Old house VS new built

[Lskz]

Hi everyone,

We are having a dilemma with two properties and hope you can give some advice or share your opinion.
We placed an offer for a “old 3bed semi” and also interested in 3bed new built semi and trying to decide which one to choose in case our offer gets accepted.here are some deatails:

1. 3 bed old
   driveway parking for 3 cars
   Good sized rooms
   Separate dining room
   Needs some work( painting, changing carpet upstairs, maybe change kitchen and fence in the garden.
   Close to town Center
   Will be part of chain( as the current owners haven’t started to look for a new one)

2. new built, outskirts of town
   ready to move in
   Garage
   Good size rooms and garden for new built
   Open plan kitchen/dining/lounge
   2 streets away social housing will be built as the development is from HA( we are private buyers, paying full price)

We like both, new built that’s all new and doesn’t require any extra work. But old one is bit bigger in size( separate lounge, diner and kitchen) and close to the town Center. And with improvements we could sell for higher price. Price wise, the new one is more expensive( potentially 40k difference) and we need to apply for help to buy. We are FTB with enough savings to afford a mortgage to buy a second hand property but need to give away all our savings and the refurb slowly not at once. With help to buy you could leave around 10k in the bank account( but then we would owe a huge amount to the gov-t) What do you prefer, old or new built? What else we should consider when choosing between them? Every opinion/thought would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I would avoid the help to buy, given that you have another option that you like and can afford. They can be a pain to sell on, if you need to.

It'll also need just as much upkeep as any other house, once the initial shine has worn off, if not more if fittings turn out to be poor quality.

Old

A friend of mine owns a new build. He says he regrets it now. They’ve been in 2 years and it’s already showing a great deal of wear and tear.
I would always go older property and have done.

The old house!

I've been a serial renter and have lived in so many different types of properties over the years. When I buy my own house I will avoid new builds and anything with entirely open plan living space. New builds tend to have thin walls so you will hear everything from one room to another. The open plan kitchen/diner/living room drives me nuts because it never stays tidy for long and everything gets greasy/smelly from whatever you're cooking. Plus if you have the washing machine or tumble dryer on you can't hear the tv (especially during fast spin). New builds on new housing estates/cul de sacs are awful for parking, if you have visitors or more than one car and your garden is likely to be overlooked form every direction/angle. Room proportions will be smaller. And your probably never get your car into the garage. Fixtures and fittings are likely to be cheap and will wear quickly.

And new builds are terrible for storage

The old one
New builds have not ‘settled’ yet and houses are not built to last.

Would you only rent the land from the developer on the new build??

Old, never ever a brand new build. New build of a couple of years old then maybe as the issues will have been ironed out with the previous owners dealing.

I do live in a relatively new build, but the previous two sets of owners had to deal with all the issues that arose so we haven't had any. I agree with the parking issue, we have room for two cars but most houses only have room for one and there are restricted covenants on most new builds which you need to look into.

Based on your information, the old house. Why? Location. Location every time. You can change the house but not the location.

Usually the walls on a new build are thin, the roads outside are narrow so that there are parking problems, and the gardens are small.
It's a no brainer -older house every time

Old. Separate living and dining rooms are a huge advantage. New houses are being literally thrown up and are not quality builds. The nearby social housing is not an issue, but the high likelihood of cheap build problems definitely is.
I'd not buy a house under 5 years old. If it's for sale after a matter of months then that's a house with ishoos.

Old

old all the way! How old is it btw?

There really isn't any good long term reason to go for the more expensive house in the less desirable area.

Wow, thanks a lot!! I am more for old one but my other half prefers new one cause it is ready to move in.
Here are the links:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-73018259.html
New :
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72265025.html

Thanks a lot for sharing your opinions

Haven’t asked the ea at this point, could you guess by the pic?

Ah, also. With the new build we should pay £31 monthly on street maintenance as it is the houses are not under council but will be paying council tax as well. Sounds dodgy for me as I ve never heard of it before

The old one is just walking distance from a mainline stn. Downstairs is better. In new one upstairs sounds better. Old one is a no brainer imo.

How long are you expecting to live there?
Do you have/plan to have children? Where and what are the schools/nurseries/GP practices like?

Town centre would be my choice and would appeal to a greater variety of buyers in the longer term.

Small niggle but the new build doesn't have room for a dining table from the look of it.

The new one is going to be a Private road. This means it is not adopted by the Council. In other words, the residents pay for the maintenance. That’s why they are asking for monthly contributions. It will form a fund to
pay for repairs when needed. You have to hope the road is well constructed and repairs won’t be significant. As the estate gets older, it’s not great to have this arrangement. I wonder why it’s not being adopted? Most new estate roads are. They are often designed to be narrow by the way. It slows cars down and is safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

The new builds are on an old RAF base and a bit remote from LB in my view. I do know LB a bit. I think you would get a better sense of being in a town with the older one. With the new house, you could be anywhere. Who is the developer?

I think the older one needs work though so I would check prices in the locality and work out if this is a good price or not. You don’t want to over spend on doing it up. The separate kitchen and dining wouldn’t do for me, but it’s serviceable. You could add value by painting it inside and doing more with the rear garden. You can gradually get this house as you want it. There is definitely room to extend. Get the flat roof checked out though. These are not cheap to put right if it’s in its last legs.

It’s not helpful being in a chain but at least you are at the bottom of it. I would see what offer they will take. I feel it is reasonably priced to sell but try and get a bit off!

Old.

We were in a similar- ish position. With the new build we were also put off by the 'extras' we would need to pay for and the fact that these could soon mount up. We have gone for the older house. Dh particularly swayed by the loft being boarded out.

Old - location is always the real deal for me

Let's just say I'm party to how new houses are built these days. I wouldn't buy one with stolen money. They are throwing them up to meet the government's housing targets. Go old, you have a better chance of it remaining standing.

The other thing is room sizes. Houses are getting smaller and builders will use under sized furniture.

We are currently in a 3 bed detached (ne/cheap area) and looked at 4 bed new build detacheds. The one had a detached garage (ours is integral) and had a smaller footprint than ours. Therefore 4 beds were in less space then we have 3. The rooms were tiny.

Agree about room sizes. The latest thing...garages that will house a car but not big enough to open the doors. How useful!

Old. Every time.

We bought a new build (because it was shared ownership) as our first house. No storage, thin walls, way too compact and felt like it wasn't a real house. Couldn't wait to move. Now live in an old house and its much better.

One thing to point out to your DH. It might be ready to move in but you'll still want to put your stamp on it. Probably slightly less work but worth the extra work for an old build. Plus when you buy new you can't decorate for the first year while the house settles and the snagging list can be astronomical. My friend moved into one and the problems were unless....rain coming in through the edges of windows, guttering not done properly, mastic not finished in many places, gaps above door frames. Took about 2 years to get sorted. OK that's the extreme but even our new build had problems (abeilt far less serious). It's not as cut and dry as saying new build is ready to move into. They can be of course but you need to think long term.