New build overpriced?

somethingcorporate

We have a new build and the garage would just about fit a parked car. You should give it a try/consider a smaller car to get around having to rely on a visitor parking space.

What happens when kids grow up and start wanting their own cars?

pinkteapot

Have to say, if it were me, £500k and only one parking space just wouldn't cut it for me. (and we bought a house at the same sort of price last year) Being reliant on visitor parking is a pain - don't rely on the neighbours leaving space for you.

Do all the houses only have a single drive? At that price, for that size house, almost every house will have at least two cars. We live in a street of four and five bed houses, similar price range, and a lot of the houses have three or four cars. We're in a minority with 'only' two.

A lot of people don't use their garages, especially if a car on the drive is blocking in a car in the garage. Doing the car shuffle when the person in the garage wants to leave becomes a faff so people will use the visitor parking out of laziness.

How many houses are there and how many visitor spaces? Ie how many spaces per house in that area?

Garages have got smaller in recent years and cars have got bigger. The garage at our last house would take our Astra but not our Mondeo. Agree with others that if you go with this house, you might want to swap one of your cars to a smaller one that will go in the garage. Even if you use visitor parking when available, at least you'll have the option of garaging on days when there aren't spaces.

The proximity of the school is obviously a huge selling point though - being able to walk to school is just great, so on balance the house may still work for you. But, I'm slightly concerned by the number of niggles you've got. Buying and selling at this price range is expensive (if you decide to move to a similarly priced house in a few years you're looking at £25k for all fees and costs) so you want to be happy with this house for many years.

EDIT: Just seen that you're buying a four bed and next door is a four-bed. 200sq ft isn't much difference - how many sq ft is the house? Ie what percentage bigger is it? Why not view next door, to put your mind at rest about why yours is worth more?

Paully232000

TBeckett100 wrote: »

We are in the process of buying a 4 bed detached for £520k in The South East. It's a row of houses, high quality and the homes look stunning. They are specced in luxury.

We agreed to pay the asking price in return for wood flooring, carpeting, turfing and stamp duty paid. Tiling is included as is a well spec'd kitchen (the range oven is 2k alone)

The new school is literally across the road so will serve daughter for many years.

However what is bugging me is

There is a garage which I doubt I'd fit my car in so that leaves a driveway for one. We'd have to rely on one of the visitor spaces opposite the house being free. Hopefully the neighbours will get into a habit of leaving a space for us.

Bedrooms are a little small. Largest is 12x12 plus the ensuite. Another room has an ensuite and there is a family bathroom

Downstairs rooms are perfect

Next door has gone on the market (buyer must have dropped out). That's a 4 bed, 200 sq ft smaller and a different design. However it is £90k cheaper so I am a little worried if my house is really worth 90k more

We do have another option, another new build in a neighbouring village for 520k but I suspect they may not offer as many incentives. Certainly full tiling is extra but whoever reserved it seems to have pulled out. It's 5 bed, double drive and double garage, good plot, slightly bigger bedrooms and downstairs space. However this would mean leaving daughter in the school a few miles away and to be honest the village is a bit too social housed.

So I am in a quandary, do we have a nicer home and more space and ease of parking but in a not to taste village or do we plump for a higher end area but slightly less space and parking issues

Sorry to ramble, just trying to weigh it up

I was just thinking what does the above mean exactly?

and to answer your last question as you have so many issues with house with no parking, I would go with house number two if you insist on a new build.

I have also noticed on the last two houses that I have bought, that garages are small in comparison to my childhood homes.

Our current one would just about fit our smaller car, but for our bigger one to fit in there would be no room for any of the other things we have in there, gardening equipment, boxes etc, unless i want to get out of the boot each night.

LEJC

I personally think you have been drawn in by "high spec" and not actually looked at the fabric of the house and worked out if its going to work for you long term.

From what I read in your post...the upstairs rooms are already causing concern size wise,well thats only going to get more apparent as your children grow from small to larger and to teens...
Your garage wont fit your car and you are already considering the need to "bags" a communal visitor parking space for your second car...

It hardly sounds as if it is the house for you and if you are already doing the comparisons with neighbouring houses over worth etc and potentially thinking you are paying over the odds...then you probably are.

In my mind those lovely hi spec touches will be slightly outdated in 10 years time and no doubt no longer a selling point if you chose to go down that route.
You can always change the finish of tiles and to an extent the fixtures and fitting of a house reasonably easily,but what you cant change is the small room sizes without potentially costly extensions which will then no doubt eat into the garden space.
If you think the house is too small before you move in...then its only going to get smaller as you grow over the years....
Its priced at a forever home price but doesnt sound like you are really considering it as such a long term prospect,apart from perhaps the location of the school nearby....
If nextdoor is for sale at such a reduced cost then presumably its been priced to sell 90k is a really good reduction for someone as presumably they will be getting that same hi spec luxury that pulled you in

What if your neighbours all all thinking along the lines you are...hoping to use the visitor spaces etc...theres going to be a queue of cars all jostling for space,and as pinkt said earlier a costly excersice if you find in 2 years time that you need to move!

kimbyanne

As someone who lives on a new build estate (in a shared ownership, so technically "social housing" that you are so horrified by, gasp..). I will tell you, no one around here uses their garages for cars and most people have more than two cars meaning parking is at a premium.

Also, visitor parking is just that, for visitors so I don't understand why you are trying to "claim" a visitors space for your own personal use. I doubt that would go down well with your neighbours.

It sounds like the house isn't big enough for your needs.

movilogo

What exactly you are worried about?

New builts are overpriced - that's fact.

Modern cars don't fit in most garages - that's fact. I live in 1970s house and still can't fit my car in garage (it goes in fine but can't open door). Garages are for storing junk anyway.

All new builts look stunning in advertisements. Sometimes builders go as far as fitting smaller furnitures in show homes to make it feel bigger.

Rather than saying big/small which is a subjective opinion, always measure house size by square feet (or square meter). This is what rest of world does (but in UK we measure by number of bedrooms).

Keep in mind that you can change decor of the house but not the floor area (unless you extend which is often not an option in modern new builts).

goodwithsaving

movilogo wrote: »

Garages are for storing junk anyway.

And this is what contributes towards the clutter of cars all over roads and in developments. If they built garages big enough or with electric doors it would help.

We use our garage for my car, the other car goes on the double driveway. In winter a garage is invaluable. I never understand why people are so surprised when I say I use it for my car. Just throw out the junk.

A garage is intended for a car so if it can't fit a car in it's effectively a useless "bonus" and costs extra at that.

pinkteapot

goodwithsaving wrote: »

And this is what contributes towards the clutter of cars all over roads and in developments. If they built garages big enough or with electric doors it would help.

We use our garage for my car, the other car goes on the double driveway. In winter a garage is invaluable. I never understand why people are so surprised when I say I use it for my car. Just throw out the junk.

A garage is intended for a car so if it can't fit a car in it's effectively a useless "bonus" and costs extra at that.

The trouble is that :

1) As you say, a lot of modern garages aren't big enough for many modern cars

2) Even if they are, you can't put anything in there in addition to the car. Really a garage needs to be longer or wider than a car, so you can still store some stuff. Most people have DIY stuff, or bikes, or sports equipment, that they want to store in the garage (rather than inside the house).

goodwithsaving

pinkteapot wrote: »

The trouble is that :

1) As you say, a lot of modern garages aren't big enough for many modern cars

2) Even if they are, you can't put anything in there in addition to the car. Really a garage needs to be longer or wider than a car, so you can still store some stuff. Most people have DIY stuff, or bikes, or sports equipment, that they want to store in the garage (rather than inside the house).

I do get that, but I think what I was trying to say is that why do they charge a premium for a garage when you can't fit a car in it. If they built them a bit bigger, (a) they would serve their purpose and (b) it would make their developments a lot more attractive not only to more buyers but also long term because there wouldn't be cars left all over the place.

For me, if a garage can't fit a car in well that's the house off the list too. It's a completely stupid thing with modern housing.

And yes, they use reduced size furniture to give the illusion of a bigger floor space. Floor plans all the way!

ReadingTim

kimbyanne wrote: »

Also, visitor parking is just that, for visitors so I don't understand why you are trying to "claim" a visitors space for your own personal use. I doubt that would go down well with your neighbours.

Exactly - I'd be pretty p!ssed off if my visitors were unable to park because one of my neighbours had decided to claim it for the permanent parking of one of their cars...