In the middle of buying a steel framed house- is it a dumb move?

[Bonney17]

In the process of buying a house, I found out it was steel framed because the first mortgage lender wouldn't cover it. Another high street bank has confirmed a mortgage but valued the house 20k less than the agreed sale price so the vendor agreed on bringing the price down.

I've been trying to look into the house more before paying for a survey (if I do get that far I will pay for one with a valuation) but the first things I've found from researching is that steel framed houses tend to last 100 years and the house was built between 1930 and 1949. I'm a FTB so this wouldn't be my forever home and am worried that the house price would drop with it coming to the 100 year mark rather than increasing for me to move on.

The address is [redacted by MNHQ], I think its an arrow steel frame but the local authority don't have the records now as they were passed on to housing associations so without paying for survey this is as much info as I've managed to gather.

Is it even worth getting a survey or should I just walk away now?

As someone who bought a property with something slighly odd and not 'mainstream' to mortgage (not related to steel frames), thought I'd share my experience.

In my situation my property got more and more unmortgageable as lenders tightened their lending criteria, remortgaging for better deals became increasingly more difficult and when I came to sell I was on the backfoot, with a significantly lower price than I had originally expected. I don't know anything about steel frames thought, may not be such an issue.

Have just reread your post and the bit about the lifetime is only expected to be 100 years. I would only buy it if I didn't care what I sold it for for and didn't need the money from the sale of it to fund any future property.

I would not do it, and certainly not as a FTB where you want to be setting down a solid foundation to support any other properties you go on to buy.

@Bonney17 how much do you like the house ?

I viewed a steel frame house myself a few months ago; it was beautiful, move-in ready condition and emaculately presented. However, upon doing my research I decided against it purely because the bottom line is, there are fewer lenders willing to lend on a non standard construction and also a smaller pool of potential buyers and even though I do not envision myself moving again, we never do know what the future holds.
I really liked the house. I even viewed it twice but didn't do a survey and decided against it. In any case, regardless of construction type, if there is a potential for the value to drop in the future perhaps that's not something to go for.
All the best.

A reduction of £20k on the face of it seems attractive. Looking at house prices.io and Move the Market shows the last house sold went for £75k in Jan 2023, before that £92k in Aug 2022.
Prior to that about £45k 20 years ago.
Liverpool has tons of these houses, my auntie lived in one in Kirkby.
You are correct in the life span assumption, they were not even designed to last 100 years, as they were a post war stop gap to the housing/materials crisis.
There is virtually no chance it will increase in value the older it gets. The EPC must be terrible also. What are your alternatives?

I previously walked away from a steel framed house, didn’t want the unpredictability of any mortgage or insurance issues. There were plenty of houses without this issue so it felt like an unnecessary complication. I also read they can be colder, not sure how true that is or if you can combat with insulation but didn’t fancy that either!

It sounds like walk away. Onwards and upwards with your search, good luck

It looks like a BISF house ,I had one in walsall ,brilliant house big rooms ,good garden etc and a friendly community, I sold it no problem to a family and they love it!
That road looks like many houses have been updated and had insulation done .
By the way it wasn't a cold house either, I'd have one again

We were going to buy a steel framed house many years ago. Like you, our original lender refused a mortgage - we approached many others locally (that was more the thing then) and only one would give us a mortgage. The valuation was fine and we decided to pay extra and have a survey of the steel frame - property was approx 45 years old then. Another thing is to consider is that if you were to stay and wanted to convert the loft, it'll be a lot more expensive.

We ended up pulling out, not due to steel frame, but a covenant that was revealed a few days before exchange, which we just couldn't accept.

If we'd bought the property before our last house, I think we'd still be there. I think you'd have to accept when it came to sell, it might take longer and long-term to sell.