Steel framed house

mrsdrudge

My son is looking for a house in the South East on a limited budget - has been offered 107k with 10 percent deposit. This obviously severely limits his choice. He has seen a house which he loves - in what seems like a reasonable area, fantastic views and good sized rooms. Commute to his job is OK, and parking, though on street, appears plentiful. The estate agent has said that the house is steel framed - looking on the internet there appears to be problems in getting mortgages, insurance etc. Does anyone have any experience on steel framed houses?
His second choice atm is in a street further into town, with limited parking and feels very crowded in. His commute would mean travelling through town to get to the motorway.
Any views welcome.

andre_xs

I don't know about steel frame, but we had a somewhat similar situation with a "Belfry"-build house (where the walls and ceilings are made of prestressed concrete).

You can get mortgages usually also for non-standard builds, but you may be limited in the choice of vendors and you may not get the best deal. Thus, make sure that if you make an offer that your son will still be able to afford a mortgage under such terms.

Also you have to make yourself familiar what "steel framed house" really means and decide for yourself whether you would (i.e., your son) like to live in such a property. There will be definetely cons (I presume less long-lasting, higher risk of fundamental repairs or alike, otherwise lenders wouldn't be hesitant to give a mortgage) and pros (presumably cheaper to build). It is upon you / your son whether they want to go this route. For instance, if it is in a very good shape and your son plans to live there only for 5 years or so, it might be that the additional risk which may come which such a building is very low.

Finally, you also have to consider that if your son wants to sell, his potential buyers will face the same problems, i.e. you will have less potential buyers. However, I guess that the price of such non-standard builds will always be just a certain amount below the usual price. In other words, if house prices rise by 20%, this property will probably also gain 20%.

In our case, we decided against such a Belfry-build, mainly because they came from a time (the 1950s) when engineers where not that proficient with this concrete. Present life-time estimates before major repairs were likely to occur gave us only a few years or so before entering this critical age. Therefore, we avoided the risk. However, would it have been build in lets say 1990, we would have went for it.

Best wishes & Good luck,
Andre

Chanes

Sound advice Andre...look toward a sale in the future and what could affect that. Unless he wants to stay there without moving.

Davesnave

Some steel framed houses, like BISF, have reasonable lifespan predictions, but there's a number of different types, so the devil is in the detail.

Where I used to live, there are many ex-local authority BISF houses, which currently sell for around the £200k mark. This is one:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51108604.html?premiumA=true

These houses clearly have the potential for a mortgage and insurance, as they are not all bought for cash, but the building societies/insurers involved might not offer their best rates on them and - I'm guessing here - a structural engineer's report could be necessary too.

Your son needs more detail in the first instance, so that he can properly research the type of house it is.

stator

It depends on the exactly type of house. If it's BISF he might consider buying it, get a specialist structural survey from someone who knows about these houses. If it's a different type of house listed on the Defecting Housing list then he won't be able to get a mortgage so forget about it.

ed110220

I live in a BISF house a few doors down from that one linked by Davesnave. Bought it as a first time buyer four years ago and am very pleased with it.

The first thing to do is to find out exactly what type of house it is. If you post a link or photo I'll soon be able to tell you.

Because there are a lot of BISF houses (about 35 000 nationally, typically with several dozen to several hundred in any one location) they are well known. If it's some other type of steel framed house which was built in smaller numbers, it might be more of a leap into the dark and I would be much more cautious of it. It's very easy to find out how easy it is to sell a BISF house in a particular area etc because of the number of them, some other rarer type would be more difficult.

His main enemy will be ignorance and myths such as that it was only intended to be temporary, that it's defective, that it's unmortgagable etc, even from so-called "professionals". Eg I've heard of surveyors misidentifying a BISF house as a defective precast reinforced concrete house.

However it seems that the gap between the value of a BISF house and a traditional house seems to be decreasing with time as the Building Research Establishment's findings that they should have a lifespan comparable to a traditional house of the same age gradually becomes more widely known.
Ed

ed110220

Just noticed the £107k + 10% deposit. Does this mean he's got about £117 000 to spend?

If so that would suggest to me that there is something seriously wrong with the house as here BISF houses tend to sell for £150-£200 000 and would expect in the South East to be higher.