Twice as many people would rather buy an older home than a new one.
They say new homes are poorly built, lack character or charm, and have small rooms.
According to a survey conducted by YouGov for the HomeOwners Alliance and BLP Insurance, only one in five (21%) would prefer to buy a newly built home, whereas nearly half (47%) would prefer an old home, built ten or more years ago.
Small rooms in new homes were criticised by 45%, while lack of green space was criticised by 40%.
Almost four in ten (38%) cited low build quality as a disadvantage of new homes although 51% saw lower ongoing maintenance and energy costs as an advantage.
New homes were also thought by some to offer the best chance of getting on the housing ladder as schemes like Help to Buy are seen to be more widely available on new homes.
Paula Higgins, chief executive of HomeOwners Alliance, said: “We need more new homes, but they have to be homes that people want to live in, not homes that are quick, easy and cheap for house builders to throw up.
“What we need to solve the housing crisis are quality homes of character and space, and challenge the housing industry to deliver.
“After the war, they built homes fit for heroes. All we want is homes fit for home owners.
“Homes shouldn’t be built just for a quick profit, but to last for generations to come.”
Comments (6)
Allow me to be a tad confusted by this article…
“…only one in five (21%) would prefer to buy a newly built home, whereas nearly half (47%) would prefer an old home, built ten or more years ago.”
So – almost ONE THIRD of people either have no preference at all, or want a home which is not “newly-built” but is LESS than ten years old – is that right?
“Paula Higgins, chief executive of HomeOwners Alliance, said:…” I’m not even going to start with those comments.
Even if I responded she wouldn’t be able to read them – it’s too dark and restricted where her head clearly lodges…
I loathe new-builds. We have a few on our books and none are without problems. The sheer scale of cowboy workmanship frequently comes to light once we get started on the repairs.
Another problem is the cheap integrated white goods they install: they usually need replacing within 5 years and integrated appliances are so much more expensive than freestanding.
All in all, I feel new-builds are a huge rip-off sometimes, and perhaps Government should do something to protect the buyers of these sub-standard constructions. Certainly our clients seem highly stressed trying to get the matter resolved via the builders and/or the NHBC. In most cases, they’ve given up and paid our contractors to sort it all out .
That is the whole point MF, the buyers don’t care, these boxes are being built to extract 6-10% yield out of tenants, the few hapless private buyers who grab a bit of the action are lucky and grateful (ish it seems)
They are being built to rent for institutional investors who really don’t give a shizzle about room or garden size. The estates that are being whacked up are designed to get maximum bodies on an acre. It can’t be just me who has noticed a rash of nouveaux mansion house (cracker tin) houses starting to blight the edge of everywhere. Sorry I shouldn’t moan they do have lovely plastic porticoes and mock Portland stone quoins
I don’t think the builders are looking at investors, i think much more simple, builder smaller homes, sell more houses, make more money.
Any new development by a major builder and the houses are so small a detached 5 bed these days sits on a plot a semi 3 bed would have had in the past.
Greed with little thought of practical living, in a day and age where homeowners need more space with possessions and growing families the houses are getting smaller and smaller.
Still plenty of buyers due to lack of property in the country tho!
Have a read of the other story a bit further down the page Smile.
There has been a certain agenda running for a good few years now.