Would you buy in an estate all the locals had objected to?

[StopTouchingYourFairyGarden]

There's a village near us that is our dream location - small, quaint, seaside with a large park and a train link we need for commuting. We love it there and visit regularly. We've been looking to buy there for years but nothing has come up. It's very expensive and there are lots of small flats, small bungalows and then large £1m+ houses. Not much in the middle.

A firm of builders has secured planning permission for family homes in an estate. It was objected to HUNDREDS of times by locals who are all very upset about it 'ruining' the village.

Would you buy there? It may be the only way we can ever live in that location as so few family homes come on the market but I'd hate to live in a small village feeling like everyone resented our home even existing?!

I'll never be able to persuade DH to buy a new build so it's probably all pie in the sky, but a girl can dream...

@CamVegOut

Off point but what is people's problem with new builds. All houses were new builds once. Houses which are 20/30/40/50 years old will have to be upgraded if bought by someone. Old houses are badly insulated, crap windows and wiring compared to new builds.

I think now that new build are built on a budget to make the most money.

I know a few people that have bought new builds and probably 70% had water leaks either from the bathroom or through the roof within the first 6 months/first winter heavy rain.

I don’t think the Victorians built houses with top spec materials either.

I have a newbuild, I love it. Yes I would definitely move there still in your situation.
You also end up making friends easily because everyone is new.
You usually get snagging ours was minimal and sorted promptly.
We did up a house before buying a new build and it was hard work. Being able to move in with it all brand new was absolutely lovely.
I would buy a newbuild again.

I agree with PP that house prices went up as the building of the development progressed and have still after we purchased.
Two people sold theirs homes on the development one downsizing another split up from their partner and got an extra 30,000 on their sale after living in there for a year.
They both sold really fast as did another one recently.

Analyse your plot make sure the parking will be sufficient i.e the other houses have big enough drives as well as yours, our developer made sure drives and space were sufficient so we have no parking issues.
Also make sure you use your own solicitors never theirs.
Have a walk around see how it all is.
See if the development has a Facebook page you can ask questions to current residents seeing what they think.
Hope it goes well for you OP.

Generally new-builds need a lot of snagging, as the big builders outsource the individual trades & jobs fall between contractors.

However, I have family that bought a house off a smaller developer and it's really well-built & warm, unlike my characterful but freezing house.

Absolutely, my last village had similar issues, mostly NIMBYs claiming infrastructure but it was fine. Integration wasn't an issue at all.

As for those saying new builds are poorly built, that's as moronic as saying all old houses have a toilet outside. Hundreds of thousands of houses are built every year, some are shite and some are perfect. Expect snagging because they are built by humans not robots, but so long as you research the customer service of the developer you're buying from and they are sound then there's no reason to believe you'll have a negative experience. I've lived in 4 new builds and every one of them has been great, our current is our long term home but I wouldn't hesitate to buy new again.

These threads always make me laugh "my friend told me this" "my uncle said they were made of match sticks" "I'm in the trade" few other topics seem to generate so many experts.

All development in all villages is always objected to by nimby residents.

When the new houses are built new residents move into them and, when further development is proposed, they become the nimbys and object to it. The cycle continues ad infinitum.

user85963842 I don’t know if it always generates experts. I guess house building is a massive business, so many different trades employed either full time or on an adhoc basis. Personally I was part of a sales team for Linden Homes and we’d get shunted from one development to another for 2-3 months at a time as they neared completion. This was over a decade ago so things may have changed now but absolutely every single tradesman on these developments told us they were built to an awful standard and were all completely open about it. I remember showing one couple round a home, I was struggling with the lock on the door and the entire handle fell off in my hand 🤦‍♀️. They didn’t buy it for some reason.

I’m sure it varies from developer to developer and hopefully standards are higher these days. It put me off ever wanting to buy a new build though!

I'd think very carefully - isn't the "quaint environment" one of the things you like about the place? That might be changed by a clump of near identical boxes being plonked in the middle. What starts out looking amazing at planning can be watered down as the project progresses.

@KevinTheBird I get that I do, I wouldn't touch Persimmon as I've heard way too many bad things for example (but I'm sure plenty are happy with their homes)

You're biased because of your experience and I'm biased because of mine, but it's just impossible to generalise, new vs old is just too broad a topic.

Ours was built by a National developer, some people have had negative experiences with them, a lot actually I'm sure, but our site manager is amazing and every little snag I've had has been resolved within days so I would thoroughly recommend this development to anyone.

I'd take a very close look at the planning comments first.

We have a planning battle at the moment. A developer wants to add 400 hundred houses to a village of 210 houses, with no shop, pub or school. They want to put the access road in an accident blackspot with 17 road accidents over the last four years. The site floods every year and the village road is closed. Broadband is max 34mb for 210 houses. No sign of the developer providing an upgrade.

People usually have a reason to object.

Yes sure, once it’s there they’ll all get used to it

I live in Milton Keynes and have just moved to a new build location. Our new estate is right next door to Woburn Sands, which seems to be a 50:50 split. Locals even complaining that our estate will ruin their doctors surgery.

It's a well built, lovely home in a fantastic town. We have room for our children. The home was built on an old golf course. They are building a school and shops on the estate next.

We love it here, we're not in their village, we are next door. Go for it!

Thanks everyone. A mix of responses! Lots of food for thought. I struggle to see how else we can get a suitable house there given their rarity and expense so we'll keep an eye on the development and see. It's still at a fairly early stage (building starting later this year) but the planning history has been very fraught.

All my neighbours objected to my house Being built. That was ten years ago - they were all lovely when I moved in (I only found out later about the objections) and they have all moved house now.

So yes I would

People usually have a reason to object.

But they're usually selfish reasons and then they seek out legitimate reasons to satisfy their selfish reason for not wanting them, the village I was in swore blind the traffic infrastructure wouldn't survive, Highways England were not concerned and said as much in their report but villagers continued to lobby that there would be issues, of course it was built and it was fine.

Sure it was all about the traffic, nothing to do with their view being decimated by houses...

Yes, people always want there to be no more building in an area once they themselves have secured a house.

It wouldn't put me off if the builder was good. Nice places to live need families or else they end up full of old people and holiday homes, this leads no amenities eventually.

I live in a London suburb that had a huge brownfield development. Not a single local would buy one of those houses, not because of the infrastructure problems, but because we knew the land was radioactive I’m not even joking, it’s capped. Same with another one in north London which is next to sewage works and absolutely stinks.

So for those reasons I wouldn’t buy a new build - it’s the last of the usable land if you see what I mean. There’s probably a reason no one built on it before.

If you don’t someone else will do why Shouldn’t you?

@Hardchoices

Even a £750k new build will have issues. All you have to do is google the developers. No matter how “high end” a new build is - they are all built using the same materials. Take it from someone who knows 😉.

Of course houses are built with the same materials, be it bricks, timber frame, breeze blocks or whatever, whether your house is old or new, what do you expect the more expensive houses to be built from? Gold bars? what a ridiculous comment.

Yes, I would! Why should little villages not have any affordable housing, it’s not fair for first time buyers, low earner etc. Village life shouldn’t be just for the rich and privileged.

I would and I have. I would echo what other posters have said about choosing your plot carefully.

Whilst there were objections to our estate, most now recognise that it has breathed new life the village with clubs and societies now having waiting lists, village events are now bustling with families which is great. The school is full but it was built after the development was approved and the council was told that this would happen. Another thing was that another road was built by the developer, taking through traffic out of the village which was a boon.

Choose wisely and expect snagging, it’s normal as houses settle. And don’t be put off by those who would never buy a new build, I know some who are currently complaining about their freezing cold houses as I sit in my very toasty new build!

My new build isn't ' terribly built ' .. they aren't all like that!

I live in a very similar sounding village in one of the new build estates (Although my partners family have lived in the village for 200+ years)

Absolutely the 'locals' whinge and whine about new builds. Does anyone care? Nope. Will you be whinging about the new builds in 30 years time when they add more? Maybe!

Honestly, the people on my estate (mostly all moved from London and new to the area) are the best neighbours I could ever wish for. And when you are spending your money in the local pub, cafe, butchers etc, the locals certainly won't mind what part of the village you are from. Go for it.