Does anyone lives in a new build house?

[biglips]

As atm we live in a 4 bed victorian house built in 1901. it's a big house with a small yard. We want to move into a house with a garden. But dh does not want to put his foot into a new build because of problems with the house ie thin walls, a noisy house.

I'm happy to move wherever but I've never lived in a new build.

Thanks

Me. It’s better insulated than the 1910 and 1940’s houses we’ve owned. It’s more spacious and mega low cost to heat. The garden is a good size. Drive fits 3 cars (2 x estates and a 4x4) garage is tiny though- so just used for storage. There is an orchard out the front and we bought land to the side of it - love it.

I don’t think the walls are any thinner - we saw it being built and it was solid brick on the outside- insulation- then breezeblock.

I liked that I got to pick plug points, flooring, kitchen, bathrooms. I would do it again.

I live in a new build house. It's quite large, has a good size garden, and I love that it is so well insulated and warm. I think there is such a variation between new-build houses in different areas and different developers that you have to see a few for yourself to check out the noise, warmth etc. I do miss some aspects of older houses, like the built-in period features, but we are adding our own character to this house little by little.

I think the quality depends on who the builder is. We have a Croudace home and it's really excellent. The walls don't seem thin, I've never heard my semi detached neighbors (ever). It's all really good quality. It warms up really fast and keeps the heat in. They put in a lovely spec kitchen and bathrooms. Nothing feels cheap or flimsy.

However the bedrooms are tiny, storage space isn't great and the garden is small.

My parents had a new build though (can't remember the builder) and it was so flimsy. Could hear anyone's conversation from any part of the house!

My parents do, it’s very well insulated & no noise problems, however I think it’s very much a case of getting what you pay for

I think it depends on the builder. Visit the show homes and get a feel for the quality and workmanship. We have been in our redrow home since January and are really happy with it. It’s the best move we ever made, though I’m aware our development has a lot more green space than most redrow developments. Before moving in we rented a Bellway home (also a new build) that I found to be quite noticeably poorer in quality.
The benefit of a new build is that they have to fix any snags that occur within the first 2 years, sometimes you have to be quite pushy with them but we’ve found CCing someone high up at head office always gets a quick response 😊

We live in a 1500 sq ft 3 story detached and the noise does carry through in certain areas. The hallway in the centre is open to the top floor, so probably helps this. Ours is 10 years old, so things might have changed. It does warm up very quickly though, which is a definite positive.

When we were looking we found the gardens on new builds to be smaller compared to house, and mostly in shade.

Thin walls is a myth - new new build houses and flats post apporx 2003 have much better building regs re sound transfer to adhere to.

Ours is 8 years old, very well insulated and never hear the neighbours (we only have them one side) at all. I’d never go back to an older house I don’t think.

it's interesting to hear from yourselves. i do like new builds but also a little older but not too old like ours. i have to try and bribe my dh to take a look to get the feel of it.

thank you

As everyone has said, it depends on the house, the layout and each development.

We had a semi built in the early 2000s. Not brand new, it was about 4 years old. Never heard next door (with dogs and children), had a corner plot so quite big back garden but small front garden. Houses very close together, even detached. Overall, smaller room sizes and other than corner / unusual plots, not generally scope to extend.

I live in a three storey new build and the walls are paper thin. I can hear next door and my sons walking around upstairs. Lots of the houses were i live have had roof and stair issues.
It's a housing association house though so I am just happy to have somewhere to live that's affordable :)

I live in a new build. Persimmon built it so not the best reputation but I’ve had no major problems. Lived here two years and can’t hear neighbours through wall, no problems with noise. The snagging list was no longer than we had prepared ourselves for. Bathrooms and kitchen fitted fine, not super premium or anything but because they are new they look nice and will last longer than if we’d bought an old house with a kitchen we didn’t like. Most of the rooms are a decent size too -huge master bedroom with en-suite on 2nd floor, and 1st floor has two decent doubles a family bathroom and a tiny box room (fine as a nursery but we might change it to office in future). No separate dining room but living and kitchen are both big enough. Plenty of hallway cupboards for storage too.

Garden is a decent size too. We bought it using the help to buy scheme so we managed to get much better new build house than if we’d bought old-build.

So is Bellway the worst? As there are new houses getting built not far from here as like to keep it near where we are now, due my children's schools.

Thank you again.

See I live in a semi built in 1905 and the party wall is mega thin can hear the neighbours etc.

So you just don’t know.

TBH I think Persimmon has a worse reputation than Bellway. My best friend bought a Bellway at the same time as I bought a persimmon and I think they seemed to be more ‘on the ball’ with the snagging than persimmon were. She moved in 4 months later than promised. Some of the properties on my Persimmon development completed 6/7 months later than first promised. Mine was a bit different as it was already built (previous buyers pulled out last minute - apparently financial circumstances), so only completed a month late.