Buying a new build - what to look out for?

[Neitherherenorthere1]

Hi all we are considering buying a new build - what are the pros and cons and what things specifically should I be asking the sales agent?

We bought our house new build, 10 years ago and it’s been a wonderful home!

Make sure you snag thoroughly, and get written records of any extra work (date stamped).

Everywhere has trouble with parking. My parent’s 1930s house, you can hear the neighbours constantly. Our area is very quiet the vast majority of the time, and most of the houses have plenty of parking (the areas with parking issues are like that because several residents choose to park on the street when they have perfectly good driveways.

I’ve had friends buy older homes of various ages and they’ve all had many problems with previous owners doing random dangers “upgrades” or not getting the proper planning permission, or boundary issues. It’s all a gamble when you’re buying a house.

We live on a large estate, there are loads of lovely new green spaces around, plenty of kid’s playgrounds etc.

Mumsnet is very anti new build for some reason. I don’t know where they think their kids will go when they grow up, as they all chuck them out the moment they turn 18 as well.

They do charge a service fee, which is about £90 every 6 months. But they do seem to do a pretty good job of keeping things tidy and fixing things people break. Of course this should be covered by our council tax but 10 years ago this was the only house on the market that suited our requirements.

I bought a new build on a tiny development of 6 houses within an established area. Developers were a kitchen company who branched out. No service charge. House was completed when we viewed it. Snags sorted literally same day (there were 2- shower not connected to hot water and a broken tile). No issues with unadopted roads.

cons- the turf was laid on uneven and frankly rubbish land which was infilled with hardcore.

Thats literally it!

I was very anti new builds and would never buy one on a large estate with ongoing works but 5 years on I don’t regret buying this house.

Thankyou everyone. What do you all mean by snags?

Remember that there are pros and cons to new and older builds.
A tactic I was aware of was the use of mirrors in the show house to make space look much bigger than it actually was

Snags are things like cracks, sockets that don’t work, wonky walls, leaks, boundary fence being in the wrong place.

Bought a new build 8 years ago, small development, award winning developer. Been super happy with it, cul de sac and kids playing out etc No snags at all. You just have to pick carefully.

The developers often margin the hell out of a site (meaning no ability to extend etc) so make sure you really have a ten year need in your head when you buy.

I was able to extend mine as my DD grew to a teen I realised I needed two spaces, lounge and a big family room/kitchen/diner so think about your family in 5-10 years not what you necessarily need now.

My advice would be don't. Get a house 30+ years old and pay for a good survey.

New builds are hit and miss, look nice but the finishing and quality of materials is usually really poor. The NHBC warranty is rubbish as I found out with our 8 year old house. NHBC won't pay current market rates for labour so no one is willing to take the work on for warranty repairs. I've been in limbo for a year with a leaking roof and damaged render due to a fault with the way the roof is constructed which affects every house on the estate.

I'd never ever consider buying a house of this age again, get one where someone has already been through all the snags and structural issues, you'll get better VFM in an older property too.

Don’t all new builds bought directly from the builder come with a service charge? The problem with service charges is they are hard to get rid of at a later date, everyone has to agree to it, you can’t just decide to stop paying. Check what it covers, how many and which houses will be paying it. You don’t want to be paying a service charge for flats (more expensive) when you live in a house.
Make sure you get any snagging seen to quickly. Once you’ve moved in you’re no longer as important to the company as they have your money. Speaking to the site manager directly usually gets quicker results.
Consider what the area will look like like once finished, specifically around your property.
Don’t pay too much heed to the ‘I’d never buy a new build’ brigade, they haven’t done it.
There are a lot of positives, such as lower heating bills due to good insulation.
They aren’t all tiny shoeboxes, ours is big and well laid out with plenty of space for storage options (check for that).
The main things for us is that everyone nearby is at a similar life stage so DS has grown up with lots of friends nearby, and an added bonus is that we have made friends too. There’s a good community feel to our area, as everyone was new to it, even if they were originally from the local area. The primary school is nearby. The high school is further but a walk along nice, safe paths through the estate. There are good facilities nearby and easy access to the motorway for work.
For us the pros have far outweighed any cons.

Thankyou.

is anyone experienced in the new development of Wixams?

What is the service charge for if they're freehold?

get a professional stagger. Keep chasing ( you can report issue for two years) good news is , anything that goes wrong in that time is their problem not yours!!

also, make sure you push for incentives , free flooring stamp duty contribution etc. I’ve have 2
new builds and it’s lovely having everything new and shiny. No regrets here.

It's for maintaining the green spaces and verges etc on our development because the council have refused to take on the maintenance on new estates. The roads are adopted but the park, green area, public bins, verges and open spaces are all for the management company to maintain.

I didnt know that. So someone buying in a situation like that has to pay council tax and a service charge for their own area. And I presume the service charge can be whatever the management company feel like charging?

And no drainage system in place in the garden so it's unusable for most of the year as it's practically a swamp.