Gleeson Homes

Craig.C

Hi there,

I am currently considering purchasing a home through Gleeson's, However, I have seen a number of complaints on MSE and other sites regarding experiences with staff and the homes themselves.

Has anyone on MSE purchased through Gleeson and, if so, how did you find the whole experience? Moreover, have anyone used the Save and Build Scheme they have which seems to be a great way to save a deposit (I am already well on the way), and also when purchasing your home did you have the option to add extras like carpets, lights, furniture etc and how much extra did this add on to total price?

Any insight would be appreciated!

Thank you,
Craig

Chronicle

Hi Craig,

My partner and I purchased a Gleeson Home. As a first time buyer and young couple it is worth it as I feel you get a lot out of it (I.e carpet etc), however we have had many of issues that, a year in, are still present. To make things worse our vehicles have been damaged due to their fencing collapsing which is being ignored.

Whilst we appreciate they are still building houses around us, they will always leave litter on our grass, dump vans outside our house or knock relentlessly for us to move our cars. To cut a long story short, many of the staff are rude and incompetent. The houses are what they are, I've met people who have spent £150k+ on new builds and had similar issues, however the problem here is getting Gleeson to correct their faults (which is very hard as you will be ignored once you are given keys)

Cakeguts

I haven't bought a Gleeson home but there are two sites that I know of and the houses are cheap simply because they are being built or have been built in really bad areas. One of them was on the end of a huge council estate. The latest one is in an area that cannot be described as sought after. The problem with buying a house in an unpopular area is that it may not hold its value because when you can no longer get Help to Buy because it is not new the resale market is very small because it consists of people who want to live in a not very popular area. The less popular an area is the fewer people who want to buy a house there so you have to be prepared to lose money and have to sell it cheap.

All new houses have a premium on them meaning that you are unlikely to get back what you paid for it if you sell it. The risk you take is that if you buy a new house in a rough area which where these two sites are that I know of you may lose a lot of money when you come to sell because people try to avoid that area and can buy a house in a better area for a lot less.

My advice would be to look very carefully at the prices of houses immediately close to the estate because if you buy a new 3 bed semi detached house for over £100k and in the next road ex council houses are selling for £60k you have the possibility of not getting more than £60k for a house that you paid over £100k for. What makes a house worth a lot of money is not what it is but often where it is and next door to a huge council estate is not most people's idea of a premier area so you would have to sell it cheap to sell it at all otherwise people will spend their £100k in a better area. Help to Buy adds a premium to the new house.

helen_ob

If you havnt already ... DO NOT GO WITH GLEESON

Craig.C

Hi all,

Thank you for your comments. It has given me a lot of food for thought, especially having read further reviews of Gleeson.

Craig

Beast12345678

I have read some negative comments about gleeson but i can honestly say nothing but good!
I purchased a new home in NE england in summer 18, and yes its not in a high value area but i bought a 3 bed detached with garage for what i would only have got a pokey flat for anywhere else. The monthly cost is nearly half what it was costing me in rent and its dirt cheap to run!
House isnt top of range fittings but when i hd a problem i emailed customer care which is what they tell you to do, and it was sorted two days later!
The aldi of housebuilders- no gimmics but great value!

middleclassbutpoor

here were some other comments about new builds from one of your earlier posts..

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5923033/new-build-experience&highlight=new+build

comeandgo

Unless you can afford to buy a new property from one of the more elite builders you are on a bit of a gamble. Gleesons, Barrett's, Bovis, they are all the same, build them cheap and quickly. They build thousands of homes, you hear of the ones with problems.

mooma29

Two of my daughters have bought houses from gleesons on the same estate about a year apart, and yes they’re built on brownfield sites and in our case by the council estate because shock horror that’s where they were born and bred and have chosen to stay where their family and friends are and hopefully spend their money to make the area more socially diverse. Think it’s called gentrification in that there London. One daughter had no trouble what so ever the other had some issues with the boundary fence. We discussed it quite robustly with gleesons and after a week or so they came round to our way of thinking. The houses are nice but basic starter houses and we’ve found them to be decent value for money.

Cakeguts

mooma29 wrote: »

Two of my daughters have bought houses from gleesons on the same estate about a year apart, and yes they’re built on brownfield sites and in our case by the council estate because shock horror that’s where they were born and bred and have chosen to stay where their family and friends are and hopefully spend their money to make the area more socially diverse. Think it’s called gentrification in that there London. One daughter had no trouble what so ever the other had some issues with the boundary fence. We discussed it quite robustly with gleesons and after a week or so they came round to our way of thinking. The houses are nice but basic starter houses and we’ve found them to be decent value for money.

It isn't anything to do with social diversity and everything to do with council houses sell for less than non council houses. So the sensible thing to do in this case would be to buy and ex council house rather than a new house next door to a council estate because the new houses would be priced higher because they are new but would soon drop to around the same price as an ex council house. This means that the new ones drop in price when they are not new like all new houses and they also drop in price because of the surrounding area. This is all fine if you don't want to move but if you do want to move you may have to take a huge drop in price in order to sell and depending on how much the drop is you could find yourself in negative equity. That is why buying in one of these areas is such a risk.



The new houses basically are much too expensive for where they are.

Lozz900

Has anyone bought a Kilkenny home? I have just reserved a plot and did it from plans.
I visited a showhome last week at a nearby gleeson development site and was quite shocked at the lack of space in the bedrooms due to the “boxes” which are built in as part of the stairs & where piping etc is hidden. My current furniture will no way fit in the bedroom with a double bed.

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or comments? I’m considering pulling out.

Thanks