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Property/DIY

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Original poster

Big house on new-build estate or smaller house in town?

38 replies

MegBusset · 15/08/2010 18:47

House on new-build estate a couple of miles out of town is big and vgc, estate is 'nice' but soulless, no shops/pub/anything apart from Sainsbos, so would have to drive everywhere

Period house in town has one bed less, needs a lot of work, but full of character and in a lovely area with local shops etc and walking distance to city centre

New-build is 30k less meaning more money to enjoy life with the kids

Both are walking distance to excellent primary and secondary schools

WWY choose??

OP posts:

Ponders · 16/08/2010 12:06

I was going to ask about parking too at the town house - if there is off-road space fine, if not you could find you have to park streets away with a bootful of shopping plus kids in the rain!

Ponders · 16/08/2010 12:10

oh sorry Meg, missed your answer earlier!

Soulless estate house will not seem soulless to the kids & there will be friends for them to play with everywhere - think about moving into town when they are older & driving them about becomes too much. We do live in a town house (without off-road parking, could you tell? ) & my kids would have loved living on an estate when they were younger.

Ponders · 16/08/2010 12:11

Also, round here prices of new-build houses have escalated faster than town houses!

Fimbo · 16/08/2010 13:08

I live in a big new build house. We have got so much more space than we would have even taking on the old crud of a property we were going to buy, we would still be working on it 3 years down the line. We have a large garden too. It was cheap for the amount of accommodation we have.

Yes we did have the usual snagging problems at the beginning but nothing tooo major, luckily the builders were still on site so it was just a case of hounding them until they sorted stuff out.

upahill · 16/08/2010 13:08

Follow your heart. Go into both and see which one you can imagine living in.

I have been to houses in the past when viewing and just knew I couldn't make a home there.

Ulysses · 16/08/2010 13:20

We've got a new build and the biggest perk for us is the closeness with other families of the same age group.

DD will start school a five minute walk away with two kids from our street and another 5 or so in the years above. There's also loads of neighbours in the same boat and we all help out when we can with childcare, etc. We live in a cul-de-sac and have kids running out of each others all the time.

It comes down to practicalities for us. I can't imagine being in this house forever and when kids are older we'll look for somewhere else but it will do for now.

Original poster

MegBusset · 16/08/2010 13:49

Thanks all, lots of interesting points raised.

Fimbo iirc we're not looking too far away from where you live!

OP posts:

Fimbo · 16/08/2010 13:52

Ah now I wondered when you mentioned Sainsbo's but the rail halt threw me, because my first thought was QH but now realise it must be D/TSA.

Most of the villagers where I live hate my estate, we are frowned upon for moving there

Original poster

MegBusset · 16/08/2010 13:57

You're right! Rail halt is proposed if Brook Farm development gets the go-ahead so it could be good in some ways, direct link to the city, but effectively the estate would double in size.

OP posts:

Fimbo · 16/08/2010 14:05

Gosh that would make it really big then. My parents are trying to sell in Scotland to move down here, they want one of the McCarthy Stone retirement flats that are shortly to be built on Yarmouth Road, the rail halt would be great for them too!

fluffles · 16/08/2010 14:10

Depends on your car/walking behaviour now i'd say.
If you drive everywhere or most places anyway then go for the estate as you've not much to lose.

Personally i don't like driving and would rather leave the car parked up all week so i am in town in walking distance of everything.

GeekOfTheWeek · 16/08/2010 14:22

We bought a new build having preiously owned a large terrace on a main rd.

Our new house is spacious and easy to maintain.

There are quite a lot of children which is great for mine as they all play out. This was one of the reasons we moved, they could never play out at the old house.

The actual buying process was easier than when we previously bought from a private vendor.

We do love it and it is perfect for our needs at present although in the future we will probably buy an old cottage.

moomaa · 16/08/2010 14:43

We have recently left our Victorian town centre house for a newish build on the outskirts and so far I don't regret it:

Much quieter here, partly because of double glazing instead of sashes.
Can park lots of cars on the drive here, we had one off road space at old house but was round the back, so a pain and it was very difficult for visitors.
The maintenance was a nightmare, and things that looked harmless oftrn turned difficult when you started doing any work.
There is a lot more space here, there were always people about in town and it felt claustrohobic after a while.
Much more dog poo.
Many more people that were renting/didn't care about houses and let them look a tip.

I hate driving and have kept it to a minimum so far, I do shopping/swimming lesson on same day and spend less money now. There is stuff to walk to from the house - see if there are any community halls or churches that run activities for children. Getting the bus can be fun too.

For us, there were more children at the old house, so that is one thing I miss.

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