Are people tending to buy new builds over old?

katejo

honeybee2345 wrote: »

When I was looking to buy a house in 2002 we found a new build but when the solicitors was looking into it he said did you know plans for a new school were approved just across from your house? I did not and got out of that and instead bought an older house built in the 1940s and had an extension built on it so now we have an extra room at the side of the property and we love it there. The new house was going to be 80k and the one we bought was 62k and the new one was much smaller and even now when I go past it, I see the school and think thank god we bought the other house.

A primary or secondary? I have a primary school opposite me and it causes no problems at all. I quite like watching the little ones playing. no noise problems or parking because the road is a dead end anyway with restricted parking and parents walk their kids to school. A secondary school would be different.

vqmismatch

I've yet to see a new build that has grabbed me going for a price comparable to something equally desirable to me but 'used' nearby.

Whilst I have no huge objection to new builds on principal, everything I have fancied as a home rather than passing accomodation has been old enough for a previous owner to have been born and then to have died there.

Futuristic

I've been leaning towards a new build as it's in my area where i've lived for years and also fancy not dealing with appliances and redecorating etc. but in comparison for what you're paying the rooms and gardens definitely are smaller even if you're paying upwards of £300k+.

KingS6

If people became more mend and make do and "do-uppers" I wonder if governments would be pushing new house building more agressively.

Tyler119

Personally the problem sometimes with new builds is that most of the new developments are dominated by just 3 or 4 major companies, and so they do not always needs to prioritise space or quality.

A company from Manchester has just finished townhouses near us (North West) and the master bedroom is so badly designed that you will need to crouch down to get into one side of a bed in it, because there is a sloping room and the developer used the loft space.

I see new builds of 4 bedrooms with 4 bathrooms which results in all the bedrooms being really quite small with little room for proper storage. Developers in our area are obsessed with fitting in as many bathrooms as possible, some new build owners must spend most of the time in them or something.

I can see why developers won't built homes that have space to be extended, because like car dealerships..they want you to upgrade after a few years....perhaps 5 years with houses???

dhokes

I'm currently looking to purchase my first 2 bedroom home and I'm considering new builds because:

1. I like the idea of it being new/modern/a blank canvas.

2. Cost. Whilst the cost of a new build home is more than an older home and it has a premium, a new build purchase only requires a 5% deposit with the help to buy equity scheme.

Chanes

After owning a money pit that was a Victorian Terrace and two reasonably new houses, I'd buy newer houses! They've been cheaper to heat, cheaper to fix and more practical in the use of space. Having said that I live in a house that is 27 years old now! I would never buy a Georgian/Victorian/Edwardian terrace or such again, it still hurts when I think of how much it cost to renovate and how badly that old Victorian Terrace had been built!

Smodlet

Chanes wrote: »

After owning a money pit that was a Victorian Terrace and two reasonably new houses, I'd buy newer houses! They've been cheaper to heat, cheaper to fix and more practical in the use of space. Having said that I live in a house that is 27 years old now! I would never buy a Georgian/Victorian/Edwardian terrace or such again, it still hurts when I think of how much it cost to renovate and how badly that old Victorian Terrace had been built!

I can see your point, absolutely, Chanes. I think there is "old" and old, iyswim. 1950s or '60s houses are definitely the way to go, imho. They are old enough to be solidly built, often but not always with higher ceilings, larger rooms and gardens but modern enough, generally, to be easier and cheaper to fix than something much older... they can still cost a fortune, though but possibly (I hope) have a greater tendency to stay fixed once they have been, at least for longer.

Perhaps a point to remember is that all properties will require maintenance sooner or later and, depending on how well they were built in the first place, will cost more or less to fix when they do.

London_Town

I've had two new builds when I was younger and they were fine. However, in the 20 or so years since I bought the first one, the plots and room sizes of new builds have got smaller, while parking provision has got far worse. Added to that, with the service or management charge many of them now attract, I'd not buy one again.

My home was built in 93 and I've spent the last 5 years doing it up, which is quite a while and has cost a fair bit. However, the plot size, room size and parking are way superior to anything I could have bought new.

I've always gone by a great bit of advice from a poster called Doozergirl (don't know if she's still active on the forum). She said that you can do anything to an old house, to bring it up to the standard of a new house. That's true as far as I'm concerned and my house is in the final stages of that process.

When I look at the price of new builds now it does amaze me. You've always paid a premium, but now that additional cost seems greater than ever. I don't understand how this can be justified, as the plots are even smaller and you've got a toxic service charge to contend with.

clint_S

We bought a new build. The main reason was that we couldn't justify a similar sized older house, the price difference for an identical size 30 year old house was about £50K, that's a lot for a £200K house. The new builds in our area are all cheaper than older houses and as such sell extremely quickly, and gain price fast. within 1 year the new builds will typically sell for 5% more than it was bought for, and sometimes more than the developer is selling theirs for.


I put this down to leasehold verses Freehold as all the new builds are leasehold and this puts people off buying from the developer.