New Builds?

Delvis said:
Point is they're new, so shouldn't have snags anyway.

Half the stuff I pointed out could have been resolved if I looked at the house a week before going in.
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Absolutely.
Some of the snags are just from crap workmanship that's being called out.

I live in a 2 bed terraced new build as our first house, and we're buying a new build 3 bed semi as our second/"forever" house.
 
Most new build houses are ****.

Perfect if you want to have a conversation with your neighbors without actually having to go round.

Perfect if you want to pay over the odds because it's never been lived in.

Perfect if you fancy the challenge of trying to get a developer who won't be in the slightest bit interested to fix issues they promised they would when they sold it.

Perfect if you like living in a place where plants and lawn doesn't grow because you have about 3mm of top soil over rubble.

I could go on........
 
I'd never buy a typical new build on a new build estate - Too many variables you have no control over when compared with a house/road that is established, exists and can be scrutinized. I'd happily buy some land and self manage own build tho.

Expensive -flip side of incentives-HTB etc.
Basically pot luck over whether you have serious problems/snags or not.
General poor build quality due to the nature of the contractors/makeup of workforce currently used (having control of this is one of the biggest plus points to managing your own build IMO)
Mandated social housing could end up being next door.
Generally far more overlooked and cramped compared with estates of even say 20 years ago, + 3 stories are common meaning even more overlooked combined with small footprint/living areas.
The whole communal maintenance/leasehold/lack of road adoption by council BS.
Parking is a nightmare although this does seem to have gotten a bit better in the last 5 years- probably peaked in terribleness around 2015.

The only general good points I can think of is this you *hopefully* have FTTP, but even that isn't guaranteed, & obviously with all your neighbours also moving in at the same time it's in theory easier to create a 'community' of people at similar life stages if you want that.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Most new build houses are ****.

Perfect if you want to have a conversation with your neighbors without actually having to go round.

Perfect if you want to pay over the odds because it's never been lived in.

Perfect if you fancy the challenge of trying to get a developer who won't be in the slightest bit interested to fix issues they promised they would when they sold it.

Perfect if you like living in a place where plants and lawn doesn't grow because you have about 3mm of top soil over rubble.

I could go on........
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1.) Honestly don't hear the neighbours in this new build at all, only thing we've ever heard is our right hand side neighbours with them banging stuff, but I think that's a localised problem to them.
2.) House prices are an absolute wreck at the moment, having looked at all of our options and has time has gone on, the new build we've bought seems to be the best bet for us. This is the house we've gone for, albeit semi detatched and no garage at 186K - The Mountford | Houses for Sale in Redcar | Kirkleatham Green | Linden Homes. We struggled to find anything we'd be happy with, while there was one we did go view, it was stuck in an internet "stasis" where all it can get it like 70Mbs BT, whereas our new house is 1Gbs FTTP and we're currently on 500Mbs from Virgin.
3.) That's a fair point, however old builds have their own set of problems that need addressing with more than chasing up (Capital spend)
4.) Can concede that point, new build gardens are crap.
 
New builds - pay attention to your parking rights. Allocated parking for you? What about the visitors parking spots you have access to? Who has priority on those spots should someone park on it full time?
 
My mum lives in an old cottage. The walls are not plumb and it requires ongoing maintenance. Features wooden double glazed windows, and is as well insulated as it can be (no cavity wall insulation) it could do with a rewire in parts and it has some great original features, it has stood the test of time unlike most new builds which I have a feeling will be getting demolished in the next 20/30 years or fall down. Some of the things I have seen in new builds is shocking, plastic pipes on show to radiators, walls not plumb, cracks in external brickwork that are more than just from settlement and a myriad of other things. The home I'm currently living in was built in the late 1980s and the building standards on mine at least were a lot better, the main bodge I ran into was dodgey electrics that were installed by a well known kitchen installer when I fitted a new kitchen. Also stay away from prefab housing.
 
Thanks for the advice guys it really helps.

The house we have seen isn’t a “new build” as in we’ve bought a plot and they will build.

It’s 3 years old and we are hoping most of the snags have been sorted. I’ve done my research and spoken to a few on the development and they seem to be happy bar the snags. Great community and it’s not really in the city so to speak so beneficial as we are used a little peace and quiet.

Garden is a decent size and low maintenance. Having lived in our current home our garden is very high maintenance so we are trying to find something which isn’t.

As far as I’m aware they do have FTTP which I can double check. We do really like the house so to speak but I just have a worry that come 10 years it may need major repair work which would be a kick in the teeth.

If we plan to buy I’ll be getting a full structural engineer report on the property. A bit extreme I know but I guess peace of mind comes at a price and it may show issues which could come apparent later on.
 
NickK said:
New builds - pay attention to your parking rights. Allocated parking for you? What about the visitors parking spots you have access to? Who has priority on those spots should someone park on it full time?
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Not following? If you have allocated parking, it's yours, if someone parks in the visitors spot, tough luck.
 
theone8181 said:
I'd be questioning why anyone would be selling a house after a couple of years. There might be valid reasons, but it would put me off.
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Friend sold there's in a couple of months, got fed up with the amount of snags and didn't like the neighbours in the end ...so sold up within six months I think and got a bigger house down the road.
 
theone8181 said:
So exactly the reason why I wouldn't want to be moving in.
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Depends on the snags.

Most of mine where poor workmanship, and because they screwed up fittings things....main one was the wrong bathroom tiles, so they had to remove them, in doing so they damaged the bath and shower screen, which then both needed changing again!
 
Pros and cons to both. Personally I went for an older house (1930s) as the location, garden, practicality, parking, room size were all better than an equivalently priced new build. I accept that things like energy efficiency, no worry of previous owners bodging/hiding stuff, general wear and tear, required maintenance and advances in construction materials are in the favour of new builds, though.
 
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I work for a sub contractor who works on new build. If buying a new build I would probably avoid the bigger house builders, they do vary from site to site so you can get a decent house from the bigger ones but from experience the bigger ones just seem care about completing targets not the actual state of the house. If you do get one I would recommend one of those professional snagging companies and push hard to get the snags sorted.
 
Just to offer another view on new builds (especially if its a new build that's already a few years old), yes there are new builds with tiny gardens and paper walls but equally there are new builds with more sqm/£ than older houses that have completely new kitchens and wet rooms that have spacious driveways and good sized garages.

Essentially don't just lump all new-build houses in the same container. I recently moved into a new build that has a private driveway parking for two cars, a garage which is 1.5x standard width so can fit even the largest modern vehicles and there's been virtually no snagging needed.
 
We've been in our new build for just shy of 5 years. We bought it as part of the final stage of the build and got to know the site manager well as we watch the house being built. We had some issue with the house all of which have been dealt with and for us we got a house with a decent mix of living and sleeping space in a good location. The garden isn't the biggest but is now maturing nicely and hasn't been a problem for planting and growing, we've not hit any rubble to speak off or anything else to worry about.

Parking isn't really a problem and we have a 1 1/2 times wide and deep garage which is great for filling with stuff ;)

In terms of efficiency the house is brilliant, our gas and electric bills, given we have 6 people effectively living in the house full time are very good. We have 1KW of PV panels which came with the house and they are a nice addition which whilst not generating us much income do a good job of running all the normal appliance during the day.

Having now had a new build twice I'd happily have one again if the house was in the right place, size and price bracket.
 
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