Please Share Your Love for Your new-build House.

[ShesGotIt]

Serious jitters going on here about our impending exchange of contracts on a new-build property. Any positive stories of new-builds and life on a new development would be reassuring..

Context - we're in our 60s and have moved a few times over the years but always old properties. Our last place was 270 years old. Selling that was a nightmare. The sale fell through twice meaning we lost the house we really wanted. Third time lucky the sale went through so we moved into a rental property as we didn't want to lose the sale.

We can't find anything we like for our budget. We're restricted where we can move to due to elderly parents and looking after grandkids. The older properties we've viewed are so dated; many empty probate properties, but no-one's budging on price. Not even a bit - and we're cash buyers!

Early January we chanced on a new development. A bit further out than we'd like, but doable. We were drawn by the option to chose our fittings, the solar panels, electric car charger and the developer pays the stamp duty. One plot we liked - not overlooked at all with open space at the front. It will be finished by June.

As we're now on the brink of exchange we are both wondering if it's right for us. I went down a rabbit hole of negative new-build fb groups recently that shook me a bit. People saying it's mad to buy a new build - poorly built, no aftercare, terrible issues with antisocial behaviour etc etc.

So please tell me about your lovely new-build, I just need some reassurance that they're not all bad news.

When we moved in 7 years ago it was £120 this year is closer to £500 so if we stayed here as our long term home I can’t imagine how high those fees would be. If I could pick up our home and move it I would but the fees they charge for what appears to be intermittent grass cutting galls me. Our management company is First Port and well known for their awful charges and poor workmanship.

There’s a Facebook group for new builds where all different management groups are discussed. Do your research but if yours is a small development I’m sure you’ll be fine. We made the move not knowing about these kinds of things, had we have been better informed we’d not have bought it.

I've always had brand new properties. What's not to like? The thing that is important for you now at your age is the time you get from having little maintenance. I have a friend in an old house and every time I see her it's a tale about her husband's frustrations with the ongoing maintenance and cost needed. You need your time for the other generations in your life - that's what it's about. I am shocked at the prices some people quote on here for utility bills for houses. We use our time for travel and family. Younger people will not get this. It's a " you have to be here to get it".

You are not comparing like with like though - a flat in a communal will of course cost more. You're paying for buildings insurance etc as well as all the grand entrances. In a house you will only be paying for communal groundwork - now that varies according to developer eg we have sink ponds and heritage trees on the site which require expert management. Ours is 240 a year and then house insurance is about 200 if that. My flat I left was 275 a month for services.

I think it sounds lovely. Walking distance from places is really good and presumably you will have some choice with finishes too!
I've spent 6 months unpicking poor DIY on an old house I've moved into. And such a struggle to find good trades people.

You can always add character too - nice fire place, flooring, panelling on walls to give texture or whatever is your taste if you want to. It's great not to be over looked too and presumably you can really set the style for your garden and outside area.

Sounds good to me - good luck with your decision @ShesGotIt

We lived in a 200 year old cottage for 20 years and moved to a new build (somewhat reluctantly) last year. It is warm, dry, light, spacious, quiet and we love it. I really didn't expect to but we had to move and it was the best option available to us at the time. It's not perfect - a couple of things have had to be fixed or changed and the garden is a compromise. For us life is so much easier in a house with straight walls, wide door ways, plentiful parking and an extra bathroom. And there's no dust!!! I didn't realise how much of my life was spent dusting before we moved here.

Not at all.
The good insulation means it is better than our previous houses.

As we're getting older, I am seriously considering a new build property for all the reasons stated. There must be many positives and benefits.

Questions would be: any ongoing charges, parking situation, and I wouldn't rely on any open space or view still being there in three years.

New builds can be OK and can be rubbish. But generally they are a lot easier to maintain and alter. They are also better optimised. So a couple of inches of thickness of technical material can outperform a two foot thick stone wall thermally and acoustically, and DPCs are much better than non existent DPCs in old houses. Getting old houses up to the thermal performance of new ones is both expensive and risky.

A lot of people in old builds seem somewhat obsessed with thick heavy stone walls and houses that will stand for 300 years. I'll be dead in a lot fewer years than that.

Some advantages that old builds have is that they would probably withstand a nuclear blast better than a new build. They also generally tend to be on bigger plots and have larger gardens, and have greater "asthetic appeal" for certain types.

Ha ha, yes the dust! I was continually wet dusting.

This is actually making me miss our previous new build now 🙈🙈 I never had a jobs list there and I have one as long as my arm here!!!

I love my brand new house. I like the extra bathrooms and insulation, the heating bills are so much cheaper and it stays warmer over night. Everyone has at least 2 parking spaces so the road doesn't get congested. With the sustainable drainage everyone has hedges planted with front lawns so its very appealing to look at.

I'm not in a new newbuild, but I bought a second-hand house built in 2007. First time in my life I've ever lived anywhere like this - grew up in old buildings, including listed, bought older character properties. Bought this place because of an amazing location and I don't regret it, but I have found the whole place has a weirdly flimsy feeling. Plasterboard stud walls take some getting used to when you've always had solid walls - it's handy for when I've wanted to make some minor alterations involving moving walls, adding extra sockets has been quick and clean to do, pipes are hidden in walls rather than having heating pipes visible or random boxing in, and I love putting pictures up with a Takker, but it still feels a bit wrong and like I live in a stage set! Also having various bits of the house made of MDF rather than solid wood (ie. stairs etc) is odd - you don't have the option to feature the natural base materials in your home, it's all pretend materials that you have to cover up (if you get my meaning). I've found you have to work harder with decorating because the rooms are much plainer boxes. I've added things like panelling and a fake chimney breast, wooden floors, skirtings and banisters to get more character in. In older houses, I've always been able to go "if in doubt, feature wall" but here, you've almost got 4 identical walls in each room - figuring out where to create a feature is just harder. Standard curtains on poles that looked just fine elsewhere look kind of bleak and ugly in a blank room.
That said, I love the amount of easy parking I have here, including an integral garage, would never have anything like that in previous houses. Living in a cul-de-sac of modern houses, the surroundings are clean and litter free, which is lovely. A lot of the practical aspects are just designed for a modern lifestyle - sockets, lights with multiple switches, loos are purpose built, not shoe-horned under the stairs or where a coal-hole used to be.
This road feels like more of a community than where I was before and people are very welcoming. That might be due to the location rather than the new-buildyness - the setting means a lot of people walk around and stop and chat, and people here definitely have a pride and joy to be here.
To be completely honest, this house doesn't yet feel as "me" as an older character property would, but I think that's partly because I've had a lot of cleaning, improving and updating to do since I moved in and haven't really been able to bond with the place yet. But I think that would be the case after a move anywhere, it's always unsettling and you can't ever immediately recreate years of being settled somewhere.

Moved from a Victorian to a new build 2 and a half years ago.

I used to be one of those people who was very snobbish about new builds and sneered at the lack of character and flimsy walls

Well I take it all back. Putting the heating on no longer feels like I'm throwing £20 notes into a fire, we have plenty of parking, the walls are straight, the doors all close and it's not draughty!

The garden is small and the soil is full of clay so we're struggling a bit with that, but I've never been a gardener so I'm just paying someone to try and do their best with it!

Absolutely love my house. Agree with PP do your research and be careful of the big volume house builders. We did have a few issues but they were sorted out really quickly. Can't fault the customer service at all.

We’ve been in our new build almost 3 years and it has been a very good experience so far. We’ve lived in all sorts of ages of houses before, my favourite was a very large Edwardian property that was so, so beautiful but the very definition of a money pit.
We had hundreds of minor snags listed by the professional snagger, mostly cosmetic, all dealt with by the developer no quibbles. No major issues, just an under sink leak in about week 6, fixed immediately by the developer. The utility bills are cheap, really cheap by comparison to the last house a 30s semi which was half the size. It is super easy to keep clean & tidy. We had the loft boarded by a professional company, so plenty of storage for e.g. luggage & Christmas decorations.
The garden is small but easy to maintain. Also everything is a standard size so easy to buy e.g. blinds off the shelf unlike older houses where nothing fits quite right unless you pay for bespoke. Perhaps surprisingly, it is very soundproof. We’re attached on one side and very rarely hear anything from the neighbours unless all the windows are open in the summer, nothing through the walls. People say new builds have no character, yet our visitors remark on our style, it’s not compulsory to keep cream walls and choose Ikea furniture. Ultimately, it’s so easy to live in and all our money that we’re saving by not having that job creep goes to the pension pot. Job creep = when you think you’ll decorate the hall with a splash of paint & new light fittings, but ends up as a full replastering, rewire with new radiators, flooring and front door!

Some of the positives +

1. you’re not really in an upward chain
2. the price is fixed ( unless you add available extras )
3. everything is brand spanking new
4. that new house smell 😄
5. builder is responsible for all snags and making good for usually up to 2 years
6. the 10 year NHBC warranty
7. very energy efficient
8. good new builds will have lots of sensibly located electrical power sockets

Some of the negatives -

1. garden is starting from scratch
2. no window coverings or rails to hang them from so you’ll be using stick on blinds for some time
3. plain white walls for about 2 years while house settles .
4. no shelves or hooks anywhere
5. no nooks and crannies to display things
6. no floored loft space
7. depending where house is located maybe no post boxes , no shops to walk to

Our last 2 houses have been new builds .
current one has positives but I would love to take our entire and rotate it round as the sun can be too much in summer .
we had to build a pergola and attach a retractable shade .
plus I paid a fair sum for a remote operated blind at the kitchen window as I can’t reach up and often need the blind down as the sun is right in my face ar the kitchen sink

We had many many snags listed by our snagging surveyor .
but when I read through it , to be honest it was the same tiny snag on repeat through the entire house

I’ve not bought one but my in laws moved from a lovely large period house to a new build estate. I was nervous for them but they love it. The house is an excellent build, well designed so whilst small has everything they need. It’s incredibly energy efficient and there’s seems to be a nice community on the estate. The surrounding grounds are really pleasant too. The garden was a soulless green patch when they moved in but they got it landscaped and it’s beautiful now. Good luck!

To address negative below

Garden from scratch - although developer will normally let someone lay turf before you move in

it takes a couple of hours to fit cheap dunelm blinds

ours walls were painted our choice of colour - white ist special , that’s a developer limitation

we bought a couple of bookcases in different styles for display and shelving.

the loft space can be floored by the builder - we just got ours to fit the loft ladder for us

location - well there are plenty of old houses miles from post boxes and shops. That’s development dependent again

Thanks again for all of your positive stories (and the negative ones - they all help).

I took the advice upthread and knocked on a couple of doors of occupied properties on the development. Both said they were really pleased with the house, the builders had been great and are very quick to sort any issues out. That was a big relief and nice to meet a couple of (potential) neighbours. @Daftypants One neighbour, her dad was there hanging tension blinds when I popped round. I'm researching the pros and cons, so any experiences welcome.

We both had a last minute wobble yesterday and considered pulling out, but we drove over today for another look and walked to one of the local pubs for lunch. The locals were really friendly, and the development looked really nice in the sunshine, so we've paid our 5% deposit and contracts should be exchanged on Monday!

We hung those pleated paper blinds up all round this house when we first moved in and they were very effective at keeping bedrooms darker , giving us a bit of privacy in other rooms and filtering light where needed .
We found that we couldn’t really get much access to start taking window measurements and preferred the person making the blinds to take the measurements.
You sound like you have made a positive move , I just wanted to list all the + and the - .
good luck in your new home

I think it’s important to remember that people are more likely to post bad than they ever are good.

We bought our new build 5 years ago (it is one of the big developers with a poor reputation), but we visited throughout the build and, because of my job, were not keeping a lot of the original fixtures and fittings anyway! To be fair, the house is fine, the finishes weren’t fabulous, but they did put right the list we wanted them to put right which were the bigger bits (replaced bricks where the faces had blown, redid the expansion joints where they were messy, etc), we’ve done all the small bits as we have worked through the house decorating and refitting how we wanted anyway and we are very happy here, it’s the right house, on the right plot for us which we knew it would be and was why we bought it at the end of the day.

With regard to the curtain/blind issue, we had as much (accompanied) access as we wanted during the (12-month) build so had plenty of time to measure up and get our M2M curtains & blinds made beforehand. Also we got the keys a couple of days before moving so my OH got busy fitting them before we were actually living there.
The only thing that came later were the shutter blinds but with curtains already hanging, we could live with that (we doubled up with curtains & shutter blinds at the same windows).
Not cheap starting from scratch and having good quality window coverings but well worth it (came to over £10k).