Price
New homes are priced at the maximum the market will allow. New homes sell for a premium
typically £5,000 to £8,000 more than the equivalent older house because of the advantages
stated on this website and to an extent, the costs associated with planning agreements.
However, should you wish to sell before the development is sold out, your ‘second-
Living on a building site
Unless you purchase the last home on the development this is inevitable and unavoidable. You will find yourself subjected to mud on the roads, dust, noise, parking and access problems and a general lack of privacy. You will probably have the advantage that you can dump your rubbish in the builders’ skips for a while though!
Extras/Options/Finishing Touches
These are offered by most of the major builders as they find them very profitable! Before agreeing to pay for an extra power point or wall and floor tiling, it may be worth talking to the sub contractor direct, as going through the builder can add around 35% to the cost! If the friendly sales advisor is forbidden to tell you who the sub contractor is, ask on site yourself, but avoid the building areas for obvious safety reasons.
Restricted Choices
Most of the larger Plc. house builders have National Agreements with their suppliers. These normally involve suppliers giving large payments or very substantial discounts to the builder. These are in return for an assurance that only the supplier’s materials or products will be used in all the homes built by that builder during the period covered by the agreement. When these agreements are set up, the builder’s directors often select specific product ranges that then further limit the choice available to you. This is particularly noticeable with kitchen unit styles. The regional offices of the larger builders are then tied to the national agreements and resultant specifications set by the builder’s group head office.
Smaller rooms
It should be fully understood that new homes are generally smaller than their older counterparts. In fact some of the older terraced houses in our town centres were large enough for builders to convert into several modern flats! With the ever rising cost of land it is inevitable that developers would seek to maximise their return, by increasing the number of homes on a development whilst maintaining an acceptable building density to placate local planners. This often results in homes being built on a reduced ‘footprint’ with subsequent reductions in room sizes, often to the bare minimum that will be accepted by prospective purchasers.
Rear garden
If you are lucky (or shrewd) you will have a turfed rear garden. However, this is
always laid to suit the existing and surrounding ground levels, whatever they may
be. Builders avoid retaining walls to level gardens because of the cost. This means
should you wish to extend your patio or level out an area, this turf will be wasted.
Furthermore, unless you specify the type of turf, you will normally be provided with
the cheapest available or low-grade cultivated, which can suffer before you move
in as builders only ever water it in hot weather, if at all. Normally your rear garden
is left with a layer of spread topsoil - This should be a minimum of 150 mm deep.
It is not unreasonable to expect this to be loosened and free from weeds when you move in. You will then have the expense of planting your rear garden and laying lawn to the remainder, costing at least £1,800 for a typically sized new home rear garden. With ever increasing land costs, rear gardens to new homes are generally smaller than those of older houses. If you are not a keen gardener this may be a blessing, but when you come to sell it may present a problem.
Front Garden
Front gardens are a thing of the past with new homes built after 2000. Some are often just deep enough to accommodate a gas meter box!
Modern new homes, especially semi-
Rarely some kitchens are also missing a window. A window in these rooms is not a requirement, and it is sacrificed to benefit the remaining accommodation. The house is either too narrow or too small to facilitate a better design layout that would enable the bathroom to have an external wall and therefore a window.
Social and Affordable Housing
Another factor you can now not avoid is the provision of social and/or affordable
housing on a development. This is stipulated as part of the planning process under
a Section 106 Agreement – part of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Such provision
is encouraged by central government. Generally, any development of 15 homes or more
attracts a requirement for social and/or affordable housing. This can be as much
as 30% of the development. In the past any social housing would be at one end of
the development and relatively self-
High density developments
The Government produced a document called PPS3, a planning policy statement that
replaced the previous PPG3 guideline on density of developments. It basically relaxed
requirements for parking space provision, open space, estate roads etc. and gave
developers an opportunity to cram as many plots on to a development as their designers
could squeeze on. This results in cramped developments with little or no on street
parking and front doors opening directly on to the public footpath. Even if the development
escapes PPG3 requirements, it is still likely to be of a far higher density than
those built ten years ago. Most rear gardens are overlooked by more than two of their
neighbours. Front gardens are all but non-
Lack of Parking
Requirements for the minimum number of parking spaces per home (previously 2 spaces
per home and 3 for a four-
Mobility - new changes to Building Regulations
All new homes are subject to the new mobility standards. In short this stipulates a minimum size for access doors to ground floor rooms as well as the principal entrance door. Other requirements include minimum widths for access in hallways and the provision of a ground floor cloakroom, to a certain minimum size. This can often result in the remaining rooms on the ground floor being reduced in size to enable the minimum requirements for wider hallways and the cloakroom to be achieved. In addition, the increased width and revised positioning of ground floor doors may limit room furnishing options due to the wider doors.
There are many more disadvantages than advantages when you buy a new home. You should carefully consider all the drawbacks below before making a decision to buy a new home.
Disadvantages of brand new homes
Problems with new homes:
Why new homes have so many defects
What to do when you discover a problem
How to complain to the house builder
Who are the best house builders
What you need to know about timber frame new homes
Fire and timber frame new homes
At the very least your rear garden should look like this -
