To hate new builds?

[Sello]

This will likely be controversial, but my brother and his partner moved into a new build and now my parents are also moving into one.

I find there is something soulless about them.

The one my parents are moving into is in the process of being built and so they’ve put an offer in and been accepted, even though they’ve never seen it, only the plans.

Our house is Victorian and although it does have some problems with damp and insulation, I loved the character as soon as we walked in.
My in laws house is around 500 years old, it’s an old farmhouse and it has so much charm and character.

I know it’s each to their own, but I just feel like they’re uninviting, like Lego houses and like a hotel or something.

Well suited to those of us who can’t do or don’t want to do work. I live in a twenty year old semi detached. The builders are supposedly renowned for the quality of work Having lived in it, I can only presume whoever came up with this idea of the builders being reputable were either estate agents or they were taking the piss!!!

All our savings are spent on fixing and repair work - necessary work not because I feel like a change. I’m thoroughly sick of it.

I’d love to move but can’t afford to.

Haha it's funny you say like a hotel.

I'm in a new build and whilst decorating, my main aim was to make it look like a 5 star hotel. We have added a lot of detail to our new build and it's also a traditional build, so it's not as soul less I think.

I have always preferred new builds, but I also love older houses that are renovated really well.

It's just one of those things, some people really dislike them. It's all subjective isn't it and about taste.

I don’t have a problem with new builds per se, but it’s more the vast estates on the edges of nowhere that just looks so soulless & awful. We drove past one yesterday off the M4 - you could virtually see into their bedrooms from the motorway, & there were pylons stomping through the middle of the estate. It looked grim. Why is there no thought into location?

i think also there’s a lot of difference between a 5 bed detached newbuild at the higher end of the market, than the 3/4 bed terraces that are said to be family homes but in reality have fuck all space. A lot of them I’ve seen are 4 bed but under 1000 sq ft - that’s really small for 4 bedrooms. They cram extra en-suites in but the ‘double’ bedrooms are 9x9, which is a really small double (no room for a king size bed, chest of drawers, bookcase etc - you know, just normal furniture!). They also lack storage and the smaller ones do have tiny gardens. And usually overlooked. We looked at a few a while back then decided against it as even though the house itself was lovely, the garden & the fact everyone could see right into it didn’t justify the price. And yes the garage was really small too - I’d have struggled to park an estate car in it.
you can’t compare a £600k detached new build to one of these- they’re leagues apart.

But those stupidly small 3 and 4 beds exist at all ages - either because they were build that way or because they've been sub divided subsequently. There are plenty of old properties with pokey rooms too.

Excessive en suites annoy me when they make a room too small or when they result in an odd shaped room.

Lovely example - victorian flat currently for sale as a 4 bed

I think it’s just really silly to generalise about property based on when it was built.

when looking for a house it really helps to have an open mind because there are loads of factors to balance. It may well be that you see spacious, well designed new houses in good locations that suit your purposes. It’s silly to dismiss them because they were built this century not 100 years ago.

@StatisticallyChallenged Yeah that is a crap conversion! Who would buy that?!
But on the whole houses ARE getting smaller sq footage than before - even houses built 20 years ago are generally bigger than the current ones going up. The other thing I don’t like which seems to be a current trend is the townhouses which have 4 bedrooms (3 storey house), which means the downstairs is tiny, relative to the amount of bedrooms. Means everyone has to live in their bedrooms as there’s no space downstairs. Again, a newer phenomenon that didn’t really exist 30 years ago as developers weren’t trying to cram as many units as possible on a small bit of land (on the edge of town, miles from anywhere unless you have a car)

New house envy at its finest.

Not all new builds are tiny boxes .... there are many large and spacious luxurious ones too.

It's the gardens I can't stand. Postage stamps of lawn. Completely unsuitable for my two feral kids, my green house, raised beds, potato patch and chicken pen.

Tbf the deeds probably wouldn't allow you to have chickens in the first place.

Well that's a firm no from me then @WhiteFire

My Edwardian terrace has a tiny yard and a front garden. And a no chickens clause in the deeds. The new build I had, had a bigger garden than an Edwardian semi I used to live in and the 1930s semi I owned before it. Both had clauses about chickens in their deeds.

I just don’t understand why people insist on generalising. Some houses are tiny. Some have tiny plots. Some have no reasonable parking. This is true of houses whenever they were built.

They're remarkably common around here - I'd say there's areas of town where probably 50% of the flats have been sliced up in various ways to squeeze in an extra room, or two, or three. When you get the original proportions they are lovely but so many aren't.

Our current place is part of a small town expansion so there are multiple developers working. Our section is quite separate (own access and no through road) so it doesn't feel like a big estate. There are other lovely bits, and some which are much smaller and more tightly packed. But there are very few older properties ever come up and when they do they are either a) properly period i.e. victorian or older and really expensive, b) ex council 60s/70s, often decent sized but really run down and needing loads spent, or c) 80s estate which seem to manage to be the worst of all worlds - small, poor quality, wee windows and needing work.

Certainly here at the smaller end of the market people aren't choosing a smaller new build over a bigger good condition older place, from what I can see. The new builds might be more expensive than the equivalent sized b or c but the difference is that there's no large cash requirement to do it up. That's a big problem for buyers who don't have lots of cash - you need the deposit, moving costs, and then the cash to do it up. Often they can borrow enough to buy the new build but because of ltv can't get enough for the older place plus work. We also have offers over here which is a huge issue for ftb especially. New builds are fixed price

So here at least I can see why even the smaller ones are popular.

That’s nice dear.

I love my what was a new build. All.my children were born here, its always going to be our home first, years to come when future residents are doing research they'll marvel at how little we paid for it and wonder what our lives were like. Old houses were new once

I love mine. It was built 13 years ago now so not as well insulated as the more newer ones but it is spacious. I have a separate dining room which was heaven during lockdown as dh used it as a study. I'm not a fan of open plan living as I cook a lot and don't want cooking smells everywhere. I also like having somewhere separate to seat guests having their dinner than my kitchen. I have three double bedrooms and a box room that can and have had king sized beds in them at various points. We have a nice sized garden. There aren't any 1930 semis in the area we live in and even if we had moved to where my parents lived would have needed to extend into the garden to get the space we need so some of the large garden would be sacrificed. Stone built properties with the same number of bedrooms as our house were our of our price range, at least 200k more. It isn't as solid as a stone built property but I don't expect it to be. It's on a nice, very quiet estate and away from a main road.

Yabu in clumping all new builds together, there is a difference in the proportions of a 4 bed Taylor winpey and a 4 bed Allanwater property. Some will have separate dining rooms, whilst others are more open-plan, some have a more spacious upstairs or a smallish bedroom, with a huge ensuite. It's up to the buyer to not get wowed by the showhouse and focus on proportions, storage, whether it would work for your family, a growing family etc.The most important thing is obviously seeing what you can afford and not overstretching yourself in the current times. Also visiting different house types and seeing what you prefer. I think the soulless comment is snobby as, a house gets character when you decorate it and live in it.

I've had both. A new build which was small and a large Victorian terrace. The latter I ended up hating, due to the constant problems I had. I should add, the new build was a 4 bed detached but ended up feeling roughly the same size as the (end) Victoria terrace.

I loved my new build - moved in post desertion with 3 small kids - gave me security (10 year guarantee etc) and it had huge rooms and a beautiful hall way - loads of character

now live in a 4 bed 1970's semi - no hall way at all - had to work hard to give it character - love it now but it has issues

New builds are fine - if you don't like them don't buy one

How do you feel about all the people struggling because there is a massive shortage of housing - especially affordable housing?

This! Each to their own and all that.

Who cares what it looks like? You can always decorate to your taste.
as for the outside looking soulless… well the inhabitants spend the majority of their time inside the house, why would they care what it looks like?

YABU

New builds don't have any character or soul and many seem to be poorly built, not for me

Too many problems with old houses. Especially damp. It's a massive issue in the UK. In northern cities especially you get all those rows and rows of terraced houses with concrete yards perched on tiny foundations and a rising water table underneath. People rave about them but those Victorian builds are not long term suitable for this soggy little island at all. Ok you get a period fireplace but one day your floorboards will be so wet you'll put your foot through them. Give me a nice eco smart modern home every time.

Btw nobody pays attention to the no poultry clauses in reality.

We got character and soul enough for any house

A well built new house is warm dry cheap to run and complete sound proof form neighbours and storage