To ask if there’s anyone with house buying experience who can tell me if I’m about to make a financial mistake?!

Could you pay for garden and decorating to be done so your pretty cottage is up to scratch. I would hate being on a new building estate. Too many cars and too crowded

My experience of new build estates is this -

• Much smaller plots and houses all crammed in together. All have french doors, open in the summer, noise in the garden from other people all living too closely together - TVs blaring, trampolines, barbeques and flipping hot tubs. If peace is important to you - don't do it.
• Not much parking. Often drive for one car so small you can't open doors of car once parked. There aren't always pavements so you can find yourself standing in the road to get shopping or a pram out of the boot.
• People move in to new estates with small children. One drive, two cars. In future older children will get cars. One drive, four cars. Parking hell.
• Bigger square footage but designed by computer to max this out. No storage whatsoever anywhere.
• Unless it's a small, ethical developer the build quality will most likely be total shite. Poor snagging. Some of our bannister rails were put in upside down, doors wouldn't close, stonework damaged by builders, plumbing/electric/insulation done wrong. Paving needed relaying. Grass needed relaying as original had been laid over builders' rubble.
• Not low maintenence because of the above - but also Krend gets dirty, modern stone discolours, new front door faded in two years etc etc.

On the upside. Perhaps slightly better insulation but not guaranteed. Nah, nothing. They design these places to look modern and pretty and the show homes are WOW - but think where you'd store things, would you be able to get peace in summer with the windows open, could you cope with the narrow streets/no pavement/limited parking/teenagers en masse in 8 years? We have moved back to an older house...more space, quiet, built to last.

Also, you have two bathrooms - could you not make one your daughter's? Not en suite, but her own.

Why do you want to move?

Personally I would not do this, because of

• the new build premium
• build quality
• Smaller garden and less parking
• paying more for less

However, money isn’t everything. If the new house better suits your family for the next few years then that is an important factor. Also if you’re going to have to spend money on your current house anyway then buying a new build would just be effectively front loading those costs to give yourself less hassle in terms of having to arrange the works and so on.

Therefore I don’t think there is a right answer here. The question is, is the additional cost worth it to you in terms of the benefits you’d get from the new house?

This is MN, so your thread will be filled up be people saying “you couldn’t pay me to buy a new build”. New build snobbery is definitely a thing. But they forget that their “lovely 70s bungalow” or even Victorian townhouse was a new build not so long ago.

Depending on how much you have haggled for it, your new build will most likely dip in value 1-5% for the first year or two. However it will then (on average) recover by the 5 year point to the same as the rest of the market (as if there had not been a dip).

Do your homework at research the prices of similar new builds in the area, both at initial sale, and on resale over various periods of time.

So you'd be moving for an extra 20m2, the equivalent of a 5x4 room, half of which would be eaten up by an en suite. There doesn't seen to be any other advantage and a lot of disadvantages.

Why don't you list all the pros and cons in columns and price them up, both in money and emotional costs and try to pull out what your priorities are?

What's the parking like on the estate? I don't know how old your dd is but given the housing crisis in this country, you need to consider she may well have to live with you well into her adulthood. It doesn't sound the new house would have enough parking space for 2 cars if your dd also had a car. I'm not saying you should rule it out on this basis but take it into consideration.

Go on YouTube, amd type the name of the builder you're buying from, followed by snagging, to see what sort of issues you will probably find on a new build

New builds are like new cars in that you pay a premium because it’s new.

and depending on the developer there may be issues with quality

but it may be less stressful and more pleasant for you to live in

pros and cons