Mortgage Rate Rises

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
I do get a bit bored with the new houses are terrible thing.
Having owned of lived in (via parents) pretty much a house built in every decade from 1890 to 2010 I cannto think of a single decade that had perfect housing.
Some better and some worse than others.
My 1890s for example, everything, and I mean everything was just not consistent, doors, bricks, windows, floorboards, joists, everything. Meant that anything that needed doing was painful. Plus of course basically unavailable.
Was also cold in the winter and hot in the summer, very difficult to heat and cool.

IMO you need to decide what you want and pick a decade to match. Eg energy efficiency and ease of heating is far superior in modern houses to old ones. Yes you can retrofit lots of insulation to some but its loads of work to get close to modern performance.

The optimum is probably something like a 60s house that you can afford to basically semi demolish and modernise the insulation in, triple glaze (because they had large windows), etc
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That's funny because a lot of the 1980s houses I have been in I felt were by far the best! I was born in the 80s and my parents and a lot of my friends parents bought 4 bed detached houses on new build estates like those made by Bovis/Bryant. I appreciate that these are more higher end housing estates for sure, but as an example, my parents 1986 house only just had the original kitchen replaced. All the door handles and latches are original and work perfectly. Construction wise they are sound. I felt this was generally the case of new build estates around Surrey/Berks/Hants of the time. These houses tended to be bigger, more spaced out, bigger gardens and driveways etc.
 
1930s cavity houses are pretty peek. Massive plots, large gardens, generally all built around a local allotment, local shops etc. Side returns with garages. Local schools. Bricklayers trying to outdo each other on complexity. Not many houses have materials that cost pennies and have lasted 100+ years (rosemary tiles, gash pebble dash).

They zoned and built communities on PPT rather than an XLS equation :D
 
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jaybee said:
That's funny because a lot of the 1980s houses I have been in I felt were by far the best! I was born in the 80s and my parents and a lot of my friends parents bought 4 bed detached houses on new build estates like those made by Bovis/Bryant. I appreciate that these are more higher end housing estates for sure, but as an example, my parents 1986 house only just had the original kitchen replaced. All the door handles and latches are original and work perfectly. Construction wise they are sound. I felt this was generally the case of new build estates around Surrey/Berks/Hants of the time. These houses tended to be bigger, more spaced out, bigger gardens and driveways etc.
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Definitely some confirmation bias in there though.

Many many of the 2 and 3 bed houses of the 80s were basically 2.5bed with the third bedroom little more than a box (and pretty sure that's where the phrase box room comes from).

My 80s semi was definitely cheaply built, chipboard flooring throughout that squeaked something rotten, plasterboard and batten walls opposed to brick etc.
 
dlockers said:
Town Houses are not a new thing
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I know from Victorian times they were very popular to maybe the early 30's. I lived on a brand new estate during my childhood and watched it being built from the early 90's to completion in the late 00's and not a single "town house" style house. This was in a village and must have been several hundred houses. You see them everywhere now not just in built up area's and lets be frank they are purely to maximise profit than anything else.
 
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adam cool dude said:
I know from Victorian times they were very popular to maybe the early 30's. I lived on a brand new estate during my childhood and watched it being built from the early 90's to completion in the late 00's and not a single "town house" style house. This was in a village and must have been several hundred houses. You see them everywhere now not just in built up area's and lets be frank they are purely to maximise profit than anything else.
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I think that planning permission also depends on maximising housing units per development. While town houses are not new, Georgians and Victorians show this however in the past they were normally built in rows rather than awkward skew angles on curving streets resembling canyons and throwing shade on each other and adjacent lower properties. Particularly with postage stamp gardens and yards.
 
dlockers said:
The cost of the frames are peanuts though, and you are still talking the last 20 years. Anything over 20 years will be garbage compared to modern cold-bridge defeating, hermetically sealed units with built in vents.
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Let me try that again.

Age of windows - When I said modern windows, i was referring to something in the 15-ish year range. As you say, anything more than 20 years old may be double glazed but the frames/units are not that modern in comparison to <20 year old window frames. I should have been explicit in that.

Costs - You are limiting it to just the cost of the frames - Its still a BIG cost saving for parts and labour as it takes minutes to swap glazing units out compared to whole frames as well as a big reduction in hassle/mess compared to pulling out complete frames, fitting new ones and making good the surrounds...
 
Richie said:
Let me try that again.

Age of windows - When I said modern windows, i was referring to something in the 15-ish year range. As you say, anything more than 20 years old may be double glazed but the frames/units are not that modern in comparison to <20 year old window frames. I should have been explicit in that.

Costs - You are limiting it to just the cost of the frames - Its still a BIG cost saving for parts and labour as it takes minutes to swap glazing units out compared to whole frames as well as a big reduction in hassle/mess compared to pulling out complete frames, fitting new ones and making good the surrounds...
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My 1998 original double glazed windows are poor. When we viewed the house, all I really considered was that they were double glazed, and therefore I mentally ticked that box as all good. All of them leak air and sound significantly. Some of it will be the seal has perished, but I think they are just not very good ones. They look like a very old/cheaply made type. Highly technical assessment I know.
I would assume a quote for the whole house would be double figures, therefore it will probably never get done in the time we live there sadly. I know I probably lose hundreds per year on energy costs due to it, but I still think it would be cheaper to live with having to have the heating on more, than getting them all replaced.
I've also never understood the pricing around some plastic and glass. The markup is astonishing on them. A good TV series based around window salesmen I would recommend, is White Gold. Used to be on iPlayer.
 
ci_newman said:
My 80s semi was definitely cheaply built, chipboard flooring throughout that squeaked something rotten, plasterboard and batten walls opposed to brick etc.
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Do UK new builds ever use anything other than chipboard for floors now? Every house I ever lived in had chipboard. Hate it.
 
Richie said:
New Builds do cost buttons to heat mind you compared to older properties.





I read a report a couple of months ago where a glazing manufacturer has, or is very close to releasing, a triple glazed unit that will fit in modern double glazing frames so all you need to do it swap the glass units out rather than whole new windows as, generally, modern frames are well insulated so no need to change the frames out.

Thats a BIG cost saving and also time saving as it takes minutes to swap glazing units out compared to whole frames.
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Its already a thing, however there are benefits from narrower or wider gaps between the sheets. One is better for thermal the other for sound, I forget which way round that is.
Then you get to the varying materials etc which also have the same effect.
 
jaybee said:
My 1998 original double glazed windows are poor. When we viewed the house, all I really considered was that they were double glazed, and therefore I mentally ticked that box as all good. All of them leak air and sound significantly. Some of it will be the seal has perished, but I think they are just not very good ones. They look like a very old/cheaply made type. Highly technical assessment I know.
I would assume a quote for the whole house would be double figures, therefore it will probably never get done in the time we live there sadly. I know I probably lose hundreds per year on energy costs due to it, but I still think it would be cheaper to live with having to have the heating on more, than getting them all replaced.
I've also never understood the pricing around some plastic and glass. The markup is astonishing on them. A good TV series based around window salesmen I would recommend, is White Gold. Used to be on iPlayer.
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Exactly the same. Ours is 1999. And same as you.. Double glazed.. Tick.
When people walk past you can hear them talking like they are in the room.

And yeah I thought it would be over 10k too to replace.
Basically.. Even if it's 100s a year in extra gas it's still cheaper not to get them done.
 
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jaybee said:
That's funny because a lot of the 1980s houses I have been in I felt were by far the best! I was born in the 80s and my parents and a lot of my friends parents bought 4 bed detached houses on new build estates like those made by Bovis/Bryant. I appreciate that these are more higher end housing estates for sure, but as an example, my parents 1986 house only just had the original kitchen replaced. All the door handles and latches are original and work perfectly. Construction wise they are sound. I felt this was generally the case of new build estates around Surrey/Berks/Hants of the time. These houses tended to be bigger, more spaced out, bigger gardens and driveways etc.
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Again its horses for courses.
In some places you had a lot of asbestos in 80s houses.
(I think 60-80 was peak asbestos risk from memory)
 
jaybee said:
My 1998 original double glazed windows are poor. When we viewed the house, all I really considered was that they were double glazed, and therefore I mentally ticked that box as all good. All of them leak air and sound significantly. Some of it will be the seal has perished, but I think they are just not very good ones. They look like a very old/cheaply made type. Highly technical assessment I know.
I would assume a quote for the whole house would be double figures, therefore it will probably never get done in the time we live there sadly. I know I probably lose hundreds per year on energy costs due to it, but I still think it would be cheaper to live with having to have the heating on more, than getting them all replaced.
I've also never understood the pricing around some plastic and glass. The markup is astonishing on them. A good TV series based around window salesmen I would recommend, is White Gold. Used to be on iPlayer.
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ours are stamped 1990.. so as old as me and I'm not in a good shape!

our road can get busy too so noise is a problem. We'll probably be upgrading the "front" windows soon to triple or better insulated ones simply due to noise and some janky fittings that I had to mess with to seal up properly. The rear ones are same age but not that bad.
 
Richie said:
Costs - You are limiting it to just the cost of the frames - Its still a BIG cost saving for parts and labour as it takes minutes to swap glazing units out compared to whole frames as well as a big reduction in hassle/mess compared to pulling out complete frames, fitting new ones and making good the surrounds...
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No I am limiting to labour too. They don't have different vans/teams/people to do glass versus a full job - so the humans are just charged out by the half-day or day. I mean theoretically they can get through more glazing jobs than full jobs, but the cost saving on a set number of windows may be identical for glazing or full jobs.
 
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Nationwide finally cutting their rates.
www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk

Nationwide cuts resi rates by up to 81bps, launches sub-4% loans – Mortgage Strategy

Nationwide Building Society will cut selected residential rates by up to 81 basis points, with its lowest prices starting at 3.84% -- the lender’s lowest level in eight months. The mutual will also launch a range of fixed and tracker rate products, with a £1,499 fee. Highlights of its rate...
www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk
 
Jono8 said:
But you are sort of making out that every old house that isn't a new build was built perfectly.

Everything was a new build once, and there are no doubt loads of really awfully built older houses too.

I agree that you have to accept that even though it's new, it won't be perfect and you'll still have issues just like any property.
However you can at least get them fixed for free on a new build.
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We've never purchased a new build (mostly due to small plot size) - but though you do get stuff fixed for free on a new build - eventually. On older houses we always get a more in depth survey done and use that to negotiate money off of the asking price if the issues haven't been factored into the sale price. I would imagine most buyers are doing the same.

We got the cost of new windows, doors and boiler knocked off our last purchase a couple of years ago. That's pretty close to fixed for free :cool:
 
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