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?

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Do you include the ‘grand designs’ type new builds in your question? Or just the ones on a housing estate?

Younger buyers often like the clean, newness of new builds just like they would choose a modern, luxury hotel instead of an charming, old holiday let.

They'll be all new so theoretically less maintenance. Nobody else will have used it. Easier to keep clean.

I wouldn't like living on an estate again.

My new build is light, airy, big garden, on a well designed estate. My garden isn’t overlooked, the walls are solid and the builder sorts out any snags. I’m 5 minutes walk from town, 10 minutes drive from the beach. It’s 3 bed semi with a nice big garage in a quiet area, and I don’t have to spend any time or money on the upkeep.

so many naysayers on these threads - ooh I could NEVER stoop so low as to step FOOT in a new build let alone LIVE in one. New builds are not all the same - and people with bad things to say it’s always “I know someone who has one” or that there’s an estate near them that’s falling apart.

Have you stopped to think that not everyone has the luxury of choice that you have?

100 year old properties often come with a high price tag in terms of ongoing maintenance, which people won't necessarily want to burden themselves with, if they don't have deep pockets to invest.

Honestly wasn't supposed to sound that way - 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 in a row of other identical terraces amongst streets of identical terraces. They're just quite old terraces.

I'm not sure this thread was well-intentioned tbh. It's another case of faux 'I don't understand/help me understand' when what they really mean is 'my way is better and I want to make sure everyone knows it'.

I've lived in old houses and new, Victorian and 5 years old, and they are just houses. Some cost more money to maintain, some have characterful features, some are poorly made and falling apart and some are not 🤷‍♀️

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

All the people who live in them. HTH.

So why is that so much better than a new build?

My house is old. And cold. And quite randomly laid out. it definitely has character! At least it’s not listed or in a conservation area thankfully.
The maintenance is constant, as is the battle against damp.

I’ve also lived in a fairly new build estate and it was a nice house to actually live in. Warm, and everything flowed well and most things just worked. It just wasn’t as pretty from the outside!

I've never lived in one but when I asked about one recently, they could only offer 70% of the value of your current home. Therefore, they were clearly aimed at upsizers rather than downsizers.

Well what kind of people live there? Who would want to buy a house like that? Why is this any different to people buying on a NB estate?

(Personally I wouldn't buy a terraced house and don't much like streets of terraced houses for various reasons, but I don't fail or understand why others want to live there!)

Everything is brand new, it's a blank canvas to put your own design on, appliances and house itself are under warranty for 5-10 years...that's just a few things for starters.

It's personal preference and older properties might come with more architectural features and history but plenty of headaches too. Definitely not my cup of tea.

Thanks that's a really interesting comment about being part of creating the community.

I definitely think there's something hard to pin down about 'sense of place' that makes me more attracted to established neighbourhoods, but that's a dfferent way of framing it which makes sense.

If I had a mid sized lottery win, I would buy a bigger house on the estate where I already live. Great location, handy for schools and the town centre, well built houses with good double glazing and insulation, plenty of off street parking, a downstairs toilet and two upstairs bathrooms. Nice bright rooms. I can see the aesthetic appeal of a character house but I have zero interest in uneven floors, only one toilet, draughts, poor insulation and fighting over on-street parking.

My house is 130 years old. It's a creaky, cantankerous, awkward old diva. No expense is ever sufficient to deal with it's many ailments, and as soon as we've cured one thing, it comes up with another. I was seduced by it's superficial charm, naively unaware of its true 'character'.
I don't have to stretch my imagination too far to understand the appeal of an energy efficient, warm, light, airy abode that doesn't cover itself in dust on an hourly basis, and has lovely straight walls.

My new build is 2700 square feet with large rooms, high ceilings and a big garden. We’re not overlooked. I couldn’t live in a house with all the comforts that our current house offers such as underfloor heating, four bathrooms, loads of electrical points…one of our neighbours moved to a listed older property…and they now want a new one again!

Your post comes across as judgy & a bit of a stealth brag to be honest.

We had an "old" house and it was an absolute money pit. So I can see why people don't want them.

I'm now in a "new build" our house is 11 years old. Love it! Private road, parking, well kept green spaces, cheap (my gas/electric for 2022 was £1950 for a large, detached 4 bed house even with psycho prices), no big maintenance job, easy decorating and the estate has more of a family feel than my old house where we were surrounded by Baby Boomers.

I honestly find it really disingenuous your suggestion that you can't possibly work out why people like new builds......seriously 🙄🤨

I've never lived in a new build but always found them appealing essentially because they look like shoe homes. Plus everything is new and clean and fresh, no damp etc.

Because old houses are crap. Unless you spend a lot of money bringing them up to current standards.

My last house was built in 1890. No straight angle in sight. Ugly beams, creaky floors, impractical and just... Old. Plenty of "character", as in old outdated features. Nah, not for me.

My newbuild is lovely, bright, spacious and clean. Decorated to my tastes and not a creaky floorboard in sight.

New builds aren’t for me, just personal choice, but I have no issue with them as long as they are built properly and solidly. I do have a problem with housing estates that seem to pop up overnight, and they just don’t seem to be quality builds. The one across from me is going up at a rate of knots, a new one seems to appear by the time I get home from work, arrives on the back of a wagon in the morning up by the afternoon… The landowner is asking over £700k for these and being timber framed, I just can’t see them lasting. The building site foreman/builder actually told me that the worst part is, after 25 years, they can’t be insured due to the wood needing replacing..

Good and bad in all though isn't there.

There's plenty of dire back to back terraces that are 100+ years old.

And then there's plenty of well designed new estates.

I live in a 60s semi, it's great sizes but the extent of the electrical and plumping works required has been insane, as has the distinct poor quality in insulation. Yes, we knew we needed to do all this before we bought it but costs spiralled.

A new build is looking appealing to me as a next move, the new building regulations that have come into force, as well as the local planning policies around this area do give me the assurances that it could be a good decision for our young and expanding family.

Our first house was built 1890. Our current house was built 2018. The maintenance for the our first house was unreal so much damp etc. much prefer living in our current house. I don’t know what the purpose of your post is really though? It almost comes across as if you are slagging new build homes off.

Energy is a big one. Even heating 4 bedrooms and running a tumble dryer, my A-rated 10 year old townhouse was £80pcm all winter (after the government help).

Indeed my old house is 1830s it looks pretty from the outside that's it. No parking cold , and everything needed constantly fixing. It was a pain I'm happier in my ugly 1960s house, that money is better spent on holidays and in my pocket. I find a lot of these people are a bit all fur coat and no knickers, they want to say they live in a period property but don't have the funds to live as well as they would in a newer house.