im just about to buy my first house and would like opinions, advice etc what are the pros and cons of buying a victorian/edwardian house as oppposed to buying a new house.any views will be read with interest.
Having owned both brand new and old I would now go for older properties. IMO the main advantages are that they tend to be on larger plots, have larger rooms and in many instances more substantially built which in theory makes things like loft conversions easier etc. Also larger plots mean more room around you, more privacy and space to "expand" with extensions at a later date. Because of this potential I also think they are a better investment financially. On top of this (if you can find an unmolested one) they offer more character than most new builds.
The disadvantages will depend of the individual property. Our last one needed rewiring, central heating, new kitchen and bath plus redecoration. Something most "older" houses need at some point in their lives. A newer house may not need any of these. Also IME older houses need ongoing maintenance to stop them declining, newer houses less so.
In short older houses will cost money at some point, in all likelyhood more than a new one. But if you buy carefully, make sure you are aware of what you're getting into and use a good surveyor I'd go with an old house every time.
HTH
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I absolutely agree. Much will depend on if you will have any spare cash or whether you are pushing yourself to the financial limit. If it's the former then buy and old house for all the good reasons above, if it's the latter then new is best so you wont have any maintenance expenditure>
Good luck
Angela
Older houses tend to be bigger and have more land associated with them. That ends all the good points.
Of their age they are usually amongst the better examples (the rest having fallen down /been demolished). However, foundations on all old houses are decidedly iffy, build standards were universally poor, insulation is a joke and things like plumbing, heating and electricity will have been bodged over the years to varying standards of incompetence. Whatever you do avoid the ones that have been "improved" by surface bodge jobs and several cans of National Trust Burnt Sienna paint. Remember if you buy a crock the loss will be yours - surveyors learned how to avoid all responsibility years ago and buildings insurance policies exclude "faulty workmanship" (which basically means anything at all other than gross subsidence).
New houses (last few years) are built to higher standards (by poorer craftsmen) and if "estate" types (Barret et al) are designed to meet their odd perception of peoples requirements. If theirs and your match you are OK, if not you have a problem. The worst houses, to be avoided at all costs, are those built between about 1960 and 1985. Dire standards and poor materials.
Best is buy the land and have a house built for you. Its also usually cheaper and quicker.
People I know are moving in to a brand new build (large house builder), and it's bloody awful. They've got an attached garage with a stud partition wall between that and the living area! The finish is shockingly poor. One of the "bedrooms" is 6x6 feet. They do have double-glazing, though. We've got sliding sash windows that rattle a bit.
Our 1902 house, on the other hand, has bricks between all downstairs rooms, and even one upstairs. I suppose it depends if you want to put a shelf on the wall.
Large new houses are available. They also have far higher insulation levels making them more comfortable in summer and winter.
Wow! You spoke much sense. Amazing, taking all those sensible ills.
Not always the case and finding decent plot is very difficult.
All the above are vaild, but if you are a first time buyer then i guess money will be pretty tight. In which case you may be better off with a new property which doesn't need anything other than cosmetic changes to get it how you want it.
Generally you buy a house to live in and not to marvel at the architecture. What is wrong with a pre or post war semi, or a modern 60/70/80/90's house?
You buy the one with the rooms the right size for you, an appropriate kitchen and bathroom layout, enough room to move about, and future development adaptation potential etc etc.
Any older house will generally have more maintenance costs. But over the period you plan to keep it you have to decide whether the £20k new house 'premium' is more than the cost of maintaining your older house. You could buy an old house with all the maintenance done by the previous owner - so maintenance free for the next 15 years.
Then you have to consider your day to day running costs - heating and power supply and if the plaster will fall off your older walls everytime you re-decorate. New hose generally cheaper to run, but again is the premium more than you will spend on heating?
For any house, if it is structurally sound then your only real concerns are location, access, living space and running costs. Any house from any period has a general design style - if that style and layout is appealing to you then that is the type of house you buy. You should not buy it just because it is 'victorian' or 'modern'.
dg
This bit I wouldn't agree with. If you are planning to stay for some years, this is the period which can offer traditional cavity wall construction, reasonable plot sizes, good wiring and plumbing, central heating designed in, large windows and with a bit of cash are very easy to bring up to a good standard. Regards Capitol
May also have a better location, e.g. closer to station
Thats what you need DIY skills for. You can fit things that you like rather than having to live with something someone else has chosen.
Quite possibly you will be able to recover any expenditure in a higher resale price
Michael Chare
Sounds like a worst case example. I can show you 5 bed new houses that are very solid and well made.
Rather than restrict to old/new, consider other, potentially more important things.
1 Location. Buy a house in a nice area. An area you like with amenaties nearby that you will use. You cannot move a house. 2 Land. Make sure the plot of land is big enough. If it is too small there is nothing much you can do about it. Having a dedicated parking space, garage or car port (or at least room for one) can be important. 3 Size. You can do some changes in a house, you can knock walls down and even build extensions (if you have land available) but small rooms and not enough rooms are difficult to fix. 4 Area. Look carefully at the surrounding area. Especially close to the house. Avoid areas where something commercial can be built next door, or mobile phone mast accross the road, or road widening removes front garden etc etc.All the above things are ones you can do nothing about after you have bought. No amount of DIY or builders can fix them.
Richard
I'd second that. I've a few pals that live in a nearby Barrets estate that was built in the late '80s. They weren't cheap because of the location - about the same as a Victorian cottage in the same area.
All the windows and external doors have had to be replaced. Boilers also - although due to the excellent insulation they're hardly needed. Floors in bathrooms and kitchens - untreated chipboard sitting on polystyrene, so any spilt water that gets to it ruins it. Water system with a header tank in the bathroom rather than roof void, so no possibility of a shower without re-plumbing. Plasterboard with no skim - so just try taking off wallpaper. All the front pathways now an obstacle course. Rear fences rotten - if they didn't get blown down. And the most stupid positioning of light switches and sockets you've ever seen. Poor sound insulation in the flats, although the houses aren't too bad. Oh - and all the garage doors have needed replacing too.
And they're tiny inside. Sod the low heating costs - I'll stick to my space - and a house that's simple to fix as needed.
I'm sure there are many like that, though I've never seen any.
You don't have to look too hard to see them.
Some Victorian houses are prone to structural problems. The ones remaining today are basically the ones that didnt fall down or get demolished. Many have gone. If buying this old I would want to know what the structure is about. Some are good, with acceptable foundations and brickwork repointed and in one piece.
OTOH some are not. I've seen houses with foundations 3 bricks deep, with 4" walls holding up 2 stories, structural cracks, top row wall bricks that you could literally just pick up with your hand, or walls bulging all over the place. If you buy old, know what youre buying.
With new builds of course there are some rejects as well there. There are some houses with a litany of dreadful bodges: either avoid them or pay way less and fix it all.
Finally, surveys - ruddy useless. Better to learn the basics of the subject. Well, now you know what to look out for. There was a thread several months ago on what to look for when buying, very thorough too.
Regards, NT
Where do you get the idea that any house, new or old, can be maintenance free for 15 years? That's why there are so many crap, poorly maintained, houses on the market.
With an old house, chips in paintwork, rough edges, pipes running down the wall all seem to look nice ! In a new house, if the finish isn't perfect, it's going to look pretty poor. I've not seen many new houses where the finish has been acceptible, never mind perfect.
Personally I don't like walls that flex when you lean on them...scares me. And I prefer to have an individual house...something I've not seen on a new development (apart from at christmas when your nextdoor neighbour covers his house with lights :-) )
Friends have made a packet out of buying new builds off plan..but I get the impression you need to sell quick and be prepared to move frequently to do that...before the next phase of development on the estate downgrades your house to "the older style of build".
Friends of mine live in a 20yr new house...I don't think the argument that old houses suffer from years of bodged surface jobs flies judging by the things they've found.
Anyone know what the design life of new builds is nowadays ? probably depends on the developer I know, but I heard 50yrs is what they're designing to now..
I'd always go for an old house...but things to check
1) open the kitchen cupboards like I didn't. THe carcasses were half the size of the doors :-) 2) Get an electrical check done. It's like 30-50 quid. 3) Take a look around the house perimeter and look for the damp proof course and whether any patios/next door neighbours are bridging it. If it is bridged, you can rectify easily, but the plaster may already be damaged. 4) pick at the mortar whilst your walking around...is it crumbling ? 5) knock every single wall inside with your knuckle from the bottom to the top. If the plasteres blown, that'll make redecorating difficult, messy, and a longer job. 6) get into the loft and look around the chimney stack inside...any damp getting in ? Any light showing through ? 7) try to open all the windows and check the outside sills especially in corners..any rot ? 8) check that there's guttering all the way around the house...drive past when it's raining if you can ! that'll show you if/were water is dripping and you can go back and check those walls more closely. 9) look at the consumer unit...how many fuses in there ? if there's 4, then that'll be the two ring mains and two lighting circuits...where's any external floodlighting being powered from ? what kitchen appliances are plugged into sharing that ring main ? There's likely to be some new wiring required if you plan to refurb the kitchen. 10) look at drainage..where does all the water from the roof end up ? any patios/surfaces slooping towards the house ? any drainage betwen the surface and the house ?Once you're happy with all of that...or you have assessed the cost to rectify..you can make your offer....that way you shouldn't need to lower the offer too much more once the surveyors been in (assuming he doesn't find something major) risking losing the property after you've paid up for a survey..
Ant.
Newer house are more in demand in some areas, hence the higher price for them. Owners know they are relatively trouble free and cheap to keep warm. They tend to come with utility rooms and proper plumbing and electrical systems, not bodged up and added to over years stuff.
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