Which house-building period offers the best balance of quality and upkeep?

[MynameisnotJohn]

In my life I grew up in a 1970s house. Then have lived in various Victorian rentals, then bought a Victorian terrace, two 1930s semis, and now after divorce a 20 year old modern townhouse.
Part of the reason for choosing a modern house was the convenient layout but I was so looking forward to being able to decorate smooth clean walls and assuming the electrics and plumbing and general construction would be pretty low maintenance. I was wrong!
I have had to do lots of jobs as the house just doesn’t seem built well. The stairs creak horrendously. The walls seem to be made of cardboard backed with fluff. The electrics keep having problems and I’ve been told the outlets are part their expiry date and should be changed. The wooden balcony rotted and had to be replaced. The roof tiles keep slipping so had to do an expensive job. The shower leaked and floor rotted.
I do like the house and the small estate is attractive and well managed for a low annual fee but I am wondering if people are correct when they say new builds will only last 50 years!
My ex also bought a new build but his is only a few years old and seems absolutely fine.No issues.
I’d be interested to know what people think is the best period of house to go for when I retire. I want a well built, solid and well insulated place: I know all houses need constant maintenance but when was a period when there was a better quality of building all round? I feel it may be a well maintained 1930s semi. Often not the best layout for a single retired person though.

For me it would be a 70s house. I lived in one for 15 years with no major works or repairs. Aside from a complete redecoration in year one all it ever required was painting again. Easy to heat, well insulated and huge windows with brilliant light. But it was a timber frame basically.

My choice will always be Georgian though. They threw up terrace houses in double quick time often sub standard. Poorly insulated, wooden windows, floor boards, lime that changes colour .....love it :)

Or 17th century and earlier timber frame houses, anything without footings and tiles laid directly on mud.....still standing.

The Jews house in Lincoln built in the 12th century.....still standing. Beautiful thick stone walls.

The thing all of these houses share in common is a lack of concrete!

I would avoid anything built post war, especially 60s.

Thanks. Yes my parents are still in the 1970s place and it seems fine. Ugly though! It wasn’t a period for aesthetics.
Ideally I’d find a quality renovation of a pre war brick built house but with completely new plumbing and electrics and modern layout! When I retire I don’t want to be spending all my time and money on maintenance.

In general terms I’d say it’s the 1920s/1930s houses with an honourable mention for the mansion flats built in that time too. The latter are soundproof in a way those built later were not and had communal features like heating and hot water.
The issues with 1930s stock tends to be what people did to them later, particularly in the 80s/90s, by adding conservatories, asbestos in fittings and decorations, and badly converting garages and lofts.

Good question. I’m looking for my future retirement place as well and want a house that is low maintenance. My current house is Victorian which has been fine, apart from the previous owner making some questionable decisions around chimney breasts, which isn’t the house’s fault.

I’d love a modern house with big windows and zinc frame etc but know so little about how the materials will stand up to time and how expensive upkeep is. I’ve had a look as well at 60s houses that look great, but have asbestos. I think eventually I will go for Victorian cottage, maybe a recent renovation so that the electrics, plastering, roof etc won’t have to be redone for many years.

I’m seeing way too many houses on the market that have had possibly questionable things done to them - lean-tos, conservatories, terraces on top of their extensions, baths plonked in the corner of bedrooms.

I immediately thought of 1930 houses as well. Good houses with good size gardens.

I’m in a 1930s semi. It’s a very well built house.
Not been built on but has had internal walls knocked through to create a kitchen diner and it has a perfect sized living room for me. Single, recently retired.
The bedrooms are average size (think I’d prefer Victorian semi size which are bigger) but in reality I don’t need that.
Lovely medium size garden.
Had all the electrics etc done when I moved in.
All I’ve had done so far is the roof cleaned. The roofer says it’s in amazing condition and the roofers were walking all over it.
No service charge like some new builds now with the worry the charges could shoot up.
It’s such a solid house and ideal for retirement. It looks pretty on the outside too as the top half at the front has white render (£2k if I ever wanted it redone).

Love 1930s houses. I grew up im a 70s box & much prefer the character, layout & style of the 30s house I live in now (even though its much smaller than what I grew up i).

I suspect it depends on price bracket as well as era. A large solid stone Victorian house in a remote area is much more robust than a cheaply built modern house. But a well planned “grand designs” modern house might beat either.

We always say next time we are buying something modern, well insulated, low upkeep etc
Our last three houses have been built in the 1890’s specifically 🙈

I've lived in 1930s, 1920s and Victorian. The Victorian was the best built in my opinion. None of them were insulated, except the 1930s did have partial cavity walls. That was my childhood home but my mum still lives in it and it definitely has issues.
All of the houses are cold! The 1920s is the coldest by a long shot, but it is detached. The Victorian terrace heated up really quickly, the 1920s never gets hot at all!
I briefly lived in a 1990s flat for 8 months once and it was lovely and warm and barely any need for heating. I don't know a lot about new houses but when I go to friend's houses built after 2000 I am usually uncomfortably hot in the summer.

Thanks all. Sounding as though 1930s well
maintained may be the sweet spot. I definitely don’t want a flat even though there are some lovely ones. It’s just the layout in 1930s places isn’t usually the best. The classic one being no downstairs loo, Galley kitchen, one bathroom. 2.5 bedrooms. Modern houses just have layouts that suit my needs better.

I’m also looking for a place that is pretty central so that tends to be the older ones in most towns.

Perfect would be: brick built, high quality, two storey, two big bedrooms, downstairs loo, garage, decent size garden. Not a very British spec!

We have a 1950s semi and it is so solid. Stays very warm / cool. Walls are very strong, we never hear the neighbours. Big rooms and lots of light. No damp issues

1930s - well built, but not pretty. 1970s - big windows, lots of light, bugger to keep warm in winter and cool in summer. Mid 1980s onwards - well insulated, but lower ceilings and not necessarily built to last.

My uncle who's a plumber always says he wouldn't buy a house built after 2000. He has a 1980s property.

I grew up in a mid 60s semi which my parents bought off plan when they relocated from another part of the UK. DM still lives there.
It's a lot colder than my 1930s house. Partly because of it's open plan layout and partly because of the expanse of windows. In the lounge one side is entirely sliding patio doors. That's 18ft of floor to ceiling glass. Even the bedrooms have one wall that is glass from waist height to ceiling. It also makes furniture placement difficult.

My mum's 1930s house has all the bedrooms reasonably sized (no smaller one) and a square kitchen. It has a huge garden. It doesn't have a downstairs loo but it does have an unnecessary pantry that could maybe become one. I think they are all different.

Every tradesman I know has said the same thing.

We owned a 1920s house. Never again. No sound proofing at all.
we now live in a 5 year old house and it’s much better

Same! Ours is ex council and is a 50s update on a 30s design. Had no central heating and had been empty for about 2 years when we bought it but there was just one small patch of wallpaper coming off on a northfacing wall and other than that, being empty hadn't compromised it at all. Layout is fab with double aspect lounge and spacious landing and it is much much warmer than the 1930s rental we moved from.

We have had a 1930s 2 bed semi, a 1970s 3 bed semi and now a 4-5 bed 1970s detached and we wouldn't touch a 1930s house again

Our 1930s house was poorly insulated and difficult to keep warm, we couldn't have cavity wall insulation as when they did the inspection they found rubble and crap from when it was built in the cavity as we were told this would lead to damp. We had lath and plaster walls and huge chunks fell off in every room when decorating. In brick walls had random engineering bricks which burnt out more than one drill bit when trying to put up some shelves. The rooms and the garden were on the small size too.

The 1970s semi was a classic 2 double bedrooms and a box room. Good size garden, well proportioned rooms. Fair attractive as standard house go, well insulated warm in winter, cool in summer with plenty of storage and a reasonable sized garden.

1970s detached is stone built, good sized rooms, lots of light. Not quite as well balanced in terms temperatures as we find it can get too warm in the height of summer but mostly it's easily to maintain a comfortable temperature. We are halfway up a hill so it's a stepped garden which is a slight nuisance but its well proportioned.

When we were looking the sweet spot for us was 1950s-1980s or pre1920s. We didn't want any "newer" as the rooms tended to be small and houses crammed next to each other and garden are small and overlooked. We avoid most houses that have been extended as so often it's been done poorly and the flow of the house has been messed up. We don't like open plan living which is also a negative for us.

The housing stock in the UK seems a bit mismatched from what people want. Would be good to see whole areas of problematic old houses being replaced with decently built ones that met local needs. But you can’t force people out!
One of the main problems either new builds for me is that they’re usually built in some old field way outside of town and away from amenities.
Thanks for all the thoughts. Going to plan carefully!

Dad was a builder, told me never to buy anything newer than 1980 that's when building regs were loosened

I like my Edwardian terrace. In a terrace there isn't much external brickwork to maintain and the houses on either side provide insulation.

It's not perfect of course; the walls aren't straight and the floors aren't level and there are no foundations. But it's more solidly built than many newer houses.

1980s.

my houses in order from worst to best:

1840s - basically made of paper
2017
1992
2013 - surprisingly solid (even the internal walls) and great layout