Buying a 5 year old property, will it still depreciate further?

JSCB

Hi everyone,

I'm looking at a buying house that's 5 years old, going for a second viewing tomorrow, and the rest of the site was also finished 5 years ago too. So it's one of the newest on the estate.

I know new builds can depreciate in their first few years, especially the first 2 years while brand new houses are still being built and sold alongside those which are then classed as second hand and been moved into.

However, after 5 years, should I be worried about it depreciating anymore now? Or will it of done all/most of this now and already be at its fair/standard market value, which could grow/decline inline with the general market as usual from now on?

I may well move again in a few years time if I decide to buy with someone else by then, so don't want to lose on the property, apart from in the sense of overall market decline, in which case this would of also affected the property I would be moving to also anyway..

Anyone have experience/thoughts on this?

Thanks a lot,
Joe

babyblade41

I never really worry, a house is my home for 1, 2 maybe 10 years .. As long as I do my due diligence and don't over pay by ridiculous amounts then no one can really answer it

lookstraightahead

I think new houses depreciate, and then all houses go up or down in value in line with the economy. At the moment I think all properties will depreciate in value.

suki1964

How about I tell you I bought my house for 225 and at the hight ( within 2 years of buying it) it was valued at 550?

Its now worth 350

Houses go up and down and are only worth what someone is willing to pay for it when you come to sell

lookstraightahead

Wow suki what a rollercoaster! X

wine_night

Moving house is an expensive and stressful business, so rather than trying to predict what might or might not happen to prices, I would look at buying somewhere that you can see yourself staying in for say a minimum of five years.

It’s hard to say whether you’re still paying a new build premium 5 years in, but theoretically you should have fewer maintenance and running costs than you would with an older property, which is the trade off.

suki1964

lookstraightahead wrote: »

Wow suki what a rollercoaster! X

Why?

Ive no intention of selling, its my home

And lets say I did sell at the height, my next property would have gone up as well, so I would have been no richer, I still needed to live somewhere

lookstraightahead

I'm just saying - shows how fickle the market is. You could have been like me with a whole lot of sad, unfortunate life events which meant you had to sell because of divorce and death.

I had to sell my home.

Cakeguts

It is difficult to tell with new estates because often the area hasn't been established long enough to be able to tell which way it is going to go and there is no history of prices to establish any trends.



There is one builder which specialises in putting new houses on plots of land in bad areas. Those new houses just go down and down and down in value because once the houses are no longer new they become the same as all the other older houses in the undesirable area.

G_M

I think it's a fair question.

Like comparing buying a new car Vs one 6 months/2 years old etc.

I'd have thought as a general rule, the price will have stabalised after 5 years, given that the estate as a whole was finished 5 years ago too (different if they were still selling New Builds today or 1-2 years ago).

But look aound at neighbouring estates too. If there is a different estate still being built/sold nearby - either by the same or a different developer, that might well have a price impact on your estate.

And as suggested, the popularity of the estate, and reputation of the developer, will have price impact too, over and above any general rise/fall in market prices

markin

Check with planning and make sure the are no second stages, or third still to be build on on your estate or near by, if you want to sell in 2/3 years you may have a lot of competition and help to buy making yours less desirable.


I would say 5 to 10 years, it depends on the area.