I think I'm better off buying a newer house?

[Cats234]

FTB. Edwardian house has come back as needing roof repairs, some plastering, repair to chimneys, possible evidence of damp that needs more looking into. I don't have much spare money or time or family support.
Now thinking I'd be better off buying a newer house, such as something 1950s ish onwards?
I know I'm not unique but my aim is as little building/structural work as possible due to the reasons above. Thoughts and experiences welcome.

I bought a 1950s house with all the issues you describe! At least your Edwardian will (hopefully) have more character?

I’ve lived in a 1950’s house.
Lots of them have Asbestos and, if you have a semi, you may well be able to hear the neighbours every waking moment.

My 1960s house is:

• Full of asbestos
• Needed rewiring (full rewire to lights - no earth - and partial rewire of sockets as provision was woefully low)
• Needed a new central heating system (system installed in 90s was cheaply done and thus conked out on us in February after 2 months of us living there.
• Needs a repair on the chimney bricks
• Needs a repair of the hanging tiles
• Needs a new flat roof
• Lounge ceiling probably needs a reskim

We knew all of this going in (although were naïve to the true costs of repairing!)

If you are struggling for time/money then I would suggest you look into something newer even than the 1950s (unless it's within budget to buy one already done up to a degree).

Best of luck OP, you'll find the property that's right for you :)

Agree, 1950s houses are built less solidly than older houses but with many of the same issue. You want something built after the 1980s to avoid issues with asbestos. Even newer houses will be much better insulated too

I was thinking as a rough estimate 1950s onwards but maybe I need something really new.
I'm trying to work out what people do in my position of having enough deposit and mortgage to buy but not having the money and time to do building work.

I think you need even newer!

I previously lived in a 1920’s house and believed that it had character. It was also very cold and had damp and no matter what we fixed (new roof for example) there was still always something else that needed to be done.

I was secretly quite snobby about new builds.

A few years ago now we sold the old house and moved to a completely new build that we bought off plan. I have never looked back. In the colder months I am still constantly amazed by how infrequently the heating comes on, it’s as if the house is self heating at times! And the ongoing maintenance is just that, it’s never insurmountable.

I am biased, as the owner of an Edwardian house. I love the high ceilings, bay windows, fireplaces and stained glass etc. At Christmas it looks absolutely stunning, I am in love with it.

But it cost a lot of time and money to get like this...insulation, new roof, new windows, chimneys rebuilt, new floors and doors (all needed, not just for appearances). It's truly a labour of love and a money pit, but for me, worth it.

Total money pit, if you don’t have much spare money, don’t do it. Each job uncovers loads of other jobs that need doing

I think you need a 20 or 30 year old house OP

Or a new build but they tend to come at a premium

My mum's house was built in the 90s and it's spacious and they did hardly any maintenance for 30 years not even joking. Nothing needed doing structurally in all that time just cosmetic improvement.

We were looking for a house recently and everything built in the last 20-30 years was really solid, bit dated in places but totally move-in-able.

My ugly 1970s bungalow has issues, the roof is ok but it needs rewiring, reconfiguring, new windows, new ceilings and completely re-decorating. My preference, after selling it and moving, would be to knock the fucker down and rebuild it.

Thanks everyone okay so maybe something 1980s onwards would be for me. It's hard because you hear absolute horror stories about new builds.
It's just so difficult isn't it because you don't know what state a house is in until you get the survey back and by then you're hundreds of pounds down. I am looking at potentially pulling out of this one and with the survey plus Solicitors I'm looking at a loss of about 2.5 grand. I wouldn't be able to afford to do this again on another house and pull out again after survey.
Is there a way of finding out how old a house is before you view it?

While I love the character of older houses we bought a new build because having realised the one we had was a bloody project - long story- we we’re completely done with doing stuff

We now have very good insulation, no gas boiler to worry about after 2035. Not being smug.

Yup, this. Moved into a new build 11 years ago, never regretted it. I'll never live in an old house again.

I grew up in an old farmhouse. Several hundred years old. It was Baltic - sash windows and single glazing are / were a nightmare. My parents spent an absolute fortune renovating it. Would have been cheaper to knock it down and start from scratch. My brother lives in it now and whilst it is lovely and has lots of character parts of it are still an old stone built house.

I have a 1970s house that needed rewiring, a new roof and the next expense is some repointing work and probably a new boiler in the next year or 2. Home ownership is expensive whatever the age of the house!

Buy a newer house !

Victorian end of terrace here and no end of issues since we moved in 5 years ago.
We've spent so much on things we never imagined that we've nothing left to really improve most of the interior. I loved its character and quirkiness at first but now there are just so many things that annoy.me we just dont have the money, or will, or time, to sort them.out...(cracks in walls, really old chipped skirting etc...)
Both DH and I are adamant that when we are in a position to move we will go for a newish development.. unless we win the lottery and have .load of spare/endless cash for a beautiful old farmhouse type place!

It is less about the age of the house and more about when stuff was done isn't it so that's what to focus on when looking. You can have an older home that has been well updated recently. Houses that are newer in the 40 ish years old category might well have never had things like electrics updated so can cost just as much.

Our house is of a fair age but were we to sell them the prospective buyers would be getting a period home with plenty of period features but that had been re wired, plumbing updated, new heating system, all damp sorted, insulation retro fitted, new roof and all rooms replastered. But of course the price would reflect that.

Our house is 30 years old so doesn't have any character. We bought it thinking it didn't need much doing to it. Since we moved in 10 years ago we have spent at least 70 grand redoing and replacing everything and still have a couple of bigger projects to go. I love our house and I'm happy with what we have done with it, but if I'd realised how much work it was going to be when we bought it I would have gone for a new build instead.

Older houses look lovely and full of character but need a great deal of upkeep, which, of course, means money - a bottomless pit of money. Various people are describing the problems that their fifties/sixties/seventies houses are having and it is easy to forget that these houses are between fifty and seventy years old now so are bound to have issues. Our first house was a thirties semi and I loved it. When we owned it in the late eighties to nineties it was about the same age as the sixties/seventies houses are now. When we moved, in 1997, to a bigger house we wanted one that was fairly new as we wanted to be able to move in without having to worry about maintenance. The house we bought was about ten years old then, having been built in the late eighties. We have recently moved again. Our criteria was for a house built between around 1930 and 1990, as we felt that houses built after that date often have small rooms and gardens. In the event, we have bought another eighties house - it is forty years old as it was built in 1983. It is a lovely house but it is old enough now to need a certain amount of work on it because of ageing materials. However, we are in a better financial position in which to get the work done than we were in the past. It sounds as if you are in a similar position to us a quarter of a century ago and a modern house, built in the last decade or so would suit you better.

I'll start by saying I adore older houses and have always lived in an older house... until I moved to our current house which was built in the 70s. I'm not going to lie, it's as ugly as sin and I NEVER come home and think 'aw, that's my pretty house' but OMG, it is warm, light, completely liveable and just easy.

The only thing we've done is replace the windows and get cavity wall insulation (which we got a grant for).

Having seen PP comments about an 'ugly' 1970 bungalow I googled 'ugly 1970 houses' ... only to find loads of pics similar to my house! Ouch.
My house is red brick though.
I love it and it's also nice to live in (even the surveyor couldn't find anything major wrong with it).

Having lived in some stunning ice boxes never again.

New build all the way...providing its a decent one. There is a tendancy for new builds to be smaller than older houses, as new stock is squeezed into ever smaller plots. If you can find a reasonably sized new build though then to hell with 'character'. I live in a 30's house and I despise it more each year. It is just so bloody tatty.

They're all being modernised and extended around here and somehow been made to look beautiful. I can only dream of having the budget

I wouldn't touch a new house with the proverbial bargepole. They are often very poorly built, with next to no sound insulation.

My house is more than 200 years old and is pretty untroublesome (it was re-wired and re-plumbed relatively recently). You have to expect some issues with all houses. You do have to maintain older houses a bit more, but they suffer far less from cold/damp issues than new houses which have virtually no ventilation. Old houses have built-in ventilation. I don't have the heating on much as it's a waste of money given that the heat just goes outside - but the house itself doesn't at all mind, whereas a new house would soon develop mould/damp problems if it weren't heated regularly.