"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.

You should be mainly proud that in your mid twenties you are in a position to buy a house by yourself!! 😁

Old and new builds will have pros and cons. We prefered an old one cause we like old features and in the same price range (which was less than £450K) there are no new builds in good locations and the ones nearest often had no driveway for 2 or more cars or a big garden or more than 2 rooms.

Im sure with a bigger budget there are very nice new builds that tick all the boxes.

This
I can’t understand why you are bothered tbh.

All the new builds we viewed had small rooms, tiny gardens, miniscule drives and incredibly narrow road, and they seem to be massively overpriced, and build quality seems to be hit or miss.

We ended up getting a 70s-built lovely detached 5-bedroom house with a decent sized garden, no weird maintenance fees, etc, for the same price as the 3 bed detached new builds.

Unless you can buy a huge plot of land and build a new home to your own individualised specs, why would you want one? Overpriced, overlooked and thrown up as quickly as possible.

New builds are mostly awful, tiny rooms, paper thin walls and small gardens. Buy an older house.

Baseline, its none of their damn business.

Your mother and her sister haven't a clue.
Perhaps ask her to bd silent if she can't be supportive.
I too would be very wary of new builds.

Good luck, pay zero attention to such twittering.

Even the most beautiful Georgian rectory or Edwardian villa was a new build once. Some modern new builds are horrors, for sure, but there are plenty (like mine) that are well-built and very very well insulated, didn't have a ten-page snagging list, and have storage EVERYWHERE. I'd love to live in a spacious Edwardian villa, but there aren't many around here and the ones that do exist are VERY expensive...so I live in a house I can afford.

Hate new builds, they are like cardboard boxes inside no character
Family who have bought have put in lots of work to give them character

Not to mention all the noise, they're not built with proper Yorkshire stone

Don't listen to them!

Another one saying a big fat no to living in a new build. I have a Victorian terrace and it’s so beautiful. So much character! You Mum and sister have no taste.

I wouldn’t go anywhere near a new build!

A bespoke new build as a one off? Lovely.

A new build estate? No. Little boxes built cheaply. I am a construction professional and I would be so wary of them unless you had an expert involved. I have seen some quite shocking practices in the name of meeting deadlines and saving money.

New builds are shit. Poorly made, no foundations, paper thin walls, no garden, over looked, leaseholds often, worthless guarantee, I wouldn't buy one. A new build at the end of my road had to be totally rewired as it was dangerous. The phonelines were never connected, plaster issues... and that cost 2.4 million, imagine what the shitty littles ones are like!

Strange, because if someone I knew was buying a new build I'd think, "Shame you couldn't get an old house!" (I wouldn't say it though - their choice, their business.)

Where I live the first-time buyer sized new builds from 5-10 years ago tend to come on the market pretty regularly as their owners need to size up. Although they're marketed as 2 bedrooms the second bedroom is barely bigger than a cupboard, you can just about squeeze one child in there but you couldn't really have 2 sharing. The kitchens are usually in the living room - I'm sure the builders described it as open plan but they're small living rooms with kitchen units at one end. They're very expensive for the amount of space they provide and they sit on Rightmove for ages and ages.

You pay more for having something shiny and new but then the next person doesn't want to pay that much because it's not shiny and new to them - it's like buying a brand new car, except with a house you can't then sell it back to the dealership.

Build quality of new builds is shite. "Why would I want a new build, cheaply made and full of problems, I want a proper house that someone else has already made right."

New build estates are usually so densely packed with virtually no outside space and little storage and small rooms on the inside. I’d take a Victorian terrace any day. Just ignore them or tell them you prefer older houses anyway. I love all the character in our house, someone I know loves her new build and raves about the smooth straight walls 😂 each to their own!

New builds can be problematic. I wouldn’t touch one with a barge pole.

I wouldn't touch a new build with a barge pole.
Ignore your family - they are talking crap. You will be far better off with an older house.

Every. Single. One.

Ever looked behind kitchen cabinets? 🤢

New builds aren't lovely. They're squeezed into very small plots, the rooms are much smaller than houses built in the 60s and 70s, for example, they are crammed in on each other so they're overlooked and almost all are just generic boxes without character. Many of them have paper-thin walls so you feel as if you're living with the neighbours, too.

But the biggest problem with buying a new build is that it's like buying a brand new car. The moment you move in/ drive the car off the dealer's forecourt they're worth less than you paid for them. My niece and her boyfriend bought a new build in London in 2021 and when they split up recently and had it valued with a view to selling it they discovered that it's worth £40k less than they paid for it.

I live in a property hotspot city and the new builds (typically apartment blocks) are all marketed as "luxury".

Five years later they're usually a money pit of things going wrong.

Developers are ruthless - buy an older, more established property and educate your family!

New builds are a poor deal. Like new cars they depreciate as soon as they are sold for the first time. If I wanted a newer house I would buy one where I was the second owner. You can see the problems, work out if they’ve been sorted, and you don’t get the depreciation.

we have an older house which is the only house we’ve owned, and it does have its problems which need quite a bit of upkeep. But I love it.

It's buquet!

"New builds are fine if that’s all you can afford."

It's interesting that you say this. Where I live, there are quite a lot of new homes being built, there are something like 20 different building sites within a 5 mile radius.

But, on a square metre basis (or square foot if you prefer) new build homes are definitely more expensive than existing homes. They can easily be 50% or even 100% more expensive than existing ex-council house homes (or rather, given the history of the city, they are mostly ex Development Corporation homes)