"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.

My parents are in their seventies.

they bought their first home in in the 1970s. Central heating, indoor toilet, modern kitchen with built in appliances. Driveway!

They both grew up in rented homes with outdoor loos, no central heating. They bought a new build with a garden, a garage, central heating! The height of sophistication!

I haven't read all the replies and can't speak of all new builds but do know of a good few.

The ones I've been into you could share a nail with the neighbour and hang a picture on each end of it the walls are so thin.

I've also been into many a terraced property but new builds seem to feel more crammed in than a row of terraced.

A friend recently bought a new build and has seven of the surrounding properties over looking their garden so as shinny as a new build looks it's not all bells and whistles.

You've saved hard to buy your first property and it'll be you paying the bills it's your choice as to which type you buy.

Good luck in your search hopefully soon you'll be a happy home owner(ish).

OP has dodged a bullet by not being able to buy one. Blessing in disguise, really.

No thanks to a crappy new build. Small rooms, likely to be issued (potentially going on for years).

@Another2Cats, interesting comparisons. My favourite by far is the thirties house. It has character and feels very homely at the same time.

I would hate to live in a new build, especially in hot weather like this! The thought of living cheek by jowl, hearing everything that’s going on in my neighbours’ gardens would be hell to me. Give me a period property any day.

Another, here, who wouldn’t touch a new build (particularly one built by one of the big UK-wide developers).

You’re likely to get something that’s been thrown up as quickly as humanly possible by ‘trades’ who are incentivised to build for speed and screw the quality. It’ll have a snagging list as long as your arm and you’ll struggle to get the issues rectified (the 10 year ‘guarantees’ are a joke).

You might well find you’re parking on an unfinished road for years, which will be left in that state whilst the developer argues with the council about getting the new streets adopted. You’ll probably not have bus access and the roads will all be just over one car wide, which means you’ll struggle to drive through because everyone will have parked their second cars up on the pavements, largely because the houses only come with one space.

My friend recently bought a new build home, on a more ‘aspirational’ estate where some thought has been put into the individual design and style of the houses, and the roads and communal areas quite nicely landscaped, however she has had so many problems with the house and the road is still unfinished. In recent storms, one of the chimneys came off a house and it was rumoured to have been made from some kind of high spec polystyrene! I shall certainly be directing my dcs towards the nice sturdy Victorian / Thirties terraces when the time comes for them to buy.

Huge congrats for being in a position to buy at such a young age! Anyone ciritcizing you as a FTB for not being able to buy a more aspirational property (in their view anyway) is being an arse. Plus what other pps have said about the build quality of new builds.

Whatever you do…do NOT get a new build.
Not helpful I know, but I had to say it xxx

I HATE new builds. I thought everyone did!

I chose a Victorian terrace over a new build and am so glad I did, especially judging by the stories on here.

Who cares what she says ? you are single in your mid twenties buying a house to me that is some achievement. hold your head up high and crack on you deserve thus 👏 ignore her.

Words have shades of meaning. From my pov, a house built in my lifetime is new, even if previously lived in. New does not always mean 'new now' either. 'New' college, road, house, etc were fashionable names in the sixteenth century. My DS lives round the corner from the 'New Inn' - it's been a pub in the village for around 600 years, the current building being mostly nineteenth-century with some sixteenth-century features, some older bits if you look closely, and a newly added conservatory and pergola. New College was founded by Cardinal Wolsey - around 1530, I think.
However, when I said a 1980s house was a 'new build' I meant that it would not be traditionally constructed nor have many features linking it to its period - rooms tend to be featureless boxes unless owners have added things like fireplaces. But a house that has been around awhile will have what tend to be called 'original features', picture rails, cornices, corbels over windows, or proper lintels, deep skirting boards, and be of traditional brick and tile construction, or wood constructed with overlapping plank-cladding in eastern England, stone-built in some cities, such as Aberdeen.
I maybe should have been clearer; by 'new build' I mean a house with rooms without integral features (such as a cornice which holds up the ceiling in an older house, it is functional as well as ornamental) like deep skirting boards, cornices, ceiling roses etc, and not built with traditional brick, timber and tile construction or in a local style.
Anything built in the last ten years is likely to have teething troubles a house that had been standing for a while will not have. Old houses are surprisingly well-insulated and can be draft-proofed if wished.
NB Grammarnut - interested in grammar, not etymology.

The main trouble with new builds is they are usually in inconvenient locations. All the best locations have already been build on.. I bought one off a builder who had a reputation for good quality. It was nice enough and very cosy in winter. But it was so hot in summer (eco building standards) . It had all the things you might want (eg lots of bathrooms, utility room, garage, big rooms) so it's not true that they are all pokey and badly built. ALthough a lot of them are.

What a silly thing to say. Obviously lots of people do like new builds, several of them on this thread, or there wouldn’t be so many houses being built. In the end, you put your own stamp on your house, whether it was built last week or five hundred years ago. These are people’s homes.

Don't let it upset you, I am another who would never buy a new build! A lot are poorly built and high maintenance. Give me an old solid house every day!

New builds are bad quality and do not last long

Why on earth would you want a new build?! Cardboard walls, loads of issues, social housing on your doorstep, no garden, packed in so overlooked. Id pay extra NOT to be in a new build. In fact I kind of feel like "oh what a shame" when people have to buy a new build, my assumption would be theyve had to do it because it's cheaper than a nice old house

Well everyone on here is going to have to get used to new builds, millions need and will be built all over the country, more than likely your children, if they are lucky enough to ever afford to buy, may end up having to buy one as there is a massive housing crisis, not all of your children will be able to find or afford to buy and run an old character home so through circumstances your little darlings may end up in a vile, paper thin, badly built shoe box with no character which is full of mould.

Older houses tend to have bigger rooms, higher ceilings, better sound insulation, and much more character.

I've seen inside some very expensive new build houses and they are shit and shoddy. Modern house builders are almost without exception lacking talent, imagination and are shonkey.

Not their house, not their problem! Hate when people wade in with unwanted opinions like this. For what it’s worth I’m a long way from ever affording any kind of house, but if I had the choice I’d pick an old house! So much more character and from friends’ experiences better built than some of the new build estates in our area.

Why would people choose a new build over older houses? New builds usually aren’t built to the same good standard!

Yeah but just look at most other comments. People slating them. Not understanding that EVERYONE has a different opinion and likes different things. People aren't coming on and slating old houses for whatever reason they might not like them, but MNers and new builds is just weird. (I don't mean you).

70s is not new build in the UK! In my line of work, I've come across 70s houses and flats that are Grade 2 listed