Thoughts on new-build townhouses in general?

Mahsroh

We live in a 3 bed "town house". Not a new build... It's a 1930's house that's been extended and had a loft conversion done with a dormer to add a new master bedroom and en suite. 

As others have said, the main benefit is good sized bedrooms. Most other houses we viewed in our price range had 2 doubles and a box room, whereas we have a large master bedroom and two good sized rooms on the 1st floor. Other benefit is when I'm up at 6am at weekends (i'm very much a morning person) I can pretty much make as much noise as I want on the ground floor without waking my wife who's asleep on the 2nd floor! 

Only slight issue for us is (but possibly wouldn't apply so much to a new build) is it's not that well insulated being a loft conversion.

The 2 flights of stairs doesn't bother us at all, though it was a pain going up and down to the 2nd floor from street level with box after box when we first moved in!! 

k3lvc

Had one for 12 years (including starting a family) and it was brilliant but as others say it depends on layout - we were :

Downstairs  Open plan Kitchen Diner, Garage, WC
1st Floor      L shaped living room, Main bedroom + en-suite
2nd Floor     2 bedrooms + family bathroom

We learnt to spend much of the day 'living' downstairs and it was great having the kids on their own floor as they grew older

I'd have another of the same design in a heartbeat 

bramptonbrew

I'll echo the other posters who are saying "depends on layout".

We rented a townhouse for ten years or so. Downstairs was the kitchen, living room and dining room, with a loo under the stairs. Both upstairs floors had two bedrooms (two doubles on the middle floor, a double and a single on the top floor) and a bathroom. I had intended on using the single bedroom as an office for working from home, but it was a pain having to run down two flights of stairs if anyone knocked on the door/rang the bell, so I ended up working from the dining room instead.

We moved into a two storey house last year (our first purchase) and one of the unintended positives was that I only had one flight of stairs to deal with. My knees are definitely thankful for that haha.

If the layout will work for you, then I'd say definitely consider it. I don't think I'd choose a townhouse again, now we have gone back to a two storey.

Murphybear

We lived in one for a few years.  

2 beds and bathroom on 2nd floor

Large kitchen and lounge on 1st floor

Cloakroom, utility room and car port on ground floor.

Most of the identical properties had converted the car port to a garage

It was a pain to live in sometimes and, as others have said, if the door bell rang and you were on the top floor you nearly always missed them.

We bought it very cheaply for cash as it needed a lot of work eg only thing in the kitchen was the kitchen sink 

We never really like living there so when I got offered a permanent contract at the University we put it on the market and sold it immediately to FTBs and bought a bungalow with a huge garden.  

TripleH

Yes, the boxes. We moved from a 3 floor terraced to a 3 floor townhouse. Carrying the boxes down then up 2 flights was interesting (I slept under a sheet only for the first 3 nights because my legs were generating so much heat).

The biggest Downside for me is that unless I need the loo, I spend all day on one floor.

We converted the master bedroom into a lounge and have our TV in there but if we have company, we tend to stay in the lounge/dinner.

We'd almost never used the ground floor except for the utility room (it's massive and a useful space) until we converted the garage into a gym.

Drawingaline

Layout for townhouses is important. I clean many and they often have a kitchen on the ground floor with the lounge on the middle floor. I would hate that.

We bought one last year. Always said I wouldn't. But it is huge. Top floor is three beds, middle floor is huge kitchen, dining room and lounge, ground floor is garage (has been converted so my daughter uses this as her room) shower room, utility and huge reception room (hubby uses it as a office/games room).

Lugging shopping upstairs is annoying, but previously we lived in a house without parking so often had to lug it from the other end of the road. 

We love it, and for the same price we couldn't get anywhere near as much space with a two story house.

Owleyes00

My brother lives in one.
Ground floor: kitchen “diner”/ utility (was WC) and dining room (was garage)
floor 1: bedroom, living room and WC
floor 2: 2 bedrooms, en-suite and family bathroom 

They find it fine and it’s quite nice for my nephew (a teenager) to be on his own floor. I’m not sure how it would work if they hadn’t created a dining room out of the old garage however as the kitchen diner isn’t big enough for a proper table which would mean carrying dinner up stairs to eat on your lap. I also thought it was odd that 3 bedrooms required 4 toilets, hence turning one into a small utility.

user1977

Owleyes00 said:

I also thought it was odd that 3 bedrooms required 4 toilets, hence turning one into a small utility.

It's a building regulations requirement that there's a ground floor WC (i.e. accessible to somebody who can't manage the stairs). 

dimbo61

So you need to look at the floorplan and consider if it's suitable for your needs.
We had 3 teenage kids at the time.
One got her own ensuite bedroom.
Two lads had to share a bathroom.
We had the whole of the top floor with ensuite and big wardrobes.
Ground floor was just like a normal house.
Kitchen,dinner and longe. Downstairs WC with room for dryer and good size hallway.

knightstyle

We had one for several years, loved the upstairs living room as it overlooked a river and nature reserve.  I wouldn't have gone for it otherwise.  As others said sound insulation was non existent and these houses attract investors who do not care who they rent to so problem families soon moved in nearby.