Painted brick or block and render?

[Labracadabra]

We're getting planning permission for an extension to the house we're buying. It's an old cottage and the rest of the house is painted brick (done by vendors). The architect has suggested we could apply to build the extension in blockwork and render and paint it to match the rest instead of brick. He said this would be a bit cheaper, because it would be quicker to build. He also said we wouldn't know the difference from inside (warmth etc). Does any one know any pros/cons for painted brickwork vs rendered blockwork? Sorry for the extremely boring post! Thanks.

Block and render, far cheaper, If it is done to a high standard will look fine.

Doing nice faced brickwork then painting it is a bit pointless, far more expensive.

Thanks quoteunquote. The builder quoted only about £2000 cheaper for the block and render (on a total build quote of around £40,000) so not massively cheaper. Do you think the difference should be greater? I do agree that if brick is going to be painted straight away it seems pointless, but could render crack over time? Is brick lower maintenance (apart from the regular re-painting, obviously!)?
Thanks again for your thoughts.

Make sure you get medium dense or dense blocks with a shrinkability of less than 0.03% (?) then render cracking will be less of an issue. You dont want lightweight block.

I would hope that light weight blocks wouldn't be used externally.

render done properly should not crack, and last years.

If the brick is integral to the architecture feel of the building then painted brick would sit better, if you are painting you will be able to use a cheaper brick.

how big is the extension ?

cheaper again is timber framed.

what the original brick like?

if you ever considered removed the paint work, so the building required less maintenance, and gets to age gracefully, If you were to ever to do that, then you would want to match the brick.