To not understand the appeal of new build homes?

[GreenEyeGopher]

I was looking at the proliferation of new build estates yesterday and wondering who buys homes there.

I don't think I've ever lived in a house that's much less than 100 years old.and would find it hard to imagine living in a new build. Or actually, I could imagine living in a new build home but not on a new estate - somehow they don't feel quite like 'real places' to me, everywhere I've lived has had a long time to get established!

So I'm just curious - if you live in a new build, or would like to - what is the appeal?

I’ve seen new builds with big gardens too. Have you never seen an executive home or a self build on a decent plot for example? New build does not = Barrett estate

Also old house does not = big garden

Where I live a lot of the quaint cottages come with tiny gardens. They are workers cottages, they didnt have time to tend their own gardens!

Many of the older large houses have had their gardens sold for flag development. These are the sorts of houses which would have had a gardener coming in regularly when they were first built. Not always affordable now.

I have bought bought and lived in three new builds, I love them. Choosing all the extras, having a perfect house from
day one and then getting on with my life. I love my solar panel and tiny fuel bills and how my house never gets very cold.

I would not live in an old house. They're often cold , dirty, smelly and nothing works properly. Emphasis being 'often' not always.

My new build is big, not on an estate, with a huge driveway for parking. So probably not what you imagine either. Some new build estates are pokey.

I forgot to add, we have a big garden and we back onto woodland that can never be built on

The plot is over an acre. Not all new builds are tiny boxes.

there's nothing special about where I live, it's not like I'm living in a picture-postcard period cottage or anything. It's just an ordinary terrace

AIBU to not understand the appeal of terraced houses @GreenEyeGopher?
Just having one shared wall with noisy neighbours, no side access to the back, nowhere to park your car off road?

I have lived in an Edwardian house, a Victorian terraced house, houses built in the 1960s and 1980s, a 200 year old stone built farmhouse and now a detached house built in the 1990s.

This house, which was only 8 years old when we bought it, has been the best house so far in terms of maintenance and needing nothing doing to it when we moved in other than repainting some of the walls.

All the old houses we lived in were absolute money pits. They had character, but expensive to maintain and run, and we had years of botched jobs done by cowboys to deal with.

Oh, and our newish house is not on an estate either. It's just a development of 4 detached 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom individual houses with a garage and garden, each one designed by a different architect.

I have lived in an old house and it was a fucking nightmare. So many things wrong/needed fixing. Weird layout. No central heating when we moved in. The whole thing needed redecorating, everything we did we found had been bodged by the previous owner/s. Tiny bedrooms. Also on a main road and no parking. It was all we could afford and served us well but definitely not my dream home! It was hard work and not always in a good way.

In truth I'd love an old house again, but only if it had been fully renovated to a high standard. Unfortunately where we live houses are very expensive and the nice period properties are FAR out of our price range (even ones not big enough for a family of four).

When we sold that house we part exchanged for a new build, got an amazing price on the old house (thanks to estate agents massively inflating the price - the developer sold it for MUCH less than they paid us) and we got to move into a nice 4 bed house, down a small and quiet street with no passing traffic, decent sized garden, garage, nice big drive, nothing needed doing. To be honest there was nothing else on the market that made sense for us at the time. Living in a popular area, where there are a lot of wealthy people buying up houses, the housing market is pretty wild.

Minimal snagging issues, and those we found were fixed really quickly. We chose the plot - lovely views. Chose various features inside the house. It was all very low stress. Now the baby years are behind us we are now slowly decorating and making the house more personal to us.

Would I choose this exact house again if we moved and money was no object? Probably not. But it is a lovely home, nice neighborhood, lots of families and good neighbours. We could do a lot worse!

😂😂😂😂

It’s just the weirdos on mumsnet. Their taste/ preference is the only one permitted.

Yes, this - plus a lot of Victorian terraces like mine have been extended into the garden to add a proper kitchen/indoor bathroom, which makes the garden smaller.

I find old houses interesting in a social museum sense - how people used to live, what the changing social signifiers were.

My parents 1920s built house had a hatch between kitchen and dining room. Was this because far fewer people had a cook by that point. With a hatch, the housewife could pass food through then come round into the dining room and pretend she hadn't been involved in the cooking.

I read somewhere that the housecoat served a similar purpose. Housewife did housework but if anyone knocked at the door she could slip off the housecoat and immediately be presentable.

I find these things interesting but I don't want to live in a museum.

My parents are still in the new build they bought 40 years ago….seems to be working out ok for them

I lived in older houses (Edwardian or older) all my adult life, having grown up in "new build" 60s/70s estate houses. Reasons: 1) Established neighbourhoods, closer to amenities, high streets etc. 2) Character architecture. 3) Generous room sizes, room heights, windows etc.

Then, three years ago, we moved into a new build. Reasons: 1) a new development in a waterside area, walkable from the city centre. 2) Sustainable architecture. 3) Character property - high ceilings, big windows, balconies and terraces.

It's not new build homes that are the problem, it's 1) building them on the edge of towns and cities so you are car dependent, can't walk anywhere, have no infrastructure, and 2) building horrible pastiche neo-Georgian houses with mean dimensions and unsuitable UPVC windows.

Tis hard to think that someone 'can't understand' someone wanting to live in one though, that is very patronising.

I can understand that people want to live in new build, what I didn’t fully understand is WHY they want to.

This thread has been interesting as there’s fewer people than I expected being attracted by the “newness” of a new build - sure a few people have mentioned it but most people’s reasons are more practical.

Why is it hard to imagine being attracted to the newness of them?

It’s not hard to imagine, it’s easy to imagine that. I’m saying I’m surprised more people AREN’T saying they are attracted to “newness”. It would seem an obvious reason to buy a new build!

It would be a stupid reason to buy a new build. It's only new for... a year? Five years?

I think people have throughly misunderstood my post (my fault for framing it as an AIBU, should have just put it in chat)

Obviously I could have come up with a list of potential reasons people like new build but I don’t know that these are the ACTUAL reasons why they buy new build.

People buy new cars, new clothes, new furniture…?

People always say a car loses 10% of it’s value the minute you drive it out of the dealership, it doesn’t stop people buying new cars.

When I was a child, my parents were fond of ambitious renovation projects and older houses. As an adult I have always bought new builds. I love a bright modern home

I've lived in two 'new builds'. I've never seen the appeal of crapping in someone's left-behind toilet lol.

I don't want 'character' - I love modern/contemporary/bright! Have lived in current house more than 25 years and I love it, and love my garden, which is a little suntrap on sunny days.

I don't want 'character' - I love modern/contemporary/bright! Have lived in current house more than 25 years and I love it, and love my garden, which is a little suntrap on sunny days.

Me too!!

@GreenEyeGopher I think what a lot of people have expressed is liking the certainty of buying a new house. They know what they are getting.

A number of people have expressed liking that they have choice in fixtures and fittings. Liking being part of a new community.

So people have said they like things which are part and parcel of buying new without actually saying they like the newness.

A lot of people with older houses have expressed dislike of the uncertainty of their houses. Not knowing what has been done in the past which is now needing repair.

I think you basically overestimate the amount of people who buy a house because they ‘fell in love with it’. Most people, whatever type of house they buy, tend to focus on the practical criteria above aesthetics, history and vibes.

Yes good summary