Buying a new build house that has dropped in value

Sharj89

Hi all  newbie here.. take it easy.

Looking at buying  a 3 bed semi townhouse for around 335k. It was built around four years ago and sold for 348k to the current vendors. Should I be worried that the price has dropped? Or is it due to the vendor paying a new build premium at the time and when I go to sell in 4/5 years time it will go back to original value if not more. Also any problems with buying a townhouse would be appreciated cheers. 

Marvel1

You need to add more information   

AdrianC

"A new build house 4yrs ago" - or, as it's more normally referred to, "a house".

Yes, it's lost that new-build-never-lived-in premium. Because it's no longer "new-build-never-lived-in". 

The simple answer is "Is it the right price for the market now?" - no other figure is remotely relevant. Doesn't matter if the previous buyer scammed it off a deluded Granny for half the true value, or if the previous buyer was rinsed thoroughly. And nobody knows what the market will do in the next five years. Right now, nobody knows about the next five WEEKS.

25_Years_On

No one knows what will happen to house prices in the future.

Owain_Moneysaver

It it's lost 10% because of new build premium and coronavirus downturn it shouldn't be on at more than £314k. Your worry is not that the value has fallen, it's that it hasn't fallen enough and you're still paying too much for it. It might only be worth £285k. 
Townhouse - lots of stairs and landings, but little under-stairs storage. Poor water pressure on top floor. Ceiling noise in more rooms. You might not have a bathroom on every bedroom floor. Undersized outside space for the size of house. 

Crashy_Time

Wait, or offer 300k if you really want it, New Builds are two a penny Legoland boxes, not unique or intrinsically valuable in any way, there will be plenty more, and probably cheaper.

blue_max_3

If you are one of the first buyers, you have the pick of the plots. And often the first for sale are the cheapest as the developer wants to assess interest and get some cash through the door. 
Getting a nice, South facing garden, oversize plot or best view can make it a prime spot.

swingaloo

I would be very wary of a new build townhouse. We had one for 6 years and I hated it. All stairs and landings as the other poster said. Small rooms with low ceilings and no character. We also found that because the rooms were small we had very few walls we could put furniture against, there was always a door or radiator in the way. Tall thin houses with small gardens.  Would much prefer 2 floors and larger rooms.

Crashy_Time

swingaloo said:

I would be very wary of a new build townhouse. We had one for 6 years and I hated it. All stairs and landings as the other poster said. Small rooms with low ceilings and no character. We also found that because the rooms were small we had very few walls we could put furniture against, there was always a door or radiator in the way. Tall thin houses with small gardens.  Would much prefer 2 floors and larger rooms.

Why did you buy it?

RelievedSheff

swingaloo said:

I would be very wary of a new build townhouse. We had one for 6 years and I hated it. All stairs and landings as the other poster said. Small rooms with low ceilings and no character. We also found that because the rooms were small we had very few walls we could put furniture against, there was always a door or radiator in the way. Tall thin houses with small gardens.  Would much prefer 2 floors and larger rooms.

This is what put us off the townhouse plots on our development. We could have had a larger house for the same money but the extra size was in the bedrooms not the living space. For us it was the living space that matters not the size of the bedrooms. We opted for a two storey three bed detached instead of a bigger three storey three bed semi.

MobileSaver

Crashy_Time said:

New Builds are two a penny ... there will be plenty more,

And yet every official report for years has stated that there's not nearly enough being built to satisfy demand... is there something only you know that the rest of the country doesn't?