on the forum regarding people pulling out of chains / gazumping / gazundering (and one such experience, which was enough) made us view more new builds than old / period properties, and finally decide on a new one.

After a lot of searching, finally reserved (off-plan) a 3-bed, semi-detached new build that comes with an attached garage and drive big enough for another 2 cars. Garden is medium sized but I that's a plus for us - with no kids and none of us two being plant growers, the smaller the better (to manage).

Have been to the site a few times and have met and spoken to some residents and (since reserving) our to-be next-door neighbors as well. No one has had a bad thing to say about the houses they are in or the development as such.

Did also hear from a resident there that someone moved to the development in 2011, loved it so much that he recommended it to his family and as luck would have it his parents and sister's family also bought and moved in early 2013.

(So far) pretty happy with the decision. Can't wait to complete and move in.

Just as there are people who criticize new builds, there are others who have had only good experiences and don't regret their decision at all. While you will find the former group complaining on forums at every given opportunity, the latter group don't usually write unless feedback is solicited. Hence, the unhappy ones seem to be in the thousands on the internet and the happy ones only a handful ... but in reality (as I know it) .. it is the other way round.

GwylimT

I have a new build flat, it was built by Ben Bailey, so far we are yet to have any problems, of course we will have things such as settling in marks on the ceiling but these will be rectified by our builder.

This is my first time living in a flat, we have our own private garden as well as communal grounds, we never hear our upstairs neighbours, we are ground floor and we don't hear cars starting in the underground car park either.

Our site however is quite unusual, we are a mixture of new builds on a small estate that has listed buildings that have been renovated by BB.

My previous home however was near a Barratt estate which was built around 09, my brother owns one of them and there were a lot of complaints, my brothers house has wall tiles on the floor and so they cracked very quickly, the sewerage system for the site was poor and so his downstairs toilet regularly overflowed. His back door wasn't a proper external door, it wasn't seal and so you could see daylight all around it and of course it made the downstairs very drafty. The walls were very thin, very little privacy within the house and you could hear the neighbours quite clearly as it was a semi. To this day the roads on the little estate haven't been completed, the actual roads are very narrow and windy so passing another vehicle can sometimes be quite challenging, only one side of the road has a pavement other houses open directly onto the road save for two paving slabs meaning the houses are very close together.

Personally I have only know people to have bad experiences with Barratt, however there could be people out there who have only had bad experience with my builder as well.

comeandgo

Yes, live in a new build but built by a small building company, not one of the multi nationals. Love it, rooms are large, though still coloured Magnolia, garden took a while to come to, turf to front and seeded at back.
With a new build you have to buy the mirrors, toilet roll holders, towel rails etc so that can add up a bit. No problems with things not working, all boilers the most up to date and efficient. Some people say new houses are like new cars, as soon as you are in it, it depreciates. This has not happened in the area where I live though. Best of luck with your search for a new house - bought old and new, now its new all the time.

lion-o

I have rented two new built flats in the same building.

The first one had 3 leaks over the period of a year. They had to keep coming back to fix it.

Also the patio doors were not on right, creating a large gap, which let a lot of air in, the Winter was very cold. The door took around 6 months to fix as the contractor had to keep coming back because they kept doing a bad job at repairing it. We could not use another contractor as it would void the warranty and the contractor took months between appointments as they were so busy.

We moved out of the apartment and in to another one in the same building at the end of our tenancy. We hoped that it would be much better.

We have had similar issues with draughts from patio doors. Light fittings keep breaking and the TV signal was weak (requiring an engineer to come out and fix it) also, only one of the phone lines worked. The toilet flush has also broken on several occasions.

For both apartments there are/were large cracks in the walls forming.

These are not cheap apartments either - £1300 - £1500 pcm.

My advice is steer clear of Bellway new builds.

Chlorine7

dumpallhere wrote: »

L

Just as there are people who criticize new builds, there are others who have had only good experiences and don't regret their decision at all. While you will find the former group complaining on forums at every given opportunity, the latter group don't usually write unless feedback is solicited. Hence, the unhappy ones seem to be in the thousands on the internet and the happy ones only a handful

Exactly the reason I was hoping to get opinions, experiences from those who have been happy. Thanks very much!

cloudy11

We're in the process of buying a new build at the moment. We will hopefully be moving in in September.

I originally was quite against new build properties, as all I had heard was horrendous things. However, when we went to see this house and this development, we absolutely loved everything which was quite a surprise to me as I was dead against them! The house was also in our budget and as we have a baby on the way, being able to move into a new, clean house was a major plus We scrutinised everything though and asked a lot of people on the development what they thought. We also know quite a few people living there who are very happy.

I think they're like old houses- there are good ones and bad ones. People seem to lump new builds under the same umbrella and think that they must all be bad, which is ridiculous. I think a lot of it is snobbery, often coming from people who were lucky enough to be able to buy lovely old houses years ago for an affordable amount.

Do your research on the house and the rooms, the development and the developer and if you're happy and the price is sensible, then I don't see why new builds can't be a good option.

jellie

I'm in my second new build property. When I bought this one 20 years ago, there were the same "new builds have problems, old properties are always better" comments.

Some people just prefer older houses, and I do think a lot of criticism of new builds comes from people's personal preferences and perceptions, and there are horror stories of both old and new.

My friends have just moved from a new build to an older property. By the time they've finished putting right what the previous owner did, they'll have spent a fortune. There's nothing structurally wrong with the house they've moved into, but lots of shoddy diy workmanship has taken its toll.

When I move again, I will definitely look to have another new build - my own experiences have only been positive.