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.

As you point out, each to their own.
They are not souless fgs. They are peoples homes, you know with real actual people living in them with neighbours.
We have lived in all sorts over the years. Current house built in 2005. What a joy to have proper insulation, draft free windows, efficient heating and not have to worry about the fecking roof, or repointing, or windows rattling or damp.

I live in a hundred year old cottage. It’s very charming but never looks clean and always needs work. It’s also very very small and has no hallways or landings. My friends’ nee builds are huge in comparison- they’re not to my taste but always look clean and beautiful unlike my house

There's a new build going on in my village. The street will be called Cramthemin Close

It always makes me chuckle when people start threads like these about cookie cutter new build houses.

What exactly do you think Victorian semis and terraces are? or your 1930s semis?There are hundreds of thousands of basically the same house up and down the country. Yes they might have slightly difference fireplaces or a square or round bay window. But basically they’re the same house. Only they’ve had 100 years of owners making alterations.

I love our new build. Local builder lovely designs and good size house / plot. i would definitely buy another.

Nothing better than moving in it’s all clean and ready to go. Any issues we had 2 years warranty with the builder and they were amazing at fixing any little issue (included fixing a loose toilet seat)

They aren’t for everyone i understand some other houses have character etc but for us the lower bills (B energy rated house) and piece of mind with a young family out trumps that

I’ll also add that I dislike all houses built with plasterboard walls. Nothing worse than slipping or dropping something & having to replace plasterboard 😝

I dislike them. I dislike the lack of space and the thin walls. However, some people love them. It’s horses for courses. I do think there is an awful lot of snobbery around period properties though.

I love my Victorian farmhouse but I can see the appeal of new build. I have friends who built their own house and it's amazing. I could foresee a time when I would consider buying one when I am older.

I would have reservations about buying a mass produced new build from one of the big well-known development companies, especially in the big estates or new towns. So many of them have been built near us so quickly and I know several people who have bought them and have had a nightmare time with all sorts of problems.

They’re vile. An embarrassment to architecture

I agree. I don't like them as they do feel soulless and void of character. And so expensive!

I just think different people like different things. Your parents might want the simplicity of an easy to maintain home as they get older.

I have a new build, it was out of necessity as we couldn't afford a deposit without help to buy. Now we're on the housing ladder, in a desirable area in a house where the value has increased by £50,000. With 2 Dds I also see the benefit of extra bathrooms and having a safe road outside for them to play on. We've also got excellent parking. I dont think i could deal with the stress of not knowing if i could park outside my house. Our bills are also very reasonable which is a massive plus with everything that's going on in the country.

I would also say we have an excellent community spirit on the estate. Everyone moved in around the same time and made great friends. Also a lot of young families and all the children play together which is lovely.

I do also love older properties but I don't think they would work for us currently.

Unfortunately you may say you're not sneering, but you very much came across that way.

How rude! 🤣 don't buy one if you don't like them but stop being so snotty about the perfectly reasonable choices that other people make.

Every house was a new build once.

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.*

I'm not sure how much character it would take to tempt me to live in a damp house.

I don't live in a new build but don't particularly understand the huge amount of disdain some people have for them.

Spoiler alert - soul comes from living creatures so my new build is exactly as soulless as your house.

What I like about new builds:

Having a roof over my and DC heads.
In the history of my house, no one has ever harmed anyone else there.
Energy bills v low.
Neighbours aren't snobby.

Having grown up in old houses I'd always expected to buy similar as an adult and indeed out first house was quite old. But then we found ourselves in a tricky situation when moving from one city to another for work. We'd sold our house, the one we were buying fell through at the last minute so we ended up staying in fairly grim rented accomodation and couldn't find anything suitable to buy. In the end we started looking at new builds out of desperation, rejecting them all until we were offered a very good deal on a house that was finished but the buyers had pulled out. Obviously we got their choice of kitchen etc but it was ok and there was a hefty discount so we decided to go for it. We knew it wasn't our long term home so weren't bothered if it wasn't ideal but actually we were forced to eat our words. We had no issues at all with quality, found it to be very energy efficient compared to our old house and whilst the footprint was quite small, the internal space was extremely well designed and we found it a very pleasant place to live.
When we left and moved to the country we looked at loads of old farmhouses etc and whilst they had lots of character, in terms of actual living space we felt they fell short of our needs and ended up buying another modern house, albeit a "one off" rather than one from a mainstream builder this time. We've not regretted it. I have lots of friends who live in beautiful characterful old houses but their bills are much bigger and they always seem to be working on them. Some of our friends bought a 200 year old house that we were very, very tempted by but we now joke that the house owns them rather than vice versa and whilst I still think it is gorgeous I'm glad I'm not responsible for it.
There are pros and cons. We all have different lives and need to choose what suits us best within our budget.

This! Not sneery my arse.

@sst1234 yes but it has High Ceilings!!!! Don’t forget the High Ceilings!!!!

We live in a new build, it's what we could afford at the time 🤷🏻‍♀️ it's taken a few years of making it our 'own' and putting our stamp on it. We had no snagging issues or any major issues at all really. We accept that we've been lucky though. When we move (probably not for another 10 years!) I'd like to be off of a new build estate if possible but it hasn't put me off and I'm pleased with our choice of first house. I have heard of some absolute shockers though!

My sister is buying one, its not for me, I like old houses

I dont like the look of the outsides, very few have a chimney and that makes them look odd in my mind. Also there is such a lack of green and front space around them and the roads on the estates are far too narrow

But lots of people love newbuilds for the newness and dont like the unpredictability of older houses.

There never seems to be any privacy in new build developments...the ones in my area all have very open plan driveways and front gardens and look right into each other.
I like hedges and a gate to keep my kids safely away from the road. On my friend's development they aren't allowed to put up fences or gates, everything must be uniform.

I don't like them. They look plastic. Hopefully they weather well with age

I'm not keen on the large identikit estates, but I do have a friend who lives on a small development done by a local builder and her house is lovely, with plenty of storage.

In theory a new build should be great, but sadly so many developments are crammed in, poorly built and devoid of architectural value. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. In this country, the big developers are too powerful and squeeze every last bit of profit out of a site rather than focusing on making them nice places to live - i.e. with open space and people not living on top of each other.
Would love to see self build become more normalised here like it is in many other countries, where often the majority of homes are bespoke built.
At the very least developers should have tighter rules to make new homes as good as possible.
I would never sneer at anyone who lives in one (I live in a 50s ex local authority house), but I find it depressing that standards of architecture, build quality and space are so low on so many new developments.

It depends what you mean by “new build”. When we were house hunting DH and I looked at some houses build around 2001-2010, so relatively new. They were very large, price per square footage was much lower than the Victorian we ended up buying (which needed a lot of work).ultimately we didn’t buy it because of the price per square footage which would make it a bad investment as the resale value is low and the amount of money gained from doing work on a relatively new property is minimal.

these things are very personal and much depends on what you want to do with your property/plans to sell and budget. It’s not helpful to just dismiss new builds all together as they can be nice and serve a purpose. There’s a fantastic new development near where I live and if you had a different life I would love one of the flats there!