New ish house (c.8 years) - points to consider?

it'smeok

Hi all


We're going to view a house at the weekend. I believe it's a fairly new development, and from looking at previous sales on rightmove it seems most of the houses were last sold in 2010.


There are lots of threads on here about buying a brand new build house but I just wondered if anyone has any tips about buying a relatively new one? Is there anything I should ask/look out for in particular at the viewing?


To be honest I don't know how I'll feel about living in such a new development but I'm going to go with an open mind and see what it's like. Everything around it seems to have increased in value since 2010, and it's very close to good schools/the hospital etc so I think the area is popular (for when we want to sell).


Any thoughts/experiences appreciated!

ReadingTim

• Do I like it?
• Can I afford it?

The rest is mere detail.

Celepie

We just bought a nine-year-old house. The advantages are that all the snagging stuff from a newbuild has long been dealt with, and some repairs under the NHBC have been done to the exterior (cosmetic). The current owners should most likely still have all the documentation that came with the house; ours did and left it for us, and that's been really useful.

Make sure to ask about factor/maintenance charges. We pay £200 a year for ours, but I have heard some horror stories about ridiculous maintenance fees once someone has bought the house. In Scotland, that detail should be on the homeowner's survey but I don't know how it works in England.

JoJo1978

We bought a 10 year old house in December, it was just inside its NHBC guarantee when we first viewed it but outside once we completed. As others have said, have got manuals and receipts for every single fixture and fitting within it. We also know from speaking to the vendors that they never had to exercise any of the warranties.

I know what you mean about estates, we looked at dozens but couldn't quite get our head around still being so close to neighbours despite being detached. As luck would have it we purchased a 10 year old 'one off' built on land sold off from our neighbours garden. It's in a conservation area and so is built in period style, as a consequence we are limited in terms of replacement materials we use but don't mind that. We'd done what most others do and mistaken it for period before we viewed it.

Despite being detached and large it retains heat much better than our smaller, older semi. Only downside so far is that because all the appliances and fittings were put in together they will likely needs replacing at similar times too - we're not sure whether the dishwasher or boiler will give up the ghost first. I hope its the dishwasher!