New vs Old

Hoploz

I think the most popular type of house to sell would be an old, characterful house, which has been renovated to modern standards ... Properly!

People looking for new builds may well turn their heads at this as it would have the best of both worlds.

todayisagreatday

I'm someone that likes an old house.we moved at Easter into a 1970s bungalow. It needs gutting, but we have our own drive we can get more than 1 car up, a garden bigger than a postage stamp and aren't overlooked.

At the same time my sister in law bought on an estate for a similar price with the HTB scheme. I think the appeal of new builds is the HTB, generally they are popular with families and although they have a pocket size garden the new estate has green spaces like park for the kids. They bought it as a forever home and if you aren't looking to sell then it maybe better. My friend had a new build a few years ago less than a mile away from the estate my sister in law moved too and she hasn't been able to sell it. Her competition is the nice sparkly new builds, of which there are hundreds, all 'samey' with no real distinguishing features.

Go for an older property. You will likely find they have a bigger plot, better parking, opportunity to add value and even extend.

swingaloo

Old house for me every time. I remember buying my first house way back in the 70s and my husband who was an electrician talking me off looking at new houses. (Probably the only time he was right in his life!)

In 2003 we separated and I moved into a rented 3 storey new build. Thin plasterboard walls which shook if a door slammed, tiny rooms, low ceilings and postage stamp size garden. Could hear next door as if they were in the next room and used to joke that if my son far*** on the top floor I could hear it in the kitchen. No cupboard space in the kitchen, no proper insulation, no character, I could go on and on.

Felt I was living in a box rather than a home.

Now in an old house but I love every creaky floorboard.


Im in an area where there are loads of new estates popping up. One day they are excavating the land and 2 weeks later they have curtains up! Don't think there is any quality building these days, houses are thrown up and there is little to make one stand out from the other.

airandwater

Hoploz wrote: »

I think the most popular type of house to sell would be an old, characterful house, which has been renovated to modern standards ... Properly!

People looking for new builds may well turn their heads at this as it would have the best of both worlds.

This is the best reply in this thread.

Would I live in a top spec converted period house in Kensington and Nottinghill? Yes but I can afford a £1.2-3m house. Unfortunately people's choices are mainly dictated by what they can afford what's available in the area they live in.

Let make one thing clear. There are terrible period properties but also terrible new builds. Similarly there are magnificent period properties and outstanding new builds. Each property types has pros and cons I won't go into.

I'm lucky enough to have bought, in 2017, a new build off plan that is at good as it gets. Every visitor has been blown away by the fit, finish and appliances.

It's true 1st world standard of living.

Everything just works! - No mould, draughts, leaky roofs, damp walls or squeaky floors
Downstairs toilet and two bathroom upstairs including en-suite
Triple glazed windows - I don't hear outside noise.
A warm house! - It can be minus 10C outside and I don't need to wear slips or a sweater indoors.
Utility room - A sink and a washing machine lives in there so I can eat dinner or watch TV without being disturbed by the noise.
Mixer taps with no loss in pressure if someone starts washing dishes while I'm having a shower.
A garage that fits an actual car and a driveway with space for three cars.
A log burner and low bay window in the lounge for "character".
Wall sockets in every corner in every room.

In the future I will only buy period property if I can afford one built to impeccable standards and is hassle free. I'm always thankful for my choice whenever I hear friends complain about issues they have with their period properties or wall to wall neighbours.

Davesnave

todayisagreatday wrote: »

I'm someone that likes an old house.we moved at Easter into a 1970s bungalow..

I've never seen our '70s bungalow as an 'old' house; just one which needed TLC.

Like you, we found it needed total gutting and reconfiguration, but despite doing much ourselves, I doubt if the money we've spent has been exceeded much by the increased value now it's done. That's OK; it's our forever home....at least until the next one anyway.

The OP making money by doing likewise is a pipe dream, unless they buy in an area that's about to rise meteorically in popularity.

Now, where's that?

NaughtiusMaximus

airandwater wrote: »

Everything just works! - No mould, draughts, leaky roofs or squeaky floors
Downstairs toilet and two bathroom upstairs including en-suite
Triple glazed windows - I don't hear outside noise.
A warm house! - It can be minus 10C outside and I don't need to wear slips or a sweater indoors.
Utility room - A sink and a washing machine lives in there so I can eat dinner or watch TV without being disturbed by the noise.
Mixer taps with no loss in pressure if someone starts washing dishes while I'm having a shower.
A garage that fits an actual car and a driveway with space for three cars.
A log burner and low bay window in the lounge for "character".
Wall sockets in every corner in every room.

Our 49 year old house also has no squeaks, leaks, draughts or mould, has a downstairs toilet, utility room, decent water pressure, a multitude of plug sockets in every room, you could (just barely with a bit of wiggling) squeeze 3 cars on to the drive and the majority of the windows are triple glazed (3 of 9 are 'only' double glazed). The only things we lack from that list are a log burner (which we're not bothered about in the slightest) and a garage (half of the original garage is now the utility room, with the other half being used for storage).

On top of all that we have a large, non-overlooked back garden.

airandwater

NaughtiusMaximus wrote: »

Our 49 year old house also has no squeaks, leaks, draughts or mould, has a downstairs toilet, utility room, decent water pressure, a multitude of plug sockets in every room, you could (just barely with a bit of wiggling) squeeze 3 cars on to the drive and the majority of the windows are triple glazed (3 of 9 are 'only' double glazed). The only things we lack from that list are a log burner (which we're not bothered about in the slightest) and a garage (half of the original garage is now the utility room, with the other half being used for storage).

On top of all that we have a large, non-overlooked back garden.

It seems like you have a lovely house. We we were in the market for our first house, a 4 bed, we really struggled to find a decent older house. Even some refurbished ones only had one bathroom that was either upstairs or through the kitchen which was utterly unacceptable to us.

To get what we wanted we would have had to buy an older one and put £50,000-100,000 towards modernising it which wasn't an option for us.

Getting back to new builds. We visited sites of three different developers and can confirm that fit and finish, plot sizes and size of communal roads and green spaces greatly varies.

We were lucky enough to rent in one of the first houses for a year. It allowed us to confirm that the quality matches the marketing suite and that condition of the house was great after 12 months. Renting on site also enabled us to follow the build of our house and once again confirm that the fit and finish matched the house we were renting.

The quality can also difference between sites of the same developer depending on budgets, contractors and objectives. Buy an older house is no different though.

I have friends who have encountered issues that were not apparent during viewings or on the survey.

As I mentioned earlier. Your budget and what's available in your area dictates the quality of the housing. In Glasgow and Edinburgh, older houses are modernised while some parts in the South East(excluding London) have older houses in dated condition.

george4064

Larac wrote: »

Attraction to new builds seems to be that you can HTB on them. We have two developments on the village in the last couple of years and they seem difficult to shift after the first set of owners decide they want to move on and try to sell at the same or higher than they brought them. Older properties in the village, more room, bigger gardens, not on top the neighbours are shifting quite quickly now all the 'new builds' have been built. I think if you are looking at 'new build' then you would need to accept that you may well need to stay there for a few years.

You can use some HTB initiatives on 'old builds', but if you're buying a new build there are more HTB initiatives you can take advantage of compared to old builds.

trailingspouse

Before we bought the house we're currently in, we looked at 4 properties on the same day, all asking prices within £5,000 of each other. Three were relatively new and all three were turnkey properties - you could have just moved in, nothing needed doing. All three were tiny.

The 4th property was just over 100 years old, had been badly updated in the 1990s, and needed everything doing to it - but it was huge. We went for the 4th property. We've done the work, and recently had to have it valued - in 4 years it had increased from the £225,000 we paid for it to £350,000+. A 55% increase. And we certainly didn't spend £125,000 on the renovation work.
We didn't buy it as an investment - we bought it because it met our needs (large family need large house) and we knew we would be able to renovate it the way we wanted it. But it does give us a nice warm glow to know we've added value. I doubt if we could have added anything like that much to the more modern houses.

lookstraightahead

I would look at area above anything else. I wouldn't live in a new house on a new estate as they tend to attract a narrow demographic and I like places with a diverse demographic, so I would consider a new house in an old place. I had an early 19th century cottage once - lots of maintenance and too close to a main road which just got busier and busier. You soon grow out of your house - it is just materials- and soon the environment becomes more important, whatever that means to you.