“Can’t stand the lack of parking, everyone knowing everyone’s business and kids playing all over the street and abandoning bikes and scooters in the road. Having a new front door or railings or shutters and everyone else copying you. I could go on, cheap kitchens, skinny skirting boards, cheap shower cubicles, nasty tiling and taps and worktops, no cornices, horrid doors, no character”
This. Cheap everything as only chosen to make a profit. Plus no storage. Too many houses on the land available so they all feel very squashed together and with barely any parking for visitors. Some of them are on dodgy land that shouldn’t have been built on iMO so that there are problems with drainage in gardens. Ie homeowners gets an expensive new lawn laid and then wonders why it looks so shit after 6 months.
Low ceilings. Space given to unnecessary en suite in 3 bed small semis so that second and third bedroom are too small. Poor kitchen diners so that you end up with barely any work surface (people forget that you need space for microwave, kettle, toaster, maybe a radio etc). Owners end up prepping food in a tiny gap. If it’s all open plan you’ve lost wall space on which to put cupboards so not enough cupboard storage either. Would be ok if the diner part was big enough to put a dresser/unit but they’re often tiny. It’s all done for profit and it’s hard to undo the poor quality eg kitchen layout is for a single oven combined with grill , which is fine in a holiday home but if you’re at all interested in cooking you’re going to want a separate oven/grill combo in addition to that.
When you look round show homes they have undersized furniture eg v small dining table or only one sofa and a chair etc to try and hide the fact that they are a lot smaller in proportion than an older traditional semi.
Erm... what else....no porches. You walk in the front door and the stairs are straight in front of you. So where do you put coats and shoes and umbrellas? Push chair and rain cover? Keys? Dirty wellies? Etc? Stuff you want to put by the front door to remind you to post?
Lots of estates don’t even have any pavements, that’s just weird. but probably because they’re huge and sprawling and have no amenities or even bus stops so you have no choice but to drive if you want to pick up a load of bread, like some places in the USA.
Poor investment. In real terms (and sometimes actual) many small new build semis have lost value in the last 10-15 years, whereas, say, a small Victorian terrace will have gone up loads. Too many are new builds are leasehold round here which is a REALLY poor idea and should be made illegal. Often house builders only got permission to build on the land by agreeing to make them leasehold with various conditionsz. Buyers don’t seem to be aware of the implications and have a head in the sand mentality about it. They should ask themselves what the land had been used for before and eg if the land was just unused previously why did the 60s/70s estate adjoining it not reach as far as that? Why now was it only just being built on after many years with no houses on? Could it have been that it was considered unsuitable for building in the 60s/70s because of eg poor drainage/risk of flooding but because of the housing shortage now, rules seem to have been relaxed somewhat?
brownfield sites are different. Change of use of the land can be fine. Eg lack of interest in out of town uni residential blocks because everyone wants to live in town these days. So land is sold off and outdated 60s student accommodation knocked down and decent new builds go up in their place instead. You pay for it though....
Even some of the expensive new builds annoy me so much. If on a main road they are built forward, too close to the road, compared to surrounding older houses which are on bigger plots. I would NOT be paying half a million quid for a house where my bedroom window is only a few feet away from people staring at me from the top deck of a bus. For that money I’d expect a decent driveway and front garden space so the hkuse was set well back from the road like the older much cheaper houses down the road!!
Can you tell I’m not fan?! 
So no, over my dead body would we buy a new build on an estate. If I had the money I’d buy a big posh one on a very small development maybe.
I think people are blinded by the newness of the show home when they compare it to lookign round an older semi which has swirly carpet everywhere and needs new kitchen and bathroom and decorating everywhere. But given the choice between ready to move into new build and older semi that needed work I woukd choose the project every time.