New builds or older properties

I have never lived in a new build house, but unless I could afford an architect designed individual house, I would not want a new one. I have known family and friends who have bought new builds, and not one was happy with the quality or space. The gardens were mostly (literally) rubbish too! I agree that a well designed, well insulated house with quality workmanship would be good, but I have yet to see one in the UK! The one exception I recall, was the house of some cousins in New Zealand. Nice room sizes, big gardens and underfloor heating, but this was in a small development, where each plot had been individually purchased, with a choice of home design and finish.

Best house I have lived in was 1930s. Solidly built. Cavity walls brick inside and out. No breeze blocks. Doors, staircase solid oak. Large rooms, bay windows. Large loft for storage. Reasonable size garden back and front.

I think older properties have more character and I just prefer the look of them but I can see that new builds can be more practical will downstairs toilets and better insulation. I wouldn't buy a completely new house though as they often have problems and are overpriced I think sometimes they depreciate rathrr than go up in price.

Depends. Not modern new builds on estates...which tend to be little boxes with small gardens. If it’s a house under 300k then an older house. 1970s properties have large rooms and decent plots overall. To my mind if you can throw money at it....build your own eco friendly house.

Love older houses - but ended up spending a fortune on previous home - dry rot, rising damp and leaks. Moved to then seven year old property built by the previous owner for his own family. Room sizes generous, and fitted cupboards and wardrobes a bonus. It has cost me comparatively little in maintenance over twenty years, which means a lot less hassle and worry.Also, now I am getting older I really appreciate the fact that it has a downstairs shower room as well as a family bathroom. So many new houses have tiny cloakrooms you can barely turn around in.Useless if you have a disability.

Gosh I'm with craftyone. Lived in 30's and 50's builds - permanent chillblains. Had a 70's estate new build - better but not much. Now, new build, small builder - real care for what they are doing, super design and warm in every room - plus lower fuel bills than ever. Only double glazed but so so quiet although we are on a very busy road. Next to no maintenance so more time for interests and hobbies. I like looking round old houses but as for living in one...

Not a new build- the plots are tiny, no room for a whirligig and the walls paper thin. However would want to live in an old house either as they are likely to need more upkeep and often lack a car space. I'm happy in my 1960's house, solidly built with a decent sized garden, garage and off-road parking.

would wouldn't

I love my draughty Victorian terrace, but it is really too big for two of us now that the children have left.

We will stay put as long as we can, as we do spread out to use all the space. It costs a lot to heat, and there always seems to be something that needs doing. Another upside is that the location of old houses is often much better than new. Ours is in the centre of town, so handy for all the facilities, whereas modern developments are on the outskirts and it's much more of a hassle to get anywhere, particularly as you get older.

We have a downstairs loo, but there is only room for one bathroom, whereas modern houses usually have en-suites, and (again, as you get older!) that would be a useful addition.

It's swings and roundabouts, I suppose.

my plot is not at all tiny and I have a whirlygig, two large wooden benches, 2 sets of bistro tables and chairs, several storage units, a water feature, large lovely-looking grecian water butts, a divider planter and numerous large pots containing fruit bushes, all on my patio with bags of room to spare. I have roses, various fruit bushes, apple trees and veg plots in the garden. I have solid dividing walls and needed to use a hammer drill when putting pictures up. Damp? what damp?

My downstairs cloakroom is big, my hall is very big, my utility is fully fitted. I am 5 minutes walk from buses and shops. My drive can hold two large cars and my garage is 9 x3m internally with an electric up and over door

The cost for all that £365k

Maybe those saying that new builds are damp and tiny plots need to have a look at some of the modern ones. Many of the older houses with cavity walls have had their walls foam filled with resulting bridging problems across badly inserted wall ties and hence there is damp in many of those properties. No damp if they were well constructed, many were thrown up by the likes of barratts

We downsized 10y ago from a 1929 semi that we LOVED. it was our family home - 2 daughters and 2 cocker spaniels. We lived there, backing onto the meadows in Chorlton for 32y.

We decided to sell once our youngest daughter got married.

We already had a small apartment in Spain.

Our daughters were dubious about our choice - a town centre apartment in Urmston. They had concerns about thin walls. Noise. etc

Well it’s been BRILLIANT!

I think building regs and eco considerations are superb nowadays. I cannot hear next door’s Tv or flushing in the bathroom. I asked our new neighbour at the time if he could hear our music (I’d rather know and adjust accordingly) ... I whacked it up as if for a party ... checked wapiti him after 2 minutes and he assured us he couldn’t hear a sound. Result!

No maintenance. No guttering, garden, fence panels. No gates to paint, no paving with weeds to clear. No hedges to cut.

Best thing we ever did for our retirement!

More leisure time - just breakfast, shower and pretty much ... what would we like to do today (rather than what NEEDS doing?).

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Meant to say, town centre is fabulous. The development is only 2 storeys, above commercial.

The train station across the road takes us into Manchester or Liverpool.

Sainsbury’s is in the square (I call it my larder!) just down in the lift. Wonderful. Costa coffee, Thornton’s, Aldi, the dentist, hairdressers, doctors, pharmacy, independent bars all 2 minutes from the front entrance.

I honestly feel blessed. I did my homework 10y ago!

Just as well ... my husband was dubious haha!

I like new builds, no one else’s dirt or colour scheme to contend with. Everything fresh and new and smelling of paint. I do agree rooms and garden are smaller tho.

I moved into a new build bungalow three years ago. Between getting the key and moving in, I had it independently surveyed so that I could present any potential problems to the snagging team. Nothing serious was found, and the the surveyor judged it to be built to a good standard. The house is very well designed, with regulatory ramp out front, wide doors and a wide and spacious hall. One of the three bedrooms is twelve feet square, as big as the living room in some homes. The smallest has two single beds in it, and a very spacious shower room. The fittings are good quality, and the appliances Siemens. A neighbour found an outlet which was able to supply an extra kitchen cabinet of the same range,and it was not cheap. We have a drive which can take three cars, and a front and back garden, the back being bigger than we would have liked! The living area is very spacious, with a three panel bifold door, plus two floor to ceiling windows. An integral garage, opening from the utility room completes the property. As others have said of new builds, they are well insulated. We have gas underfloor heating.
We were in our last new build for thirty years, and had no problems. The house before that was built about 1970, but was cold within minutes of the heating going off.
DD lives in a Victorian property, which is freezing a lot of the time, and they have spent quite a lot of money on it.
I accept that the new build may well depreciate initially, and it's value will be dependent on the housing market generally.
There are probably pluses and minuses in both old and new. I'm just pointing out that new needn't be poky or flimsy.

I am loving this thread, very interesting to read about the different properties.

We loved our family home but it was so freezing cold in there. The next summer we did four things to improve the insulaion. Rentokill blown cavity wall insulation but we still worried about damp and bad wall ties, husband was a structural engineer and had seen plenty of damage due to corroded ties so we had another skin put over the outside with a small gap between. That was good. We put lots more loft insulation in and we changed the single glazed windows to double glazed.

It took a long time for the government to regulate for better insulation to save energy and the environment. Many people were persuaded to get foam cavity wall insulation which caused some horrendous damp walls. It was a scandal

The choice of property is all about different circumstances and needs. Many people cannot move and some get too old to be bothered with the hassle of moving. Some want to garden in their older years, others not and so on

From Georgian to early 1950's over the years all in need of a total refurb. Oh, the joy of removing acres of woodchip !
In the last few years 4 couples we know have down sized and moved to new build. 2 bought land used a local architect and builder and could not be happier. The other 2 bought from a well known company promising eco friendly, age proofing etc. and rue the day they signed the contract. The problems seem never ending.

The best land is always taken first, so older properties are usually in the best places, mostly have more space and have character as opposed to new properties which always seem to be built too close together as well as being much smaller and sometimes even in flood areas as we have seen. I have lived in both older properties and new ones and I much prefer the older ones.

At the moment older property, my current home is very old with character and history, and plenty of space for us and our dogs, however as I get older maybe a new build, less maintenance etc. I do like to live in quiet tranquil surroundings.

We have an old house, built in 1877. It has taken all our money to keep it in good order.
I wouldn’t advise anyone to buy an old house unless they have building skills or plenty of money and love an on going project.
Our lovely builder who has done all our work for us also has an old house and is sick of all the work it causes him.
He says he’d rather live in a new ‘box’ ?

Old for me.
Built to last and you can`t hear neighbours.

We can hear our joined on neighbours loud and clear. Fortunately we get on very well with them and the teenagers thumping downstairs and practicing their musical instruments doesn’t bother us.
We would move if they moved away and we got properly noisy neighbours or with a barking dog.
Doesn’t look like they are going to though fingers crossed

This thread is so interesting. I have loved reading everyone’s views on new v old.

I prefer older properties for reasons already mentioned - bigger rooms and windows and non overlooked gardens.

Our first house was a new build which was easy to run but had no character.

If I’m honest this house is too big for us now it’s just the two of us, but I love living here.

We are on a lovely leafy road with other older detached homes and we all have large gardens. The downside is the heating costs. The large windows and patio door do mean that the house would horrify little crosspatch Greta as our fuel bills are undoubtedly higher than they would be in a new build !

We have done as much as we can re insulation though.

I can see the argument for new builds being easier and cheaper to run but so many of them look like rabbit hutches.

mine is like a modern cottage, rendered warm cream. It has a stone porch and stone cills and lintels. It is a balanced pretty house ie the front door is in the centre between two windows and the two front bedrooms have dormer windows with angled eaves above, I have a chimney. To my right is a garden fence which leads to another neat wall+fence at right angles, to my left is my drive with a big space before my neighbours house. There are roses on each side of the front. I am lucky, my house has plenty of character and I sometimes need to pinch myself, so glad to have settled here

I looked at a big development before buying this, not one of the bad ones, lots more houses on one development and they were nice in all honesty, didn`t look a bit like little boxes. If I were killing time and uncertain of my future, then I would go and see. They are so different to the new builds of a decade ago

I nearly bought a new build on my previous house purchase until I found out that you cannot reconfigure the inside because once you meet newbuild building regs you cant make the inside non compliant again.

So where the house had a large downstairs toilet you arent allowed to get a shower put in that room, as new build downstairs toilets need space for a wheelchair.

Illogical because a wetroom shower there would have allowed for the option of ground floor living had we needed it..

In an older house that doesnt meet newer regs anyway you can do more like we fitted a shower room and toilet that dont have wheelchair access and that was fine because there wasnt wheelchair access in the first place!

Can’t do strike through so everything in brackets read as strike through.

I’ve lived in a terraced Edwardian house, a large old detached one with huge garden, and now in a (rabbit hutch) modern cottage, with a (tiny) gem of a garden, front and back, on an (estate) development. It’s very well designed, has two double bedrooms, and a large living room with floor to ceiling windows + patio doors across the length of one wall.
Kitchen is compact, but with built in dishwasher, fridge freezer and washing machine with plenty of cupboards and work surfaces. It’s light, airy, contemporary, and warm inside. Downstairs cloakroom, en-suite and bathroom upstairs.
It’s already developing character. Parking for two cars and no through traffic.
It’s perfect for my needs at this time in my life, as have the other houses been.
I feel very fortunate.