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.

My first place was a brand new studio flat. It was probably the nicest place I'll ever live. I now have a vastly larger 1930's semi. The space is great, but it will always feel like it's falling down. I don't have the money to repair it at a rate faster than it breaks.

"I hate them"
"They are soulless"
"Small"
"Boxes"

Etc etc etc.

There isnt enough homes in this country which is pushing up prices and rentals. As the parent to 2 i want them to have some kind of oppertunity to have their own home eventually. Building new, energy efficient homes in whatever way is the future.

A home isnt a picture on a post card or a bunch of instagram posts. A home isnt where the husband beats the shit out of the family regardless of it being in a new build or a thatched cottage. A home isnt a 10 bedroom mansion anymore than a tiny 2 bedroom flat with a loving mother, father and 2 kids crammed in. A home is space to make your own and to enjoy life. If thats an older house or a new build, we need them both

No wonder living on top of each other creates social problems

This sort of remark always makes me laugh. Have you informed the residents of Cadogan Square, Mayfair, of this risk? How about the occupants of One Hyde Park? They all ‘live on top of each other’.

I live in a pre war three bed semi and love it but certainly don’t think it’s superior to new build. I’ve seen some lovely new builds.

Someone posted this picture of a so called hideous new build, but the old equivalent is hardly attractive, and I doubt very much that it is packed with character features, these houses were built for the lowly paid workers of the day, no charm for them! some houses are just that…..old! with no charm whatsoever nor would they have allocated parking and you would probably have to walk through your kitchen to use the bathroom. If you weighed up the pros and cons of each, parking, gardens, easy maintenance, low energy bills the new build offers a lot more. No house is more ‘packed together’ than a terrace no matter it’s age, and Britain is full of millions of them.

its age that should read.

We've been in our new build since new, 10 years ago (3-bed semi from Redrow - not a million £ executive home). Our friends bought a Victorian 3-bed terrace around the same time for about the same price.
Since then they've had to build an extension to put in a proper kitchen, renovate every room, renovate the loft into a useable bedroom & have spent thousands & thousands on it. It's still cold, still has damp problems & mould problems. Their garden is smaller than ours; they're overlooked by the rest of the terrace, plus the terrace behind. There is no official allocated parking.
We, in the other hand, have spent a few hundred, painting & decorating, adding in ceiling fans, extra kitchen cupboards etc. Our house is warm, no damp or mould, & whilst our adjoining neighbours can see into our garden from their back upstairs windows, our other neighbours can't see over our shared garage & our neighbours at the bottom of our garden are in a bungalow. We also have two parking spaces in front of our garage, had hardly any snagging issues & got the builders to lay extra patio down for us at cost price.
But, yeah 'character & features' are so much better than 'lego houses'

We moved from a Victorian terrace to a new build 18 months ago. The move was necessary to be in the right school catchment for our younger daughter (a situation which developed quite quickly meaning we had to sell and move within about 6 months during the first lockdown!).

We loved our old (old) house and would not have gone for a new build, but circumstances meant that it was pretty much all that was available in our budget at the time.

I still prefer older houses with character, but new builds do have some plus points designed for modern living, easy to maintain/decorate etc... Our house is also pretty big (over three floors), so that's not an issue.

We are the second people to live in our house, the first owners did absolutely nothing to personalise it and had the most boring, bland taste in decor. We have since decorated and added our own touches so it feels like home now, but I would definitely not want to live here forever and would go for an older house again next time!

I actually loved that my new build looked like it had been built from Lego. That, in itself, could be said to be ‘character’.

It had loads of ‘period features’ too. UPVC windows that are dark grey on the outside and white on the inside is a period feature. It’s just that the period is early 21st century. 🤣

I do also wonder about whether people are being purposefully obtuse in complaining that new builds are just identical boxes in large estates unlike the idiosyncratic individual character of Victorian and Edwardian terraces or 1930s semis.

A Swiss friend asked me if I lived in one of those weird British houses in the middle of a long row of houses, in the middle of many streets of the same. Why yes. I do.

There is often more variation on newer build estates in terms of the layout of streets, the different ‘styles’ of house dotted around the estate, and bits of green space than in the apparently more characterful streets of terraces or semis that were so popular in the pre- and inter-war periods. And, indeed, the post-war period.

The idiosyncrasies often are the result of pissing about by previous owners. All sorts of weird extensions, conversions, wall removals, decorative choices and so on. There are loads of very ugly and poorly thought through additions to ‘period’ properties. Often without the permissions and paperwork contemporary conveyancing expects. You all too often get all sorts of unhappy surprises when you try to do anything to the house too. What seemed straightforward turns out to be harder and much more expensive because of successive bodges by previous occupants.

@Sameiam I really think that depends on beams- we are just about to move back to UK but have been renting an old but lovely renovated house in Copenhagen with beams! But the whole feel is more

Upmarket barn inversion than it is dingy cottage - I like both new and old- but depends on the quality and modelling

I do love this, it’s pick the best new build and the worse older house and then say look, new builds are better, 😂 I’m just waiting for someone to pick the worst new build and the best Georgian terrace and post them side by side. It’s all so pointless.

I do love this, it’s pick the best new build and the worse older house and then say look, new builds are better, 😂 I’m just waiting for someone to pick the worst new build and the best Georgian terrace and post them side by side. It’s all so pointless

If you bothered to read my post properly the new build was a picture another poster posted as an example of an unattractive modern house, and no, it’s not a picture of the best new build available, you can look at this thread for some far bigger and more attractive ones. That poster said that that particular modern house is ugly compared to old houses and used it as an example of architecture that is disliked. I reposted that picture alongside the equivalent old version, they are both standard small red brick mass produced mid terraced houses, both of the houses would be at the lower end of the price range for each age so a fair comparison.

That's definitely not a stellar new built, pretty average. I'm sure it's exactly the kind of Lego box some are envisaging,

I’m not sure it is the equivalent older version, I think you went for the worst. I think this is the equivalent older version. But then I guess rhe argument does not work then as the older version is arguably more attractive.

🤷‍♀️

Both those styles are prominent in my area.

The old terraces haven't been gentrified so they are doing the job they always have: providing cheap housing to people on low budgets. Except that they don't get well maintained. They tend to be damp and poorly insulated.

They aren't characterful, character was something which got added on the next levels up. At the lowest level of house you step straight from street to front room. There is little adornment (you can see that in the very plain windows). Cheap houses, built cheaply, stamped out of a mould. They still stand because their neighbours are still standing.

@Dumblebum that house is many levels up on the houses @AmberLynn1536 showed.

In my area the picture you showed simply doesn't exist. That house is the gentrified terrace.

But the other houses do exist in a multitude and at a similar price point to each other with the modern house getting a small premium for having off road parking.

I live in one and it took me about 5 years to like it. If someone offered me money to move tmw £500K should do it(!) I would.
I was dubious about the move at first, DH was keen & I should’ve trusted my instincts more and risked our buyers pulling out. Dh said ‘there was barely anything around’ - something else would’ve come up though if we’d waited a bit longer.
We are planning to move in about 5 years (will have been here 13 years by then), once DCs are settled after uni so we know whether we need to get bigger bedrooms or can get away w a small 3-bed.
Its not awful and there are aspects of it I like, but never again!

I don’t actually know where you live or what’s available in your srea, the thread is more generic and as such those houses are more comparable than the near slum like one previously shown.

in general, across the uk, period properties cost a lot more than new builds of the same size and room count in thr same plot with the same parking etc . But again, I can’t comment on “your area”

We are in a new build. Have been here for nearly 4 years. I love it. We bought off-plan, so we hadn't seen it either, but we did visit the show home which is identical so we had a pretty good idea of what was coming. I found it quite exciting, watching it go up. We were invited to view it when it was semi-built as well.
I know why you don't like them, but for us, it was a no-brainer. Our existing home needed so much work and the kids - who were non-existent when we moved into that house, got really big, as they do. We needed more space, and whilst we love the area we live in, we just wanted a new start. In my head, if we were able to get a part exchange then it was a no-brainer. When we had our house valued, it was exactly 30% less than the new build - which was the part exchange limit. So we went for it. I have no regrets at all. The kids have double bedrooms. I have a sewing room. And we have the space to eat in the kitchen. And we can park the cars side by side in front of the massive garage. (all those things were on my list - the walk in wardrobe was a bonus)

Love my now 17 year old new build! Double garage. Fantastic garden and big rooms. Maybe it's different now but I'm happy ".

I think you need to go to Specsavers.

Yes that house in no way is the equivalent of the picture I posted an equivalent is probably a bit more like this

@AmberLynn1536 that house you described as a near slum is very typical of the lower end housing stock in my Midlands area. But they aren't slums. They aren't great, they do tend to be cold and damp. They are of a period. The modern equivalent is equally devoid of period charm. It just will probably have less cold and damp plus a parking space. They are comparable.

What they don't have are the gentrified period features of the house you showed. To judge by the picture that house has had a lot of money spent on it. It s pretty but it isn't typical.

What you can't claim is that old = characterful and new = plain/dull/boring. There are far too many of the plain/dull/boring (plus cold and damp) old houses around.

It was not me who described it as a slum! That was Dumblebum I would never be so insulting to call someone’s home that.