New builds

[Housingcraze]

Pros and cons of buying a new build????
I'm single and 29 - living at parents - inherited money from father brother - don't know whether to buy new build house (will take all my cash) or buy a old house (will prob need renovating) or just buy 2 bed flat and have 20/30k to go travelling and for adventures with!!!

Why not buy a good sized home that you could improve over a long period - ie - that could expand if you wanted to have a family for example - and spend some money buying a travel voucher for your parents - if they didn't get left anything ? So they can have a 'thank you' and nice holiday together ?

Beware of service charges if you buy a flat. Some are like a second mortgage

We have just brought a new build and love it. After helping my sister move a few weeks after us I was glad that i moved into a clean house that needed nothing doing straight away. Her house was left in a state. If you were considering a new build I would say to look at as many builders as you can because some are like shoe boxes. So builders charge you for the little things that come as standard in others.

I bought a new build, mainly because I'd been renting for years and was fed up with slightly shabby flats with magnolia walls and other people's carpets! There were a few problems with it initially (poor kitchen/bathroom fitting, badly hung doors, some plumbing issues) but the development was still being built for a couple of years after I moved in. Luckily, I had a good relationship with the site manager who would get his contractors to pop in and do any odd bits which came up post-snagging.

It was a decent sized flat for a new build - this was 10 years ago - and many I've seen more recently are very poky. As others have pointed out, watch out for service charges. These can start off very reasonable and escalate very quickly. My advice would be to try and get involved with the elected group who represent residents as you will have a lot more control over what happens on the development.

If you definitely want a new build, I'd look at a few different developments. Don't get carried away by inducements like free carpets/white goods as these are often not great quality. Agree with lily here too as you're likely to find some builders not offering loads of freebies but the quality/space is better.

You don't need to buy completely new.

You could buy a place that is about 5 or 10 years old. All the niggly problems should have been ironed out and the estate/development will be established properly. And it could be a fair bit cheaper than buying brand new.

If I were you, I'd buy a house rather than a flat. You can always rent out a room to a mate to help with the mortgage. And you can always rent the whole house out if you want to travel/move abroad/whatever.

Have a look at loads of different types of houses and see what you fancy.

Good luck.

I wouldn't by a leasehold flat if you paid me to and I'm amazed anyone ever does! I'd also never buy a new build. I deal with several developers I a professional capacity and they are the most unscrupulous people, their houses are tiny with no storage and badly built and their 'customer care' departments don't actually care.

Old house all the way.