New build or slightly older house decision time help!

[6poundshower]

We are completely stuck in making this decision so any help will really be appreciated.

We are looking to move within the catchment, which is relatively small - a small town in the middle of England. There are 2-3 house options:

Option 1 is a new build, on a shiny new estate. It is a 3 bed, over 3 floors. We can negotiate a good deal with the builder. It has a really nice master suite up at the top of the house. Rest of house isn't tiny but as with most new builds there is less overall space/storage than we might ideally like. We could make it work. There's no garage, so some storage would be needed in the garden which is approx 5x10m.

Option 2 is about 20 years old, on an estate of that age. It has 4-5 bedrooms, also over 3 floors but not the very beautiful master of the other house. Rest of the house is spacious including separate utility, lots of storage. Has a garage. Garden the same size as the other. Not in quite as nice a location, a bit more hemmed in among neighbours.

Both these houses are about the same distance from schools and amenities.

Option 3 is we buy neither of these houses and wait to see what comes on the market.

If we don't decide today one or both will be gone, as the market round here is still moving relatively quickly on houses of this type.

We don't have a huge family - 1 child. Could have more but we're in our 40s and not trying. Not a lot of belongings as we've been renting a tiny 2-bed and need to have a clear out anyway.

We spent the weekend trying to decide and now frustrating ourselves by wavering between the 2 houses, have tried writing out the pros and cons of each, imagining life in each, telling ourselves to 'just pick one'. etc etc. - still going back and forth. There is no terrible decision here, 1st world problems and all that - but how do we decide?

We're honestly starting to tire of even thinking about it... just going over and over the same ground..

Are people honestly prepared to buy a smaller house, which has a new build premium, to avoid the limited maintenance a 20 year old property might have?

It seems like a massive disproportionate fear about what is likely to be some small things, that can be done when you’re ready and able to get them sorted….and often might not exist.

Houses last decades and centuries. Everything doesn’t need replacing every 10 or 20 years.

And consider the longer term….buying new and paying the premium, so you can move again in 10 years, is probably a false economy. Moving is hugely expensive. It is usually better to stretch and buy a bigger house that you can stay in longer, than to keep moving. This kind of thing should outweigh the fact a house might have a 20 year old roof or a bathroom that doesn’t have the latest tiles. The costs of moving and new house premiums far exceed what a couple of new bathrooms might cost..and of course, replacing them won’t be crucial anyway.

I’d calculate the cost of moving again, with stamp duty, estate agent fees etc. I’d calculate the new build premium. Think about how many changes to the house (or other things) you can have for that money. And don’t give in to the fear that you can’t cope with any kind of minor maintenance. 20 year old houses won’t need much. Little bits. It’s fine. You can get someone into do it if you want to. Don’t allow that fear to put you in a smaller house without a garage that is more likely to force you to move sooner.

If you’re trying if it, simply leave it and don’t buy either. Wait for Option 3 which is better.

The thing with the maintenance though is that a 20 year old house is just getting to the point where it will need a fair bit of maintenance. A brand new house won’t need that maintenance for the next 15-20 years (and the first 10 are usually covered by a warranty).

What kind of maintenance do you think a 20 year old property usually needs?

In which case I'd hold out for an older house where proper pipework etc has been used.

I think there's no right answer to this but I know you get better value with an older house in terms of space, ceiling height, storage etc.

I’ve listed above all the maintenance we’ve had to do on our 25 year old house in the past 5 years, could you have a look for that or shall I write it all out again? Another poster had a similar list.

None of it was because things weren’t ‘brand new and shiny’ by the way, it was all stuff that needed doing/replacing. We haven’t done any cosmetic work to it at all bar painting the walls.

Just to expand on my earlier post a bit because there's obviously some different experiences of what a 20 year old house might be like....we've done more than this but this is the list of work we've done in the last 2 years on our 25 year old house and would have been musts within a 5 and definitely 10 year timer period...
All windows and two sets of rear patio doors (£19k)
Kitchen needed replacing as the units were in a bad way plus we needed to replace all the original built in appliances, the oven was broken and the under counter fridge/freezer were small and iced up the minute you put a week's shopping in them (£20k inc electrics and plumbing as we chose to move some stuff around)
When doing the kitchen we had to have a new consumer unit (main board for electrics) because it wasn't up to the standard where the kitchen work could be signed off (£1k)
The ensuite had been replaced and so had the hot water system because the year before it had broken and flooded the kitchen so we were lucky in that regard but again, was a 20 year old house type problem. Don't know what it cost them but they had a megaflow put in and we did that in a previous house and it was a couple of thousand (I've not included this in the total).
The main bathroom shower leaked and there was a crack in the bath. (£5.5k shopped around heavily for this price)
Holes in the carpet in places and discoloured (£5k for re-flooring the house, laminate downstairs and carpet upstairs)
Paintwork everywhere was very tired and dirty (did a lot of this ourselves but what we didn't do cost £2k)
Both garage doors broken and needed replacing (£650)
So total cost of work that we had to do about £65k, 4 bed detached, South East just outside Zone 6. Maybe could have fitted cheaper kitchen and windows but it's worth having an idea of the scale of what you might be taking on.

Option 2. Always pick a utility and garage.

A lot basically, because after 20 years most of the fittings on a modern house will be worn out. This is especially true since a lot of the original fittings may not be the highest of quality because as I said before people tend to buy houses on space, location, number of bedrooms etc, not the state or quality of the boiler or radiators.

So :

External Doors/garage Doors : Bog standard wooden doors will last about 20 years. And 20 year old locks are unlikely to be up to the current security ratings. Internal doors are normally ok unless you've had a squad of kids bashing them.

Boilers : Cheap boilers again about 20 years.

Kitchens and bathrooms : I would say approx 15-20 years is the lifetime for these.

Wooden Fences : Again 20 years. Replacement is obviously a lot easier and cheaper if there are concrete posts already in place. Again if they have been properly treated and painted maybe a bit longer.

windows : From my experience a bit longer. Decent UPVC windows you can get 30 years out of.

Radiators : I would say 25-30 years but depends on whether inhibitor properly used and magnetic traps.

CH pipework : I would say again 25-30 years.

water cylinder (if one) : I would say 30 years.

Electrics : I would guess 30 years for rewire, but you'll probably find within 20 the regs will have changed a lot, especially since around 2000.

Plasterwork/woodwork : Depends on how the house has been used. Some of the rooms I have are pristine after 20 years, others have been hacked and bashed. Also depends a lot whether there have been kids in the house as they often bash the hell out of skirting boards with their toys for example.

So when you look at the above around 20 years is the max lifespan for a lot of the internal fittings. Of course a lot of the above can vary dependent on how well you look after it and how much use its getting in terms of people in it.

A lot depends on how well the house has been maintained and you can generally get a good idea of that when viewing.

Plus nowhere does the OP state the house hasn't been touched since new. It may have had a new boiler etc since then. Bit odd to just assume everything in a 20 year old house is coming to the end of it's life and nothing has been replaced already.

Honestly, given that there isn't much in the differences between the houses I'd let the deciding factor be the neighbours - it's going to be your family home, ie the one you live in with your DC, so I'd lean towards an area with families and kids the same age, opportunities to play/hang out etc for DC. Especially with an only it's fantastic to have other kids in the area for them to be able to independently meet up as they get older. Not sure how much you're realistically able to find out about the neighbours though.

I’m not sure anyone did assume that, did they?
I said above that it depends what work the previous owners have done. The OP said she didn’t think much had been done at all since it was new.

I'm not sure a 20 year old property requires the maintenance you think. We're in a 1960s house and haven't needed to do much in the last 6 years. Replacement fences, cavity wall insulation, fixing flashing on the porch and replacing a window pane is the only real maintenance.

External Doors/garage Doors : Bog standard wooden doors will last about 20 years. And 20 year old locks are unlikely to be up to the current security ratings. Internal doors are normally ok unless you've had a squad of kids bashing them. Our door is a UPVC door that was installed before the last owners bought the house in 1997. Not the trendiest but still works like a door. The garage door looked like it hadn't been touched since the house was built in the 60s but we sanded and repainted it. It looks nice now and works fine.
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Boilers : Cheap boilers again about 20 years. Ours was installed 18 years ago. It's had a yearly service and aside from a leak (fixed for £40 by the plumber across the road) hasn't had any issues.

Kitchens and bathrooms : I would say approx 15-20 years is the lifetime for these. This is fair if it hasn't been updated. Even some newer builds around here could do with new kitchens. Cheap quality and not to the buyer's taste. I'd rather an old kitchen so I could replace it. Instead I've been living with one I don't like because it's not past it's prime and seems too wasteful replacing it. The previous owners installed it in 2012.

Wooden Fences : Again 20 years. Replacement is obviously a lot easier and cheaper if there are concrete posts already in place. Again if they have been properly treated and painted maybe a bit longer. This is fair. We replaced standard fences with concrete posts and panels a year ago. It was 3k. If concrete posts are already there, it's not something I'd think about. You can easily replace individual panels as you need them.

windows : From my experience a bit longer. Decent UPVC windows you can get 30 years out of. Ours were put in by the owners before last. No idea how old they are (1997 minimum) but they're all fine. Only two windows were replaced by the previous owners. We replaced a pane but not the whole window after a bird flew into one.

Radiators : I would say 25-30 years but depends on whether inhibitor properly used and magnetic traps. I don't know if we have an inhibitor or magnetic traps but ours have been fine.

CH pipework : I would say again 25-30 years. Again, no idea how old ours are but they're fine.

water cylinder (if one) : I would say 30 years. Never had one so no idea.

Electrics : I would guess 30 years for rewire, but you'll probably find within 20 the regs will have changed a lot, especially since around 2000. Our house was rewired in 2001 by the previous owners. Never had any issues and they were up to date enough to install an electric car charger last year without any additional work.

Plasterwork/woodwork : Depends on how the house has been used. Some of the rooms I have are pristine after 20 years, others have been hacked and bashed. Also depends a lot whether there have been kids in the house as they often bash the hell out of skirting boards with their toys for example. Most people would have painted woodwork in that time. I've never noticed skirting boards and the previous owners had a boisterous toddler.

So when you look at the above around 20 years is the max lifespan for a lot of the internal fittings. Of course a lot of the above can vary dependent on how well you look after it and how much use its getting in terms of people in it.*

There are a lot of posts listing all the work that will probably need doing. I was just pointing out that some of it may have been done already. Just because kitchens and bathrooms haven't been changed, doesn't mean more important things haven't been updated/maintained so they still function as they should.

To be honest if you're faffing about this much (no offence intended) between the 2 I would think waiting is the answer.

That's a useful cost list thank you.

We now have something that might sway it. Went back to see Option 2 today. In doing so, realised the back garden is very small. Smaller than we remembered. Also, we noticed the because it is bordered by town houses on multiple sides, it really is quite dark and likely cold except for at midday. We are double checking this, but it might not be pleasant to have a garden that doesn't get much sunlight. When we visited before it was probably a cloudy day and perhaps we didn't notice, but this time there was bright sunshine.

Trouble is, the house itself in Option 2 is nicer than we remember! if the garden were not as small/dark/cold we think it would be our top choice.

There is no way to change the garden or its surrounds.

No offence taken, it's not an unreasonable comment. This is Option 3 - buy neither house and keep looking...

I would go for option 3 if you don’t love the existing choices. Spring is prime house selling season and prices are dropping in many areas as interest rates have increased.

If you really have to choose, I would say option 2 as lovely as the master suite may be in option 1, you spend most of your time in the living areas not the bedroom. Option 1 sounds cramped.

Now you've updated about the garden, I'd also go for option 3. Only you know how long you can wait and how often suitable houses come up in your area though.

At least now the market has cooled a bit, you're less likely to face as much competition for the perfect house.