why avoid new builds?

[perplexedandbemused]

DH and I are looking at houses. Over the years I've come to completely disregard new builds based on a feeling/tone from others, without ever actively questioning the opinion against them.

So, I'm questioning it now. Please can someone explain in simple terms why a person might avoid a new build property?

To be fair, my friend bought a new build on divorce. It suited her perfectly, it was a tiny plot, so the garden was manageable for her, and it came fully decorated , that she chose, within certain parameters, inc walls, bathrooms , kitchen, flooring, even the decking.

It looked lovely on moving in.5 years later you can see it was style over substance, but honestly for a single woman, who didn’t want to do maintenance or gardening, I thought it was a great decision.

shes very bolshy, so she kept on till the snagging was fixed, inc both bathrooms replaced , the flooring replaced, and the roof joists reworked, a major job, but it was all done. Took a long time but she fought it.

she also doesnt care about being overlooked. Happily gets her bikini on in the garden, just cracks on with her life. Utility bills are incredibly low.

i think in certain circumstances it can be an excellent decision.

There's nothing inherently wrong with a newly built house, the problem is that so many new built houses are poorly designed, poorly built, on developments where profit has been put before quality of life, and over-priced.

I'd have no problem with a small developer built, well designed, well built new build. But I'd hate one built as part of a new build estate.

Over priced.

Small sizes.

Rarely have a garage unless you pay for a 5 bed house.

Poor workmanship due to pressure to complete and handover - you will spend time and money dealing with snagging.

Insufficient parking - drive round any newly occupied new build estate and see how many cars are parked on the pavement.

I inspected construction sites for years and rarely failed to be appalled by the poor standards of work and crap dimensions of most of the homes. Money buys the size of the land and the size of the build. If you aren't super wealthy, the sizes are crap.

A 1930s build is almost always bigger, in better proportion with higher ceilings and larger gardens.

Have a look on tiktok for “new build snagging” - loads of videos of various trades going round a property to point out all of the fuck ups and parts where someone hasn’t even attempted to do a job properly.

IMO you shouldn’t avoid new builds necessarily. You should take a look at them and decide if you like them. As a lot of people have said, they tend to have smaller rooms and gardens, be overlooked and crowded, often insufficient parking. So take a look and see if this is the case and makes you not want to buy the house!

I have lived in both a new build and now an old Victorian house. I don’t miss the ‘dining room’ in my new build that was too small for a dining room table, or the second bedroom that couldn’t accommodate both a double bed and a wardrobe at the same time. I don’t miss the thin walls or the fact that it only had room for one car. I don’t miss the fact that the hallway was about two foot square, and that there was no storage space. Pretty much the entire house was one room or another - no circulation space or spare anything.

But I do miss the fact that nothing ever went wrong in the five years I lived there, whereas now there are bits falling off this place all the bloody time. I liked that it was warm in the winter without us needing to have the heating on constantly. I liked the fact that the decor was inoffensive and consistent, rather than peeling and old and all over the place style-wise.
Different strokes for different folks.

We're renting a new build after selling our house.

It's a 4-bed but probably square footage of a 2-bed, no storage, and the sound proofing is shocking, literally hear someone fart in our en-suite in any other room in the house.

I'm in a new buildand our heating bills are practically non-existent. The rooms are more spacious than many 1980s and 1990s homes locally. Sound insulation is no different to the 1970s semi i grew up in.

We have a lovely spacious en suite, another bedroom also has an en suite, and we have a downstairs wc and an upstairs main bathroom. In older houses close to me you're unlikely to get both a downstairs loo and an en suite, never mind two en suites!

My garden is a decent size, large enough to extend at some point and thankfully we're not too overlooked by neighbours. Again, no more so than the '70s semi d I grew up in. One thing however is the parking, we have our own space but no driveway which is fine at the moment but may become a problem as kids grow up and have their own cars and neighbours kids also have cars.

No house is perfect but we're very happy here, I'd be very hesitant to move into a draughty older home with less mod cons.

Newhomequalitycontrol is one of the accounts - I think he’s an independent inspector who will go around your new build and pick up all the snagging and write a report. Some of it is truly atrocious and wouldn’t necessarily be visible to a lay person.

I love my new build eco home, the utility bills are cheaper because of insulation and solar panels. The snagging was addressed promptly and effectively by the builders and we have a 10 year warranty.

I think that in any home there are going to be wear and tear issues as time goes on, and sometimes the older the home the more possible issues there may be such as wiring, plumbing, damp, new gas boiler etc.

If you're really unlucky any home, no matter how new or old, could turn out to be a turkey. My advice would be to not dismiss new builds.

My mum and dad moved to a new build 14 years ago. They were downsizing and also did a lot of research about the specific plot to get - it has a garage and the parking at their end of the road is surprisingly good. It is also a four bedroom house and works well for the two of them. I don’t think it would work as well for a growing family

Depends on the developer. I (work in a closely related field) would not touch anything built by any of the main volume housebuilders with a bargepole. Persimmon are the worst IMO, there was an issue recently where it was discovered they weren’t putting in fire protection properly. Smaller builders it would depend on the quality, some of them are fine.

I have lived in new builds for most of my life. From the first house my parents bought when I was born, houses built in the 80s and 90s and 00s and 2010. They are all fine and still standing and had no particular issues beyond basic maintaince which my parents ( and now I) really value.
The converted 1870s houses I lived in as a young person in London were very characterful. But we could hear thr neighbours sneeze and watching tv. And there was mould and infestations and damp if all types. And no parking and a tiny yard.
I like a sensible fuss free new build.

I moved from a 1960s house to one that was built in 2010ish. The latter was much nicer, but my god the quality of everything was awful. The floorboards felt like lollypop sticks, walls paper thin, insufficient boiler, bathrooms always leaked. The LL had a large portfolio and every time I reported something wrong he would attribute the problem to it being a new build, and "they don't build them properly any more".

They usually lose value in the first few years, sometimes it takes quite a long time before you would be able to sell again at what you paid.

I think it's overstated how many issues there are with new builds and people have rose tinted glasses about older houses. I lived in a Victorian terrace for a couple of years and could hear everything from next door. And I mean EVERYTHING. I could even hear when our neighbour was having a wee. I then moved into a new build with my partner (not quite new, it was 5 years old when we bought it) and, yes, we could hear our neighbours but not as much as in the terrace. I think if you find a new build you like, go for it. Yes you probably will find some issues but that's not unique to new houses. Plus there is a guarantee for the first 10 years so the builders should rectify any problems.

Laughing at all these generalisations!
We've been in our new build from new 12 years ago. It's a Redrow 3-bed semi-detached on a smallish estate (170). We have a garage, two off-road car parking spaces (3 if you really push them nose to tail). Reasonable garden; only overlooked by our immediate neighbours we're attached too - there are bungalows at the back. Our garden is north facing but because we aren't hemmed in either side; half the garden is actually south facing.
Good sized rooms, decent heating system, low bills & very little maintenance needed.
In the time since we bought it, it has increased in value much more than similar houses.

OP - don't dismiss new builds; they're not all the same. Just like all older houses aren't the same.

I think it depends where you buy and how much you can afford to spend. I know someone who bought an expensive for this area 4 bedroom detached on a new estate. All of the bedrooms are a good size and have fitted wardrobes. The ceilings downstairs are higher than you usually find in new houses. The kitchen and dining area are massive. They have a big double garage and drive. It's well insulated. The back garden is massive and they have a good size front garden. It's light and airy and a lovely house. I'd live there if I could afford it.

I live in a new build after years in a grade 2 listed cottage.

Personally I love it - small garden which is easy for me to maintain, it's well insulated and double glazed which the cottage wasn't so it's warm and cheap to heat. It also has two allocated parking spaces.

But it wouldn't suit a big family who want a large garden to play in.

I wouldn't blanket rule out new builds but I would rule out any property with too small rooms, no storage and out of town location.

I bought a new build 3-bed semi a few years ago and am very happy with it. It’s an easy house to live in and maintain, I have a lovely view, a garden that is a good size and plenty of storage including a garage. I was one of the first to move in and had a handful of snags which were fixed quickly. The community is the best I’ve ever lived in and I don’t hear my joined on neighbour at all unless they’re doing DIY.

Ongoing construction didn’t impact me due to the house’s location within the estate and the developer’s construction plan. But my mum had bought a new build 20 years before which was in the middle of the estate and she lived on a building site for a year.

The challenge with buying off plan is you need to use your imagination as to how the whole neighbourhood will look, not just the inside of your house. I nearly bought a different plot in the development but I am so glad I changed my mind as now that it’s built I can see that the landscaping on that particular road is minimal and it looks a bit bleak. Some houses in the neighborhood are quite overlooked, others are very private.

I wouldn’t apply a blanket rule on new builds, in my experience they are a mixed bag but you can find some lovely houses if you can turn the plan into a 3D vision in your mind.

Buying off plan would be a worry for me.

I have seen things on here like buyers who have bought off plan have ended up with their houses being made into sewer central with a garden full of man hole covers.

I think there is a temptation for developers to do things like this to houses that have already been sold.

I think snobbery is the main answer. Lots of people who have never lived in a new build have a lot of very loud opinions about why they wouldn't touch them. I am also one of those people who have never lived in one, so treat my opinions with the appropriate pinch of salt!

I have seen some very nice newbuild estates, and enjoy a stroll round a show house when I can. I've noticed that the big difference between standard builders and the more premium ones can often be as much about the layout of the estate as the houses themselves. There are also some massively cramped newbuild estates where the houses are pokey and cars piled up everywhere. The "basic" estates can have no proper pavements as well as barely any front gardens and a narrow road, so they really feel claustrophobic.

The big problem I have with newbuild is the very difficult process of actually buying one. When I talked to sales people recently they said you can't reserve unless your property is sold, then you have to exchange within 6 weeks and they won't give you a firm completion date. Probably not so bad if you buy one of the already completed properties - but with those you'll get no say on picking kitchen units, bathrooms etc. If you want to get a property earlier in the process where you get to tailor it more to your taste, then you get forced into a situation where you probably have to sell and move out of your house way before your new home is ready.

New build owner here. Love it! After thirty odd years preserving period ruins for posterity we finally live in a house which needs minimal maintenance. We hardly know what to do with our weekends.

I am looking to downsize - my problem is that the new builds I have looked at don't appear to have any nearby local shops to buy say a pint of milk and you have to drive everywhere. Local bus routes are an after thought - once an estate has been established.

I live on a new build estate of 61 houses. Our’s is six years old. We had very little snagging and it was dealt with promptly by the developer. As others have said running costs are low.

The vast majority of houses on our estate have their own driveways/ garages for at least two cars. The others have allocated spaces. Ours has a double width garage and it is set back so we can get ( depending on their size) three to four cars on the driveway. Generally no issues with parking on the estate. There are visitor parking spaces as well.

I know people who live in roads with older houses where it’s all parking on the road and that can cause issues.

we have a kitchen diner that runs across the whole back of the house , living room and a second reception we use as a dining room. But it could be used as a study. There is a utility room. And as is common with new builds a downstairs toilet and en-suite.

Five bedrooms upstairs, one of which we use as a study, All the bedrooms except the smallest would take at least a double bed and wardrobe. Ours has a king bed, space for wardrobe, chest of drawers and bedside tables. Not as large as the bedroom in our previous house but not small. We also have a huge landing cupboard,

Contrary to what others say the houses owners who have sold have never lost money on them , even those that sold after a couple of years. That may have something to do with where the estate is though.

Back garden is a bit overlooked but we have solved that by growing tall trees. Not huge but it suits us. We look out over a field, which leads down to woodland

A pp mentioned narrow roads and no pavements that is true of our estate but I think the intention behind that is to slow traffic down and therefore make it more pedestrian friendly.

Do bear in mind though that many new build estates have management fees for maintaining the common areas.