Are there any new build developers you WOULD recommend

[Comps83]

New builds get a lot of bad press but are there any decent developers who don't build snag filled cardboard houses with loads of unhappy customers ?

Our house is Barratt and superb, being such a large developer you need to research the local site because it'll depend on how good the local team is, I know others have had issues with Barratt in other areas. Our site have won awards for 2 years running. We had a snagger around who did a snagging report, 60 very minor snags reported (so minor it was really embarrassing when they came to fix because I couldn't see where the problems were!) and everything was fixed within 2 weeks. If the odd thing comes up I report it, get a response within a day and someone around within a couple days.

They called us every week for a good 3 months to check everything was ok. Someone popped by after the storm last month to check all was ok (it was).

Honestly can't fault them. House is beautiful, very good quality, no "cardboard" in sight.

I think they only build in Ayrshire, but Hope Homes have an excellent reputation. I have friends who live in their houses, and love them. A few years ago I lived across the road from a site being developed by Hope Homes, and they were very good at keeping us up-dated as neighbours.

It’s a family business and their daughter has her own business now, the Wee House Co.

I'm in a David Wilson Homes' house. We paid for an independent survey after we moved in and the surveyor said it was well-built and couldn't find much to fault with it. We reported a few minor issues and had some snags but they were all corrected. I think David Wilson Homes is split up into regional companies but I haven't got any issues recommending ours. There haven't been any serious complaints about them on our neighbourhood Facebook group. I've been in my home 18 months from new.

I have a Redrow and had it from new in 2015. It still looks brand new, we look after and maintain everything and everything is still working fine. Had a snagging list of my own when we initially moved in (very minor things, me being very particular), all were sorted out by the after care team. We had a two year warranty from Redrow and 10 year NHBC warranty. Everything was immaculate and clean when we moved in. I would never buy a “second hand” home ever again.

Seems the smaller firms are the best which isn't surprising

@comps88 how did you work that out from this thread lol? Of the 4 responses you've had, 3 of them recommended a large national builder!

@bluepie whoops my bad
Barrett's the only one I'd heard of
Mustn't get many of the others in my area they're all persimmon , Taylor Wimpey + Keepmoat

Another Barratt home here and it is superb. In a terrace and it is so well sound insulated I can’t hear neighbours and they can’t hear us. Customer service has been great too - quick response to snagging and any ongoing issues. I would definitely buy Barratt or David Wilson.

I have a different experience of Barratt, unfortunately! Lived in one of their houses when it was a few years old - still under the 10 year guarantee. It had a sort of porch with its own roof, and one stormy night, the rain started coming in. And it was months before they did anything about it. Months of a soggy ceiling, dodging buckets on the floor, managing without lighting in the hallway because water and electric weren't a good combination, etc. Several other houses on the street developed the same issue around the same time, so there was no question of it being down to the design or build quality, but they were in no hurry to address it.

Very happy with my Bovis, but they're very site dependent. Pretty happy with my previous Bloor too. Cala have a good reputation, but not good enough to command the premium price in my opinion. Redrow have fabulous house types, but quality seems regional judging by state of show homes we saw.

Countryside here. Used very good quality materials but workmanship could be patchy. So eg brickwork was excellent, but on the small estate some issues with plumbing, snagging took a long time, the house was handed over to us very much with construction dust and debris. I do think as another pp said it depends on the quality and supervision from the site team.

I have been in my house for just over 20 years and am about to replace bathrooms, kitchen etc but they are not totally knackered even with family use. But I wouldnt choose to live on a building site again