New build Vs established property

Murphybear

kerri_gt wrote: »

What makes this move different that you are specifically looking at new builds only?

We looked at both before buying, the appeal of a new build being it new and shiny and supposedly nothing needing doing. However the reality was a) we would have been paying a significant premium for this,
b) as soon as we moved in, it would no longer be new - consideration for future resale.
c) soulless empty estate with no feeling for who else may be moving in (ok you have no control over who moves in with established estates but usually it's not a whole raft of people at once so you can get a feel for the type of road / community)
d) compared to older houses we looked at, in the main a lot of new builds seemed to have smaller rooms overall, often due to some new obsession with toilets and en suites. Honestly, in a three bed we looked at there were more toilets than bedrooms!
e) gardens seemed smaller than many older properties of similar size

Looking at these factors, we decided new the new builds we looked at, whilst lovely showhomes, were not worth the premium being asked for them so not for us.

You often have to put up things such as shelves and curtain poles which can be very expensive and very often are included in older properties

PasturesNew

My house was built 2010. Some "identical" houses were built next door in 2017, by the same developer. The 2017 house was 10% smaller in footprint with a 30% smaller garden. The 2017 house was sold for £275k, which is probably about £25k more than what mine would've been worth if I'd sold it alongside the new development.

Of course - they'd have not bought mine/cheaper as the new builds were under Help To Buy and mine isn't...

pimento

LandyAndy wrote: »

Really? We are (were) a family of four in a 60's house with only one bathroom. It was never a problem as our children grew up. We did have a downstairs toilet as well which makes things easier but one bathroom was never a problem

Yes, I know I'm going to sound spoilt.

My first home never had a bathroom just a toilet and we all went to the baths once a week. My previous house only had one bathroom but it wasn't really convenient when I was in the bath and my husband walked in and took the throne (!)

My current place has a bathroom, an en suite and a downstairs lavvy and I've grown to love the convenience (if you'll pardon the pun).

It wouldn't kill me to share a bathroom but as I have a choice now I'm finding that older houses tend to only have one bathroom and that is a deal breaker for me now.

kerri_gt

pimento wrote: »

It wouldn't kill me to share a bathroom but as I have a choice now I'm finding that older houses tend to only have one bathroom and that is a deal breaker for me now.

The one / main thing we compromised on with our current house was only one bathroom / toilet. We'd been in a house with one bathroom and a downstairs loo before and thought it was something we 'needed' but everything else with this house apart from that fit the bill.

In reality, there's only two of us - we manage fine with one bathroom (both grew up in houses with only one bathroom, my OH in a family of 8 :eek:). I realised that actually, we didn't really use the downstairs loo in the last house - it had two outside walls and a tiled floor and was always cold. And, a bonus is that's it's one less loo for me to clean

Should we ever convert the loft we'd add on en-suite though to balance the number of beds / baths at that stage.