To ask if all new build estates are awful

[stellartuesday]

We moved into our house 2 years ago. We weren't really looking for a new build but there was nothing on the market. The house itself is lovely. Fairly spacious as new builds go and no major snags but the estate - MY GOD! It's a dump.

It's still a complete building site. There's loud construction work going on most weekdays, then in the evenings/weekends large groups of kids loiter in the cul-de-sac, often screaming their heads off until 10pm, kicking footballs onto our drive and dropping litter everywhere.
Today I came home and someone was parked over my drive and it just tipped me over the edge as it seems no one has any respect for eachother!

I've previously lived in 2 major cities before I moved to DH's hometown, so I'm used to living in close proximity to others but I can't get a moments peace here! It was quieter living in a city centre.
I visited a couple of friends at the weekend and it was pure bliss. I could actually sit in the garden and hear nothing but the birds tweeting. It was very disappointing to return home to a digger parked outside my front window, loads of litter near my drive and 8 teens screaming whilst taking turns in pushing eachother round on an office chair, which they have now dumped outside.

I noticed houses on new build estates always seem to be up for sale. Are they all horrible or am I just unlucky?

My estate is now massive but it's not the worst. High proportion of detached houses with large driveways so no parking issues. Our actual street is very friendly.
A bit noisy with kids playing sometimes but it's not constant and its not so bad when you know them all and like all their parents.
We're only about 5 minutes from a train station also.
House itself is warm, spacious and lovely and none of the neighbours are Deano types, everyone is pretty down to earth.
Night times are always quiet and peaceful, no-one has loud parties ever.
So overall, very pleasant place to live really.

The construction doesn't last forever. Can't say about kids hanging around, being noisy etc as that doesn't happen on ours; despite being marketed as 'family homes' ours are mostly inhabited by elderly/retired couples knocking around in 4/5 bedroomed houses.

Have to say though we got a survey and the surveyor said the homes are built to a rubbish standard, despite being higher than priced, certainly not starter homes.

And the yearly management fee for 'managing the estate grounds' something else that may put people off.

We once lived on an estate that was still being built and it was a bit of a nuisance for the first 12 months or so, partly because of the construction noise/traffic and partly because the roads hadn't been fully surfaced so there were massive drops off all the kerbs, raised manhole covers and lots of gravel on the surface. I had a new baby and getting about with a pushchair was a complete PITA. Parking could be a bit of an issue as most of the houses only had drives big enough for one car so there was a lot of on road parking. We had a single garage as well but it was always full of stuff which I think is fairly common! Oh and there was a rule about how high your fence could be in the front garden which was a bit annoying. But other than that it was ok and the construction issues were fairly transient. We had the garage broken into once but we've also been burgled in other places and I don't think crime/antisocial behaviour was any worse on that estate than other areas we've lived in. I think you're just unlucky OP.

She's got big lips & eyelashes & does nails.
He's got a tattoo sleeve & sells coke. Both have Turkey teeth.
They live in a new build semi, with a french bulldog and a leased white Audi A3 or range rover on the drive, astro turf at the back. Interior is grey crushed velvet and live, laugh, love sign on the wall.

Yeah, everyone on new build estates sells coke. All of them. And other than that weird and spurious accusation, what is wrong with all the other things, exactly?

Did you not understand what you were doing and buying when you bought it? If you bought a Reno project you should really only do this with both knowledge, understanding and funds, and yes, a new build would have been way better in this scenario.

@LifeExperience Could that be because many houses in US are relatively modern, therefore brand spanking new is considered better?

I think you've been unlucky op, but i might consider moving again.

We've been in our 'new build' since 2006. It's mixed, detached and terraced houses. A lot of the houses are rentals with just a few owner occupiers.

IME the atmosphere goes in phases, it depends on who is currently living here. Don't like the atmosphere now, hold tight, they'll be moving on soon.

We did have a phase of having groups of teenagers hanging out at the start. I think this was as a result of them feeling like they were out of sight. As the development finished and the houses were occupied the teenagers moved on.

The (several) new estates around our area are quite nice - variety in housing stock, trees, lots of greenery, play areas etc.

Friends bought new nearly six years ago, had no issues with the house or neighbours but they are selling up. They were one of the first houses competed and are on the existing road which is a feeder for the estate. The developer's planning permission deal means this road won't be resurfaced until the development is finished and has effectively become impassable for normal cars unless done at crawling speed weaving all over the place. No amount of complaining gets them anywhere and the developer has has another two fields worth of houses to build - neither of which use their road for direct access. So they've had enough.

Another acquaintance's new build has a double garage and off road parking for two but there is no on street parking. The road is very narrow and the drives are offset. So if you park on the road you are blocking the opposite neighbours drive. Gawd knows what happens if someone is having work done or has a few guests.

I think with buying any house its all down to luck.
We nearly bought a new build but struggled to get a mortgage for it /part ownership. We bought a 1960s detached doer upper and we are lucky with the space we have outside. We also have elderly neighbours so that's why it's pretty quiet here.
We come from quite a rough area in a city that's sought after but if you cant afford the good areas which most can't you will have antisocial behaviour/noisy neighbours. We had to move from our hometown to get this house

We own one and have been so lucky. It's a lovely, quiet estate and we've not really noticed much construction work lately (it's nearly finished) and no antisocial behaviour from people. Had no issues with the house either.

We looked into a new build but the company ended up temporarily removing the house size we wanted from availability so looked elsewhere - ended up in a period home (1918) and I love the space and the fact that, although we have neighbours - we're not jammed on top of each other, which was a huge source of stress in our previous house. I think in hindsight I'd have struggled with how pushed together the new build houses were - even though location-wise they'd have been better for us as a family.

As with anything, not all estates are the same.

Weve lived on two and both were a good mix of people with a sense of community.

Our garden now is twice the size of my parents 1970s house, and the houses don’t feel crammed in. There’s lots of kids but none are a nuisance, they are just playing. We feel quite fortunate!

I hate ours for different reasons, it's completed so no construction, large houses, quiet, safe and frankly dull as shit. No facilities nearby, loads of plastic grass, designed as a dormitory. I'm stuck here a lot of the time due to illness since about 6 months (don't drive and am not able to get the bus into town yet) and it's affecting my MH as there's nowhere really to walk to and the houses are so uniform. I miss the rented central -ish terrace I had when I first moved to town. At least there was life round there even if it was a bit rougher

And they dream of selling the new build and moving to Dubai instead to become influencers.

Harsh. We had no choice. This horrid little box in this dreadful development was all we could afford at the time 😞

Fortunately it's massively increased in value so we should be able to move to a nicer, older area (near shops and schools etc) in a few years time.

Like many things; there's some good and some not so good.

Key for me is the density of the development and how well it fits into the local surroundings. I have no issue with good quality high density housing. When its quite high density housing with narrow roads and limited parking looking out onto fields it can feel unbalanced.

Some new build areas will remain popular areas to live in. Others sadly may struggle

Our estate isn't amazingly high density, for a new estate. There's loads of green spaces between properties, and quirky features like brooks with bridges over, as well as a main green in the centre of the estate with a playground. People often comment that because of this, and the nice design of the houses (there are no new build boring box houses), it almost feels like you're on holiday somewhere when you're wandering through.

We have woods to one side of the estate and fields on two sides. The fourth side is where it links to existing houses. It's very pleasant and definitely not unbalanced.