Talk to me about non standard construction houses please

[Toofat2BtheFly]

We put our right to buy application a few weeks and today the offer arrived . £43500 if your as nosy as me

Anywho , we knew it was a non stand and construction and today's paperwork states it is a orlit style house .

Is it worth buying ? Can we even get a mortgage on it ? Does anyone have any experience with kind of thing ?

Google answers confuse me. !!

Thanks

Most banks wouldn't offer a mortgage but cash buyers are usually the only ones interested As the property will usually be substantially discounted from a similar sized standard build. We have some rental properties and could have bought a PRC non standard build for about two thirds (saving of £100k in our area) of a similar standard build house nearby but all the negatives made us walk away. These were: if there is a problem chance is it will be major; if wanted to sell on then buyer would most likely have to be a cash buyer majorly limiting our market, the house was obviously already suffering from insulation problems, the level of owner occupiers in the street was virtually non existent due to nature of properties being mostly cash bought and rented out and this showed in various ways which made the area feel less loved than streets just metres away, insurance for the problems that the property was most likely to suffer from were not something we could get covered. Your situation may be very different and £43,500 sounds amazing for a property. I gather from reading up on this that a lot of this type of build which were demolished in Scotland in the 80s as they just couldn't cope with the climate - so also research your area and how it may impact on the build type. Think about your situation, the pros and cons and if you do go for it then at least it is knowing the facts. You may find somewhere willing to lend if you have a decent deposit. If a similar standard build is being offered at a similar price and you are interested in proceeding with yours then it may give you bargaining power to lower the valuation. Good luck.

Quick Google says you'd be unlikely to get a mortgage, so if you were selling your market would be restricted. Depends on how long you are likely to stay there, what the market value of house I'd etc, but I wouldn't touch one with a bargepole

You can get "specialist" mortgages (these are usually quite expensive) on these sorts of houses but to make one conventionally mortgage-able, you would need to rebuild all the outside walls in conventional brick/blockwork which, as you can imagine, is very expensive. If any of the other houses on your estate have sold privately recently, it might be worth seeing what their resale value is as you may not be any better off buying a "defective" house cheaply than staying on in a secure tenancy at a below-market rent.

We were looking at a poured concrete house (no fines was on the home report) and couldn't get a mortgage, or insurance quotes. Once we started looking at the problems associated with the build we walked away, it was heartbreaking as we loved the house.

I'm surprised you couldn't get a mortgage on a poured concrete house; I've just sold a flat in a 1930s poured concrete block and previously sold a poured concrete house. Poured concrete is a very different material to pre-fabricated concrete panels houses such as orlit and airey. My most recent buyers got their mortgage through NatWest.

We moved into our non-standard construction property yesterday it's poured concrete too. We only found out about the non-standard construction from the mortgage valuation. Our mortgage was also with Natwest, seems like it could be the way to go! No problems with buildings insurance either.

Odd, as soon as we mentioned no fines companies just stopped talking to us ?? NatWest were mentioned as a company who would lend on no fines, but by that point we had read a lot negative stuff and had The Fear. It worked out for the best though as we have since moved into a bigger, bricks & mortar, house we absolutely love.

Thanks everyone ,

We have so much to consider , a brick house of the same size in the next street would be around £120k so this feels like our only chance to get on the ladder .

We don't have plans to move so it would be a long term thing , plus the full value on the open market is so low (£75k) I have no doubt that a buy to let investor would snap it up in a cash buy in a flash should we need too !

Going to ring some specialist brokers tomorrow to see what they say . This could be the best/worst thing we ever do ..... Wish me luck

We live in a poured concrete house (language easi-form) and had no problems getting a mortgage or insurance. Maybe it depends on the actual type.

OP, what about shared ownership? We sold ours last year. I know a lot of people don't like them but between that and renting there was no contest at all. If this is your only chance at all at owning, I'd probably try and go for it rather than renting forever more.