New housing in the UK

[RichTea90]

Sorry this is a bit of a ranty post but I live in South East England I’m 33 years old. Trying to get on the property ladder with a 40k deposit and a joint income of £119k. We are looking at 3 bed new build as want to start a family but they’re all so expensive and about 30-40k out of our budget.

Why is the government letting all of these greedy house building companies build and sell properties that are just not affordable to normal, every day people / couples / families. I think it’s truly scandalous.

instead im staring at Rightmove looking at a lot of properties that are so outdated or falling down and we just don’t have enough money to / disposable income to then do the property up.

feeling rather stressed 😩 is anyone else in the same position or understands what I mean

Yes we are interested in the new builds in Aylesford.

In a similar situation and tied to Surrey for work OP. Housing market is an absolute shitshow. What has surprised me, having moved here from elsewhere in the U.K., is just how poor quality the housing stock is. And of course, the ridiculous prices people are asking.
FWIW, I agree with your OH on trying to work with a lower budget in the current economic climate but equally £400k isn’t going to get you much round here unless you’ve an appetite for a reno project.
It’s ok people saying “move further out” but if it lands one or both of you with significantly longer/more expensive commutes and moves you a long way from your support network then that’s just creating issues down the line.
We did a bit of exploring when we first moved via short term rentals before settling on a longer term rental in the area we now want to buy in. It gave us a much better idea of where we were going to like living long term and where was beyond grim (at least one place, I will never willingly set foot in again).
It also meant we tried out the different commutes. Anything over 40 minutes one way is a deal breaker as it takes a single incident on the motorway to double that or worse and frankly the trains/buses can’t be relied upon. I drive more now than anywhere else I’ve lived bar when I was fully rural.

Going to view another potential property overpriced hovel tomorrow… wish me luck!

This was Wilson Homes, but we have 3 friends who also have new builds with different builders and had the same issue with theirs. Unless you’ve physically been sat in the office and completed your reservation, do not count on anything like that being included. All of ours said things like this in advance & online but it’s funny how quickly it all fell apart to bare bones once we were actually sitting signing on the dotted line!

They only tend to throw all of the incentives at you 1) if it’s coming to the end of a quarter/year end and they want to meet their target or 2) the house is basically done and they haven’t been able to sell it yet. If there are still plots available and the site is popular, they don’t need to throw anything at it to sell x

You can also go via Reading and be at Paddington in 25 mins from there.
Wokingham has loads of people who commute.
Or for occasional trips drive to Slough and go in from there.

Yup sounds like standard new build problems.
The ones that do have turf, seem
to flood and then people dig them up and find all kinds of builders rubbish under there.

The Facebook groups are some being to be seen. The last complaint I saw was the front door had been so badly fitted rain was coming in underneath. Then people were replying to say theirs had been like that too and it had taken years for them to admit it was wrong and replace it.
My friends new build came complete with a faulty fire but then condemned it but then refused to replace it.
Her electrics were also dodgy and an independent electrician had to fix it and said it could have been fatal if no one had realised.

Ive since spoken to two people in trades who have been offered work on new builds but refused as the amount they wanted doing in the time scale needed was so unrealistic they said it wouldn’t be possible without doing a bodge job. They didn’t want their name associated with it and couldn’t do it morally either!

My parents had a new build with DWH. Not sure if it’s the same builder? It was excellent quality, and no snags at all really. I also have friends with new builds as well. I’ve lived in both old and brand new homes. There are pros and cons to both.

The problem with older properties, is there can be a lot of hidden problems that come to light later. For example our first home suffered from damp, which we never identified in the viewing process.

I have been through a lot in the last few years, so I don’t think I have it in me to renovate as well as start a family. My hats off to those who do, but right now, I don’t have the capacity to do it. Maybe in the future. I see our next purchase as somewhere we stay for 5-10 years if I’m honest. We have found some decent properties in Kent. OH works remotely currently so that could suit us for now, and if we need to move again in the future, I guess we might be in a better position to do it once we have gained more equity.

right now I am at the end of my tether living with family, and I don’t think I can hold out for much longer, so compromises will need to be made for the sake of my sanity…

I am a bit of an overthinker so it takes me a while to make a decision. My OH is more the decisive one.

To add to this, myself and my partner aren’t the best with DIY. Partner isn’t bad but he has a high pressure job. We don’t have any contacts in the building industry etc etc. Nor do we have much savings to renovate. The deposit is £40k but we have another £30k in savings. We don’t want to lose all of our savings.

i am open to new builds from good quality builders (Not Persimmon for example), second hand newish homes that don’t require much work or older properties in a goodish condition.

I don’t think I’m being demanding, I’m just being realistic about our needs. There’s nothing wrong with that I don’t think. We all have to make the right choices for ourselves. I literally started this post to talk about how high everything is in in the south east in general. It’s difficult for us down here as we don’t get much for our money, but the wages don’t really reflect it either.

There are a few builders now all under that same “business name”, but yeah it is the same people. I would just say be wary if you think that a new build is an easy/cheap way to get a perfect home that’s all (which is what we naively thought) because it really isn’t all of the time.

On our estate alone there are huge variations in snags etc, we were quite lucky (paid for professional snaggers to come, £1.5k but absolutely worth every penny because they spot things that you just wouldn’t that could lead to huge issues down the line), we didn’t have loads of snags but the ones we did have took over a year to be fully resolved. Our neighbours had to be moved out of their home after 6 months for snagging works to be done. Some on the estate had a horrific experience, others had no issues, it’s a mixed bag and you have no idea what you’ll get until you’re in really so just be mindful of that.

I love our house still so I don’t regret it, but it was £10k on extras/upgrades (although I wouldn’t class flooring as an “extra”😂) plus money for professional snagging, and the best part of 18 months for all snags to be resolved and ours weren’t even awfully bad really. It was a huge hassle, I’m heavily pregnant now and we always say it’s a good job I wasn’t then because it would have just been a nightmare.

I don’t think being an overthinker is a bad thing when buying a house, I am too, it’s a huge decision so although you may be tempted to just decide to get out of family home (we were the same) I really wouldn’t rush it, and don’t compromise too much

You're only £30-40k short, but you have a household income of £120k.

How long would it take to just save this £30k out of salary if you economised a bit? Or did some overtime or something else to boost earnings?

I live in a new build and we haven't had any problems. That said, just be prepared that you'll likely need to set aside around £10k for extras, including flooring. There will be no towel rails, toilet roll holders etc. You really are getting the bare bones. With that in mind if you are set on new sometimes a newish resale house might be better value than brand new.

I've never had a job (professional career job that is) on an equivalent salary of 60k that included overtime! If the job needed extra hours you were expected to just work them. And there was a clause in all my contracts saying that I couldn't take an additional job.

OK but just because it's the case for you, doesn't mean it'll be the case for everyone else.

Train drivers for instance must be 60k or more and can do overtime.

Self-employed people like plumbers/electricians can take on more work, time permitting.

Employed people can take on side gigs, like an accountant taking on small book-keeping jobs.

As far as I read OP only gave the income, not the type of work they were doing or how it was split between them.

I said overtime or something else, I don't know their situaton.

I don’t wish to disclose the type of work I do, but I can’t do too much overtime as it will lead to burn out. I do extra hours in the evening for NHS on top of my full time role as it is. OH has taken on extra work with another well known company in London.

I personally don’t see snagging as that big of a deal? If we were to move into an older property, we would be doing bits up and that would be costing us. As long as it’s nothing massively detrimental to us.

I don’t see it as a cheap or easy way to get a home. I just see the benefits work for us in our current situation.

She said that her OH is self-employed in a niche industry, that she is a key worker and that both require an office. Maybe they could both work harder - I get your point, her DH could probably pick up a few hours shelf stacking if they'd take him on...

Lol are you joking?

we both work 45-50 hours a week as is, we are not shelf stacking or “working harder,” we are already working as hard as we can, and we need down time.

we’ll simply find a cheaper home. Wellbeing matters too. It’s not our fault the economy is stacked against us.

Yes, I am. Probably hard to realise that I am in amongst all the other things! That it was a joke was what the ellipsis was intended to convey.

And my previous post was quite clearly defending why someone with a professional career quite probably couldn't do overtime!

I think new build in this country is disgusting.

Poor quality houses. Crazy prices. Ridiculous planning arrangements based around trying to extract as much money out of the serfs as possible.

Unfortunately there remains a significant fraction of the country that are highly invested in ramping property prices at every opportunity and who celebrate prices going ever upwards.

Until the balance of this situation changes we are probably going to get the property we deserve - ie miniscule and shoddily built that we have to pay ridiculous prices for the privelige of living in.

Oh so sorry!!!

I don’t always pick up humour or sarcasm online.

and tbh I find MN can be quite critical at the best of times 😅

What is a serf?

No problem, I find the same!

So I’ve found a couple of houses in Farnborough that look like they could be appropriate - anyone know much about this area? I briefly lived in Farnham and it’s not too far away. Obvs not as nice as Farnham….

I used to work there. It’s alright?! I don’t know much about the suburbs though to really say.
Id rather choose Bracknell or Wokingham tbh if you’re looking at that area of travel.

What’s Bracknell like? As an area? Is there much to do?

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146477261#/?channel=RES_BUY

Bracknell has this? Looks alright.

Plenty green space, lots of cycle paths, a top end David Lloyd, very new, large, shopping centre. Very near Windsor Great Park, the Look Out and Swinley Forest are great for youngsters and mountain biking.

An hour on the train to Waterloo.

People knock it, generally those who don't know it.