Would you buy a new build house?

[Cowsontheloose]

Just that really. Would you buy a new build house?
We bought one 5.5 years ago and I love the fact that everything was new and we didn't have to worry.
My mum told us we were making a huge mistake and that we should never have bought it.
She has since come round and now likes it but says she would never buy one for herself.
I was just wondering peoples opinions.

I have just moved in to a new build. Being a smaller family builder we were able to contribute to internal decisions, such as designing kitchen, choosing doors, and making minor internal changes. After moving from a 20+ year old house which was starting to require maintenance it is reassuring that everything is new with lots of insulation and solar panels and shouldn't require major works for a few years. You also know the price you pay on day one. Having looked at other older properties and lost out because the offer wasn't high enough it was good to know that we weren't competing with others.

Maybe, I can see the attraction but the truth is I find old period houses much more charming and are drawn to them more . I like exposed beams, big fireplaces, oak floor boards etc I love that aesthetic , but ca. see the practicality of a new build, easy to heat and maintain etc. so maybe.

The one comment I’d make though is the majority of new builds are small rooms, on big busy estates and small overlooked gardens, however I’ve noticed on these threads everyone who posts who bought a new build tells us it’s massive with massive garden and huge drive. So I am not sure they are representative really of what people think when they think new build. It’s a total disconnect

No, I only like old houses. High ceilings , solid, character . I couldn’t buy a new build box. You have to love old houses to put with them being cold in winter / being money pits though.

I’ve lived a new build (bought in 2008), 1960s, 1930s and early 1900s houses. New build by far and away the best. Warm. Good layout. Manageable garden.

Older houses chew up money with the need for constant repairs. And to be honest the bigger gardens are pain in the backside.

But what if the people who comment that their newbuild is well built, spaceous with a decent garden and ample parking are only reporting their own experiences, do you ignore them because they don't conform to the "all newbuilds are pokey with no parking" mantra?

Had 30's, 50's & 70's houses and now in our newbuild (2022).
Happiest in our new house as it is spaceous, warm, cheap to run and the design ticked practically all the boxes that we had learnt we wanted over the previous 35-years.
No low ceilings (8ft 4in), two full height storage cupboards on the ground floor, driveway parking for 3-cars plus garage and a generous garden. All the things a newbuild shouldn't have but many do.

I expect a newbuild starter home from Taylor Wimpy (for instance) may suffer all you say but don't set these as the benchmark.

The only massive, spacious, lovely farden new builds I've seen around mine were £££££££. Of course they exist! But gosh, the price tag and only few around from what I've seen

I can certainly see the appeal. My sibling has bought a detached on a new build estate - that will suit their needs and family.

But it's a no from me. I find them soulless and repetetive Plus the spec is questionable on so many I have seen.

No. You get more bangs for your buck with a second-hand house, and I see no point in paying for modern decor which I don't like anyway, and carpets and white goods from a limited range. Modern houses have increasingy small windows, so they tend to be darker than, say, 1960s/1870s ones- living in dark houses makes me depressed.
An electrician friend tells me the 'design life' of modern houses is actually pretty short- I think he said 70 years. I think that's pretty grim, as my present house is about 100 years old and should be good for at least another hundred, probably two, and maybe a lot longer than that. And I have had friends get into a terrible mess with a bady built new house- though of course that can happen with an old one, in their case the house had to be demolished- in fact, I think the whole (small) estate had to be.
Having said all that, modern houses are warmer and cheaper to run (though I'd still go for a 2nd hand modern one because that's cheaper) and either all the problems have been ironed out, or at least, my surveyor can see them.

I think the warmth and running cost really depends. My house keeps better temp and my bills are half to a friend in new build. On the other hand another new build nearby is apparently way better than mine (friend of friend in it).
Older houses also don't have to be money pits.

We are in a new build and struggle with its lack of character. It feels a bit too ‘Essex’ for me and if I could afford to, I would buy an older house but housing stock is dire round here so prices are sky high for older properties.

I have had friends who’ve brought new build houses on large developments and every time it has been problem after problem. The gardens are about 20ft deep and so overlooked on every angle.

I could imagine buying a unique property on a defined plot (if I ever had thet much money which is unlikely!) but not as part of a big development. I think it is the bulk building that seems to feed into lack of quality.

I am also haunted by a viewing of a new property when DD was little and we could hear the people looking round the semi next door, we were looking round a ‘detached’ house with about 3ft gap from that property and could hear everything they said. DH came down the stairs and tripped and left a dent in the turn of stairs and the patio doors almost coming off their sliders. I couldn’t see the house lasting six months with us living in it.

We lived on a new build estate. I quite liked the house, but we moved in the end for a number of reasons.

First, the Housing Association moved some ‘problem families’ onto the estate. Most of the people in social housing were lovely (my dad grew up in SH, and so did my cousins and my closest friend), but you only need one or two bad apples and they cause misery. They parked their cars wherever they liked, let their (numerous) kids vandalise property, woke us up at three in the morning. The final straw was a police helicopter being called in!! Seems that even if you work hard and save your money you can’t escape people like that.

Second, the feeling of suffocation. Developers seem to begrudge every inch of space. All they care about is money, so they’ll build as small as they can, and squeeze as many little rabbit hutches on top of one another as possible. Again, most people are OK, but you only need one noisy fecker and life become unbearable (especially for an introvert like me who craves space and silence).

Third, having too many people on top of you. There were just too many people around me. Like I said, I’m an introvert and need a lot of silence and alone time. Every time I set foot outside the door I seemed to run into somebody.