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.

It depends.
i look at programmes like Escape to the Country and absolutely love looking at them but…. I wouldn’t like to live in a house with low beams and ceilings.
I lived in a flat in a very old Victorian house and it was awful. It was freezing, it was badly maintained with a subsidence problem that was only getting worse. From there I moved to a new build apartment and it was warm, insulated but it was without soul.

i currently live in a twenty year semi detached house and it’s spacious inside but has a very small and very overlooked garden.

if I could move the current house to a smaller estate in a nicer area, I’d choose it.
If I could afford an old house in a lovely area with a big enough budget to pretty much gut the inside ie make bigger rooms, have a large bright kitchen, have three bathrooms and get top spec insulation, then I would do that.

For me area is more important than the house and as someone who grew up in a two hundred year old very cold house, I’d choose warm and lower electricity bills.

I’m in the new build camp. Mine is beautiful.Long drive with ample parking, bay window, detached, wrap around garden, en suite, on the coastal path, loads of windows, great insulation. I
absolutely love it

I love my new build. It's cheap to heat, easy to maintain, it's detached and has a generous sized garden and nice big driveway. It's a lovely light bright house and living here is comfortable and convenient.

Okay my estate isn't a village in the Cotswolds but nor is it a concrete inner city slum, it's pleasant.

I like them and live in a relatively modern house. Mine was custom built for the previous owner though so of much better quality.

Depends entirely on the house, doesn't it? I've never been able to afford an expensive place. My last was a basement flat in a Victorian terrace, spacious as flats go but the hallway was the second biggest room so not the best use of the 50m2 the flat offered but that was how it was built. My current house is the same size in terms of area - but there is no wasted space. It was built about 40 years ago. It's not soulless because I've put my personal stamp on it.

(Pictures on page 6)

The vast majority of new builds are not like that though, and only if you have a significant budget. Your average 2/3/4 bedroom properties are going to be a million miles away from them. You are not going to get anything like that on your average Taylor Wimpey, Persimmion or Barratt Homes sites. Nor are you going to get a drive for 4 cars.

You can't fit a car inside most garages of pre 1980s homes either. Coz when those houses were built, cars were a lot smaller.

True.

Those garages are used as storage areas now as there wasn’t adequate storage built in originally.

@WhiteFire

In areas where house prices are cheaper you can get very close to that on an average budget. Obviously, in general, the bigger the house, the larger the plot, the smaller the development, the higher the price. Of course budget matters.

It's the blanket dismissal of 'new builds' as if there was only one type that is bemusing. It's a bit like saying all Victorian houses are the same, when clearly they can be anything from a back to back terrace to an individual Manse. So many new builds mimic old/traditional house styles and use traditional materials that to dismiss them as 'soulless' makes no sense. They don't need damp and drafts to have soul 😂.

My new build is on a small development of all different styles and sizes. The standards of energy saving features are very high and selling has never been easier (I thought we'd make little profit on a new build compared to when we renovated older properties, but have been frankly stunned by the bidding wars on neighbours properties - though very few ever go to market).

On some of the vast developments going up around the country, once landscaping is done by homeowners and trees are planted, they quickly look less sterile.

You really have no idea how obnoxious this post comes across do you? There's 'voicing an opinion' and there's being rude and obnoxious. Your comments are the latter.

The vast majority of new builds are not like that though, and only if you have a significant budget. Your average 2/3/4 bedroom properties are going to be a million miles away from them. You are not going to get anything like that on your average Taylor Wimpey, Persimmion or Barratt Homes sites. Nor are you going to get a drive for 4 cars.

The new Redrow Estate in my town look very much like this, long drives etc plenty of parking, normal 4 and 5 bed new builds from a national builder.

Oh they are beautiful.
So different to my overlooked red brick semi squashed together with 100 other identical houses with scarce green areas and parking problems.
Id love to live in a house like that.

Don’t buy one then…..

I live in a nearly newbuild and I adore it! But then I do like modern and practical over character.

@AmberLynn1536 Those homes you put the pics of up there, are NOT the type of new build the OP is on about, (or the type some people tend to dislike.) Those homes are also out of most peoples budget by a country mile!

THESE are the kind of 'new builds' people are not keen on.

I’ve been in my brick-built new build flat for just under a year & I love it. Big rooms, lots of light, big balcony, no problems so far & soundproofing good enough that I never hear the family next door or the people upstairs. My energy bills are tiny.

And the place has soul & character because I live here & it’s full of my things. I love being the first person ever to have lived here. If people want to look down on new builds, that’s completely up to them but generalisations are simply lazy.

This! ^

@StoneofDestiny your examples at 19.57 today are ludicrous. Those are vastly expensive and very well built and well designed 'new builds' - and nothing whatsoever like the ones some people tend to dislike.

One can say the same about older properties too though if complaining about posting pictures of more expensive examples. Some stunning ones but equally a row of pebbledashed semis is hardly any more inspiring than a new build estate.

It's not practical or affordable for everyone to live in a character property and there wouldn't be enough of them if everyone could.

No, the OP and others have been saying ALL new builds are boring tiny boxes with no character or Lego houses as the OP charmingly claimed, hence myself and many others disputing this. The picture you posted is a small starter home, looks perfectly nice as a first rung on the ladder, and not dissimilar to small older terraced starter homes. The picture I have posted is an example of the type of houses on the large Redrow estate in my town, they are not the exception, they are 4 bed family homes on a normal housing estate.

The vast majority of new builds are not like that though, and only if you have a significant budget. Your average 2/3/4 bedroom properties are going to be a million miles away from them. You are not going to get anything like that on your average Taylor Wimpey, Persimmion or Barratt Homes sites. Nor are you going to get a drive for 4 cars

The vast majority of “old builds” don’t have huge rooms with high ceilings, feature fireplaces, beams, stone, thatch, “original features” and “character” and or “soul” plus the alleged solid building, non shoddy plumbing and electrics that people are saying new builds have and a unique layout. Almost everyone in the country lives in a house thrown up in some sort of mass house building scheme at some point over the last 200 years unless they have a significant budget (and possibly still if they do). An older house, particularly one which was built without indoor plumbing and electricity, is at the mercy of the generations of diy-ers that have lived there before.

The vast majority of Victorian housing has some sort or rear or side return extension and a retro fitted bathroom. They are often narrow with thousands having no hallway and a downstairs bathroom. They are very often poorly built - thrown up to house the working poor in industrial and mining towns. Most 1930s houses have a miniature box room and many have very small kitchens. Most 40-60s housing is bad quality and tends to be smaller than the preceding decades for the equivalent number of bedrooms. The 70s looked up a bit (maybe bigger plots as car ownership allowed people to move further out of centres? Or maybe the post war housbuilding rush was over so a bit more consideration was taken). The 80s/90s imo is the worst of all worlds (the vanishing hallway - the lounge/diner, the amazing shrinking rooms and windows) and now there are some absolutely shite new builds (avant homes, for example have taken “open plan” and run with it to the brink of lunacy) and some lovely houses (lots of self builds which I’m sure people think “don’t count” but why not if a 1800 self build does? Also mass builds like a new estate near me where the builder has caught into the idea of storage and you get 3 reception rooms including the ubiquitous kitchen/dining/living area and even the 5th bedroom is a comfortable double). All houses are going to have something not quite right for anyone without a significant budget. We individually divide what the not quite right thing will be for us. Its not “wrong” to chose “easy to live in” over “nice fireplace”. It’s not fair to say “of course that new build is great - look at the price” when someone who could only afford half of that also can’t afford a gorgeous characterful cottage crammed with original features.

(fwiw I can easily get 4 cars on my Taylor wimpey drive. Why do people think drives are smaller now than when cars literally hadn’t been invented?)

Depends who the builder is really and the target market.

Well suited to older people as the maintenance is minimal (initially i guess)

We looked at one show home and didn't mind the actual house (apart from lack of storage) but gardens were small and parking (apart from two spaces on driveway) was very poor. Bought on the 70s estate next door - much bigger house and better plot, loads of parking and better storage. Still not quite the character home of my dreams but really love the house all the some.

I've seen some lovely newbuilds. Estates with some variations in design and thoughtful landscaping. The thing that always shocks me is the price though, there seems to be a large premium on them. Doesn't apply to me as I love my ramshackle old hovel and intend to stay here till I die but I noticed it when 2 of my DC were trying to buy houses, neither could afford newbuilds. One got a 1950s ex police house, plug ugly outside but very nice inside and all the rooms they needed, saving them about £60,000. The other got what she needed for about £100,000 less than new. Yes it needs work but it's mainly stuff she and her partner can do using some of the money they have saved. Seems to me that there are 3 high cost items where savings can be made; houses, cars (pre reg, what a saving), and jewellery!
All of that being said I can understand the urge for a new build, all clean and fresh, and hopefully well insulated etc.

It’s very much a class thing. Working class in new builds, middle class in the older houses on more established areas. Yes, I know it’s a generalisation but there’s truth to it.

There are pros and cons to both. I liked my new build house.. it was a good size, good insulation, warm, low bills, clean looking.

I am not sure about class and it depends on the area. I knew someone would mention Redrow as I was looking at one but where I am the larger 4 bed Redrows start at 700-800+ so not exactly cheap or affordable and these days with no incentives.