To think new builds are a bit ridiculous?

[Thehonestbadger]

In terms of wait times?

Turns out it around 12 months from reservation to move in around here and you can’t reserve until you’ve already sold your home which means your buyer wants you out.

They don’t put completion date estimates on rightmove and as soon as you call to ask they’re just determined to get you in the office, then act really surprised when you point out you can’t really hand over all your money and sit homeless waiting 12 months for it to be ready

• they suggest going into rented


• I pull out my phone and show them the zero results within a 5 mile radius of our town


• They say something will surely come up


• I point out that even if it does we’ll not get it, we have two rowdy toddlers and a cat which will almost certainly be banned (Pets generally are around here) no landlord chooses us over all the competition for rentals atm.


• They act like you’re being intentionally difficult and have wasted their time.

I’ve been doing this same dance over and over, honestly think it would be so much easier if they just put expected completion dates on rightmove. All we want to do is move house I never dreamed it would be so hard.

can only assume I’m either missing something or they’re primarily selling to first time buyers.

Still can’t work out why laundry isn’t put in upstairs. A small cupboard with a washer and dryer and a shelf, so much easier than downstairs.

We also live in one (moved in 5-months ago) but I am not aware of anyone near us being a FTB.
Of course it all depends on the type of house you are buying but none of the houses near us are what a FTB would normally buy.

Agree about temp rental property but again in depends on personal circumstances.
After selling we lived (FOC) in my late parents house. Our neighbours moved in with family. A couple a few doors away were able to purchase outright so stayed in their old house and only sold it after they had moved in. Another rented a cottage for a year.

Our utility is downstairs but that is fine because we also do the ironing in there. Yes you have to bring the dirty washing downstairs to be washed / dried but then it can be stored & ironed in the utility room before being taken back upstairs and put away.

I suppose in some ways it would be more convenient if the appliances were upstairs (no carrying washing up & down stairs) but personally I think keeping the bedrooms & bathrooms a decent size is more important. Having a decent sized utility room (large enough for washing, drying, storage & ironing) upstairs is going to mean you loose space somewhere.

Our house isn't a first house but there are others on the estate ..
Ours took 9 months and we stayed in our old house but our buyers were in rented so could stay on a bit longer ..

As I said a lot of people I have talked to here either went into rented or were lucky like us ( although I stipulated it before I went on the market that I wasn't going into rented for anyone !)

We were 1st time buyers when we purchased our new build 5 years ago - it was delayed by about 4 months but other then that, it was pretty smooth for us.

We have recently moved & living with my folks whilst we look for somewhere new - our house sold within 3 days of it going to market! We sold over the asking price, the new builds in our old area are extremely popular.

We won’t hesitate to buy a new build again - we had a middle terrace and never heard our neighbours (& vice versa)
The utility bills were cheap as our home was very well insulated - hardly ever had to have the heating on tbh.
Spacious garden, a very bright house, big kitchen, the house was overall small but all good sized rooms - no random box room.

We only moved as we needed another bedroom.

My parents live in a beautiful Victorian house, but by god, it’s full of spiders and the energy bills are substantially more.

Its also needed quite a lot of work to it over the years, some walls have needed re-plastering, floorboards replaced and a very costly roof repair.

We are keeping an open mind with our house hunt but are leaning towards a new build. I think I prefer them!

@ohlookout I'm so glad that MNHQ deleted your previous bigoted comment. Vile.

Credit checks are not required, this is simply not true.

This is utter nonsense!!! My new build is very well built and not a single snag :)

Same ! My new build is amazing quality . It entirely depends on the company who builds them !

ThePumpkinPatch

Every HA tenant in our close was credit checked before being offered the property.

So we went back in yesterday for a proper consultation apt as an almost built house had fallen through.

To say we were unimpressed is an understatement. Perfectly nice, albeit pretty ordinary, 4 bed (1500sft) with a gaudy kitchen and very close neighbours and they wanted £470k and that’s actually quite a ‘deal’ compared to full price. Hubby and I were shocked. Baring in mind this is a commuter town of one of the least desirable cities in the country with no strong transport links but does have good schools.

We are coming from a commuter village of one of the most desirable and expensive cities in the country which we knew we couldn’t afford to stay in, but wow did we under estimate the saving on ‘downgrading’ area 🙄

In terms of HA that really doesn’t bother me, my best friend lives in HA and her family are awesome, I wouldn’t judge a book by the title. However, I did notice yesterday that all the site plans they show you whilst trying to sell you on a house actually show which houses are HA, it’s very clearly marked out and the advisor inferred that people will pay premiums for plots that aren’t near any HA houses, mental.

It's ridiculous. A friend is in rented and put her reservation fee down at the end of 2019.

Her flat still isn't finished and she's now at the point where she can no longer get an affordable rate on her mortgage. The company don't care as now she's dropping out they can resell it at the inflated higher rate that these flats go for now. They don't want to sell at the pre agreed 2019 rate.

I'm afraid I'm awfully snobby about them. Recently drove around Clitheroe - cannot believe the number they've put up there. Wonder whether they have provided the necessary infrastructure to support the huge influx? I'm betting they haven't.

@AgnestaVipers

i always thought the same RE infrastructure but the one we visited yesterday actually had a board up at the site office detailing all the money they’d had to give to local infrastructure. For example they’d had to give almost £800k to local schools but not sure how reasonable that is when you’re building 500a+ new family homes right next to a small popular primary and expecting them to just deal with it. Maybe the payments are very fair maybe they’re peanuts without context it’s hard to say

I watched some new builds being thrown up opposite my daughter's house. I say thrown up because from the diggers first moving in to them being completed took three weeks!! Three weeks for a dozen houses to be built!
We decided to be nosey and go for a viewing.
The so called master bedroom has just enough space for a double bed between the built in bedroom furniture. You couldn't have anything on the dressing table as a cupboard door swept open over it
The smallest bedroom, you couldn't get a normal single bed in lengthwise and there was no room for any furniture at all, not even a small chest if drawers.
The overall finish was terrible.
The kitchen had a utility room attached to it, I say attached as it was accessed via a large archway between that and the kitchen, with the kitchen sink on one side of the archway and the utility sink on the other. It looked stupid.
I opened the kitchen window because I thought the gap between that house and the house next door looked very narrow. Sure enough, it banged into the neighbours kitchen wall.
Those houses were priced at £425k for the cheapest and £570 for the dearest.
They've been constantly up for sale by various idiots who've bought them since.
I'll stick to my spacious problem free 1930s built home, thanks.

You can't say that. It may have not been done for you, but that's as far as you can claim.

my friend moved into a new build HA place 2 years ago & they did credit checks.

I’m just really shocked that downgrading area and downgrading house size by almost 1/3 is barely saving us 1/5 of the cost AND we have to wait 8-10 months in rented accommodation for the privilege 😂

Most people I know wouldn't touch a new build. They devalue, lots of poor quality nowadays, and the rooms are often tiny.

My 'not so new build now' is large, light, airy, quiet, efficient, maintenance free. Moving here from a 250yr old cottage was pure bliss. And devalue? We paid 108k for our 4 bed detached and it's now worth 470k. Houses on the estate are snapped up in days.

We didn’t have any difficulties at all. We sold our house to FTB when our new build house was at foundation stage. Five months later we were in. Never went into rented or anything. I think the key is to choose your buyer wisely and FTBs are perfect as they are most likely to be living in rented or with parents so aren’t so anxious about getting dates aligned. If you’ve got a big chain beneath you, that’s when things get hard.

@JosephineGH I don't know what it is in sq ft as I don't tend to use that form of measurement, but for example, in my bedroom there is a 7ft bed, built in bedroom furniture and still loads of space to move around.
The smallest bedroom has a king size bed, built in wardrobes and plenty of space to move round.
Lounge has two three seater sofas, an armchair, coffee table in the middle and two large display cabinets with plenty of space between furniture and to move round.
My hallway is way bigger than some of the living spaces I see in new builds. I have a six foot long sideboard in mine and there's still loads of space to move round.
It's very spacious.

@GoPogo You can't start criticising house size and then say you don't work in square footage, it's an accepted unit of measure. I can tell you right now it won't be anywhere near 4000 sq feet, that's enormous (and not the size of most new builds). But you can't just compare 'a new build' and 'a 1930s house'. You're likely not comparing like for like. Some new builds are 2 bed mid-terraces and some are 5 bed detached.

@Thehonestbadger I’m just really shocked that downgrading area and downgrading house size by almost 1/3 is barely saving us 1/5 of the cost AND we have to wait 8-10 months in rented accommodation for the privilege 😂

Then maybe it's not the right option for you? Out of curiosity, what would an older house of equivalent size cost in the same area? (Assuming new kitchen and bathroom and not a fixer-upper)

Newbuilds are terrible, don't do it! My parents bought a newbuild in the 70s as buying off plan made it much cheaper but they're all so over priced now!

So don't buy any house built in the last 50 years? All this don;'t buy new builds bullshit, from people who bought long enough ago that they can afford a period house!
Your privilege is showing.

I would say look for another builder. We have been in our new build over 2 years and love it!

Parking for 2 cars, 3 double bedrooms, never had an issue with noise from neighbours (walls don't seem to be 'paper thin' to us). So warm and toastie in the winter,

Like a pp ours had gone so far in the build when we bought it so couldn't pick kitchen/ bathrooms etc but we're all done very neutral and although we may not have picked for yourselves, we've jazzed them up with accessories to inject the colour we wanted.