"It's a shame you can't get a new build"

[itscominghomeee]

I am mid-twenties and single. I have worked hard to save up a deposit to buy a house and now have enough of a deposit, and a not-huge-but-reasonable salary in my first managerial post, to make offers on houses. None of my similarly aged friends are at the stage of buying a house yet. I am looking at typical first time buyer houses: terraces or even some semi-detached, but my mum and her sister have commented a couple of times that it's a shame that I can't buy a new build.

I went yesterday to see a house with my mum and the current owner has refurbished downstairs and put a new kitchen in and installed a downstairs toilet within the last two years. Upstairs is in good condition too, but my mum said afterwards, "from downstairs you almost think it's new, but when you go upstairs you remember that it's a very old house".

My mum also told me yesterday that her sister had said to her again recently, "couldn't itscominghomeee get a new build? There are lots of new builds being built in that area".

AIBU to feel upset by these comments? Of course a new build would be lovely, but it's unrealistic for the vast majority of people in my age bracket and stage of career, especially those who are single. The comments feel like they're undermining my hard work saving up and like my mum/aunt are saying that the houses I can afford aren't good enough.

Thats a great scene on The likely Lads, where all the men exit their 70's house at the same time, reverse off their drives and go to work.

They're not dreadful, it's my home. Don't be so insensitive.

Is there anybody who has lived in a new build who thinks a new build is great???

Some of them somewhere must be built properly I guess,I've just never heard of one irl

I am with others, NOT go for a Newbuild.

I know. But in terms of the UK housing stock the 1980s is a 'new build', not built the traditional way.

What I’m about to say I don’t mean patronisingly at all, so please don’t take it that way, but here is a lesson to take with you throughout life. No matter what you do, not matter what age, no matter the qualification (or lack thereof) of the person saying it, people will ALWAYS have something negative to say about everything you do in life.
You have kids young then you’re irresponsible, if you have them older then “ooooh it’s risky”, or god forbid you choose to not have kids at all then you’re selfish. You go to university “well what are you going to do with THAT degree?”, you don’t go to university “what a waste….”
This thread alone is a whole lot of “new builds are crap” “no, new builds are good”. Whether you buy a new build, an old house, or something in between, someone will always have something bad to say. Heck, I’m certain you could find a cure for some horrible illness and someone would still say “why didn’t you manage it sooner?”
My point is you are rightly proud of yourself for being able to buy your own home and all that means, including financial independence most people could only dream of.
Why are you letting the misguided opinions of two perhaps well meaning but ultimately negative nellies detract from that? Their opinions don’t change anything about your circumstances. The sooner you master the art of not giving an F, the happier you will be in life.

In a new build you are basically a guinea pig in an experiment to see if humans can live in a dwelling of minimal quality. I'd rather live somewhere that several generations have managed to reside in happily over multiple decades with the house still in good nick.

Yes, me. I think it's great because IT'S MY HOME!

I always associate new builds with starter homes. We bought a new build as our first home and then moved into a lovely (quirky) Georgian house. Would much rather have something with a bit of character.

"...and has more than doubled in value since we built it."

"...since WE built it"

It sounds very much as though this is a one-off build and you have engaged an architect to design it or used one of the self build design and build companies?

Many people, if they were in the position to be able to afford this option would, I am sure, go for it as well (myself included).

But we are not talking about that here. We are talking about modern new build housing estates which might typically have 200 or 300, or even more, homes being built on them.

That is a very different situation from yours. I am sure that many on MN would be jealous of you being in a position to build your own home.

It's a very different story buying a terraced house on a modern day estate. Just go and have a look around one sometime.

A new build would
have to be
one of
the
WORST
investments you
could make

You couldn’t give me a new build, shit quality, small oddly shaped rooms, hugely overlooked and postage stamp size gardens.

If your new build was a small square box with no personality, that's your fault for having no imagination.

New builds have to be up there with UPFs and eating a dessert that isn’t just fruit and yoghurt in terms of the things that send out some kind of klaxon for people on mumsnet to tell you they could neverrrrrrrr. Could neverrrr eat a ready-made Swiss chocolate roll in a new build! I’d rather die!!!!!

OP, your mum’s comments are a bit weird and I can see why you’d find them dismissive given the effort you’ve put into getting on the ladder. Maybe she’s had bad experiences living in old houses, who knows? Don’t let whatever is driving her to make these comments get to you. We can’t all live in the same type of house as each other after all, it’s simply not feasible.

Yes, she should have imagined it was a Georgian vicarage, that would change everything.

Yep, not dissing those who have bought and love their new builds but the surveying industry is well aware that the vast majority are poorly built without longevity in mind…. @itscominghomeee , I’d consider not having a new build a lucky escape….

I think @fannyfiggs might just be the ceo of Barratt homes or similar, undercover on mumsnet 🤭

We bought a new build flat as our first home woth a view to make some profit to buy the 1970s semi we're in now.
I much prefer the semi. More scope for development but also bigger land. We looked at new builds again when we bought this and the gardens were tiny and no storage in the houses at all.

"...and knowing that as DH and I were getting older it was slipping away from us,"

I totally get what you mean. My parents were thinking along the same lines as you but then they found a very nice 1970s bungalow with a vey manageable, small, garden.

My mother was starting to have trouble walking up stairs so a bungalow was fantastic. It was also a lot cheaper than the new build properties they were looking at which allowed them to release some capital.

I always filt r out new builds in my hous searches. Some are lovely I'm sure but most near me are tiny with inadequate parking.

sorry what are you talking about? Most lenders won’t do a 100% mortgage on a new build? Yeah because most don’t anyway.

i literally make mortgages for a living. This isn’t a thing. I’ve worked at niche lenders and big banks. Some won’t lend when you’ve got a htb equity loan in the background.

they don’t enter into negative equity in the first few years or else no lender would offer a 90% LTV mortgage or frankly any other mortgage on an asset that will go down in value. Negative equity is a huge problem for lenders they wouldn’t enter into a deal if this was a known fact.

what you mean is that new builds and htb artificially inflate the price so they might not rise as fast as other similar size (yet older) houses in the area. My house is new, and in 5 years it’s gone up between 80-90k. I had it valued by surveyor.

Around here new builds are so overpriced. Tiny rooms and tiny gardens. You get much more for your money with old builds.

Damn, my cover has been blown 🤣

OR she owns a new home and lots of posters are talking utter nonsense about them all losing value or being all shit, which is pretty insulting really

New builds are generally vile. A recently renovated older property has bags more character and likely be roomier and have a proper sized garden too.