Steel concrete frame / concrete clad house

FreeBear

EPC certificates for a few houses I looked at in Lanesborough Rise all say "System construction walls". Not particularly helpful, but it does suggest a precast concrete. Not all of these are deemed defective, and nothing jumps out at me to say what type of house this one is. If you are going to go ahead with this purchase, do look for a surveyor who is familiar with PRC construction. If it is one of the defective houses and hasn't been repaired, it will cost a significant amount to do so.

As an FTB, it may be more prudent to look for a traditional brick built property..

stuart45

If have £100 to spare this from BRE covers the lot. The printed version used to be around £400.
326979.pdf (brebookshop.com)

caprikid1

"Easiform" If you can confirm this is the construction and it is most likely then it should be easy to find the situation in terms of lending.

I think I have friends in Swindon who purchased such a house. 

It is important to note , never pay the same as you would for standard construction, lending criteria can change, what is acceptable today may change in 12 months 3 years. They carry a risk.

blueorchid94

Hi OP, the house we're buying isn't the same type of non-standard construction as yours but it is non-standard (trusteel mkII steel frame - private sector built, not ex-council) and we have managed to get a 95% mortgage offer as FTBs with Nationwide. There are a few lenders who will lend on specific non-standard construction houses, I think Santander also do and NatWest from what I've heard from someone who bought the same type of house as ours a few streets away recently.

It should be possible for you providing you find the right lender and the construction type either isn't defective or has been sufficiently repaired, which hopefully is the case as clearly Leeds BS agreed to lend on it in the past.

If you have a mortgage advisor I'd recommend asking them to see if they can find you a lender who will lend on non-standard construction houses. We had to get a structural engineer's report (minimally invasive and mainly involved some bricks being removed and then put back by a bricklayer so the steel frame could be checked by the engineer), but after that was done and confirmed the frame was fine, Nationwide agreed to lend no problem.

Best of luck! 

Peppe13

So Nationwide is willing to give us a mortgage with no saleability issues, which is good news.

I’m reading of problems with asbestos and insulation.

Does anyone have any advice? Please  

Cakeguts

Peppe13 said:

So Nationwide is willing to give us a mortgage with no saleability issues, which is good news.

I’m reading of problems with asbestos and insulation.

Does anyone have any advice? Please  

How can the Nationwide predict that you won't lose money on this house when you want to sell it?  In the future with the number of new houses being built non standard construction could be more difficult to sell because people may become more wary of it. 

As an ex council house you will also need to check if you are going to own the garden. Some council houses come with a freehold house on leasehold land which means that you only actually own the land that the size of the house footprint and not the rest of the garden which can include the driveway. If you don't own the offstreet parking you may not be allowed to change the use of the land that you do not own.  It just needs checking.

GDB2222

Peppe13 said:

So Nationwide is willing to give us a mortgage with no saleability issues, which is good news.

I’m reading of problems with asbestos and insulation.

Does anyone have any advice? Please  

You've had lots of advice, but you need to take it on board.

Caprikid summed it up: "It is important to note , never pay the same as you would for standard construction, lending criteria can change, what is acceptable today may change in 12 months 3 years. They carry a risk."

He means that you should be paying less for this than you would for standard construction. Quite a lot less. Even if it's mortgageable today. Because it may not be tomorrow.

But you said:
"The value was similar or higher than other properties in the area. "

So, don't buy it. At least, not at the price you have agreed. Even if you can get a mortgage.

Nobody says you have to accept the advice, of course.

Sistergold

Dear OP. You have gotten a lot of good advice. One very important one to note is that a non standard construction house will normally stand out on right move because it will be ‘such a bargain’. There is not need to buy non-standard construction at the same price as other standard houses. IF SAME MONEY WILL GET YOU STANDARD HOUSE THEN GET STANDARD HOUSE! 

Good luck