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.

They’re awful

Aye, new builds are missing all the soul and character that comes from damp, crap insulation and draughts all over the shop.

Me too.

100 years of DIY bodge jobs included in the bargain half mill price! 🤣🤣

Same. In my divorce settlement my choices were very limited but I had to securely house my children. DH sneers at it all the time but my options were limited. It's better than solely renting

We moved into a new build, bought totally off plan over ten years ago. We love it, we got in early enough that we could pick the fixtures and fittings and floorings. We looked at older more characterful houses in the area and they all needed a new bathroom or kitchen or roof or something knocking down or putting up. We’d moved around so much we just couldn’t be bothered. We love it. The bills are cheap and all we’ve had to do is paint it.
It’s so easy, maybe that’s what your parents want.

Hate them. The show houses look lovely and then you think - oh where would the tv go, and you realise they’re designed not to hold anything useful. Remember seeing one when my parents were looking to buy and the bed in the single room was specially made to fit (as the room was too small for a single bed). My parents and brother both live in one. They think that because they’re new, nothing can go wrong. But let me tell you, the amount of cowboy workmanship that went into their Taylor Wimpey home was horrendous. They soon began to find issues, had to threaten to take them to court at one point. My brother had a leak from his bath. Removed the bath panel, to find the builders had left plastic bottles of their own urine hidden in there. We’ve been in our 1910 home 15 years and haven’t had as many problems in all that time. They’d still argue a new build was better though - based solely on their lower energy bills.

What do you mean by 'new builds' though? There are a couple of streets near me that are Edwardian semis. Plus two 'new builds' - two houses on each street that have been built in the last few years in infill land. I've never been inside any of them, but from the outside they look really well-constructed, and beautiful; they appear to drip money having been spent, and they are carefully designed to complement and fit in with the existing architectural styles. Not in the sense of faux Edwardian, but the proportions and lines are all in keeping with what is already there.

And Norwich City Council commissioned some new housing for council tenancies which won the RIBA Stirling Award for new build, and the pictures looked fantastic. So it just depends on the design.

I love my new build, really high ceilings, bay windows, lovely big rooms, low bills, solar panel, all mod cons, cosy in the winter, double garage and massive drive, perfect for charging the car, not overlooked and backing onto countryside.

That's rather like saying you had a meal once and it was crap so all food is crap

You get good old homes , good new ones , and bad of both

I prefer older houses but there's a need for new builds. Also, like others say most people don't get to live in their dream homes. Affordability, convenience etc play a part in choosing a house.

I do hate the sizes of the rooms. They get more money from having more bedrooms. The 4th bedroom is usually just a room big enough for storage or to be used as an office. Even some of the bigger rooms don't have much space for wardrobes etc.

Aiaichipsnpie

that is horrendous, but a very individual personal experience and obviously doesn't apply to all new builds, or developers. Nothing has gone wrong with ours or our neighbours and don't expect anything too. In our old builds we shelled out thousands fixing or updating old 'features' or uncovering botched work. Took wallpaper off one house and found holes in walls filled in with chunks of coal/coke 😱 instead of poly filler or plaster.

Every house was new build once. Some people prefer modern some don't. Although I think some new builds are scams and badly built which is awful for people who are sucked into buying them.

I think new builds look nice on the outside and I like the community feel of the new builds in my area, lots of new young families, kids playing outside etc… but I’d never buy one. They have little to no storage, walls are just plain plasterboard that you could easily put your fist through, a lot have damp problems, shoddy workmanship, I know people who have so many problems with them. I love my Victorian terrace, high ceilings, brick walls, original covings, it’s taken time to modernise it but it’s still cost a lot less than it would have to buy a new build in our area.

This

@Scianel We rent and have done long term and that's the kind of thing we go for. I've lived in nicely renovated Edwardians and also places like the one you posted and I know which had fewer issues and was more practical!!

We live in a new build but I always hated them. It was a move out of necessity more than anything else as at the time we NEEDED a house and had been outbid twice for other properties (new builds are fixed price). I love it now and don’t want to move but we have done significant cosmetic work to it and our taste is pretty wacky in comparison to our grey interior neighbours!

That's not the big problem. The big, huge, gigantic problem is the maintenance/management fees that new build 'owners'!? are tied into forever that are not capped and the council will NEVER adopt the land so a pipe goes bust then ££££ extra fee and no selling if you're not fully co-operative as strangely (fishing not illegally) you are responsible.

ilovechocolate07 we don't have anything like that but we're in Scotland so maybe England is different.

I went to look at some new builds and I was very disappointed at how small they were. The smallest one I looked at was a 3 bed semi but it would only really be suitable for a couple or maybe someone with teenagers. Definitely not small kids, there was nowhere to put toys. The bedrooms couldn't fit a wardrobe, double bed and chest of drawers in.

I saw plans for a new build and when looking at the size of the small room it would only really accommodate a bed and a bedside table. The door hinges would have to be swapped so that the door could open without hitting the single bed.

My house now was only built in the 90s but it's so much bigger and it's not even that big really. It's outrageous that developer's are building houses that can't accommodate just normal living.

Some seem ok but they are even more expensive and the small new builds are pricey enough as it is.

On the plus side they are well insulated, everything is new and there is often a warranty so I can see why people choose them.

Some don't have a choice particularly shared ownership. I have been looking at some and on my low income it's either that or renting. Renting is so expensive and so insecure and in my case a waste of thousands of pounds when I could put it in a house and part own it for more security.

I think it depends, on balance I prefer older period properties and live in one myself, but my friend has bought a new build and the company she bought it from fully furnished it, and honestly it’s so so lovely inside. It’s beautifully done. The way it’s furnished and decorated really takes precedence over actually what it looks like outside and the fact the rooms really are quite small and boxy with tiny gardens,

I do think that if you can furnish a place beautifully it can make up for some of its less positive features. You can also get some period properties that are so poorly maintained and furnished they look bad and can be cold and uncomfortable.

Bet you’ve never even stepped foot in one 😂

it really isn’t controversial!! People have different tastes😂

please tell me you are one of these dreadful people who thinks they are unique because they have a preference in line with about 50% of the population!

you must be a hoot at a dinner party😂😂😂

I hate new builds.vacuous and So boring. I just drove through a brand new estate plonked in the middle of the country side it looked weird like it was not
real. They always have an excessive amounts of toilets per person, at the expense of storage or bigger rooms, and they have no soul. I also hate
open plan everything. And don’t get me
started
on the gardens

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.

Haha yes us too! We love our (nearly) newbuild. One of its biggest attractions for us was that it is like a fancy hotel - especially our huge bedroom / dressing room / ensuite! I don't care about 'character' - for me it's about it being the home our family lives in. And it's perfect for that. Not exactly small either - it's a 5/6 bedroom detached with a double driveway and garage and a reasonable sized garden. I adore it.