You may be thinking of renting or buying a property, and there are so many different factors to consider, like location, number of rooms, whether there’s garden and parking, energy efficiency or other costs of running, affordability of the rent or mortgage etc. One way to simplify this headache would be to work out which aspects are of highest priority to you, and then refine your search criteria, in order to minimise time wasted by looking at properties which were never going to be quite right for you.
One way to group properties easily is by whether they are older properties or new builds, as each group regularly shares a lot of the same benefits or negative points.
Room Size and Number
Whilst new properties may well be offering a large number of rooms, and more en suite bathrooms and downstairs cloakrooms than older properties, the amount of usable space on offer is often much more generous in older properties. Whilst new properties ‘3rd bedroom’ may be advertised as such, it will often on inspection be not quite big enough to even fit in a full sized single bed! Whereas with older properties, you can bet that the advertised number of bedrooms will easily fit beds in, with space to spare, and you may even find that there are additional rooms downstairs tucked away which can be used as ‘snugs’ or studies, whilst still having spacious living or dining areas, and almost certainly a decent sized kitchen.
Gardens & Parking
As with the bedroom situation for new properties, gardens and parking will be proudly advertised for newer properties, when the reality of the situation may well be that for a 3 to 5 bedroom house, only one parking space is allocated in a shared parking lot. That may seem ok if you’re used to parking on the road as it is, but don’t be fooled because in these new estates the roads are barely wide enough to house on road parking, especially as everyone is struggling for parking with their one or no allocated spot! What’s more, unlike with an older property which will have ample driveway parking or wider roads for overflow parking, the parking allocated to new properties is often not even next to your property, making it more tiresome carrying shopping or children in to the property etc.
In terms of gardens the same often applies. The recurring theme is that space costs money, so builders’ parameters seem to have changed. Where once we loved big spacious gardens, front and back, new estates seem to offer a postage stamp sized garden at the back of a 5 bedroom house! What sort of family would choose to live in such a spacious house, with not enough room outside to kick a ball around?
Cracking & Settling
New buildings need to go through a settling process, which older buildings went through decades ago. Due to the materials used in the fabric of the building, once they’re built they will be subjected to changes as the weather, climate, and use affect the materials used – leading to some cracking and settling of properties. Many builders will come back and fix these issues after they’ve occurred, but it is just important to bear in mind that if you’re going to spend time & money doing up your brand new house, that you ma y have to do it again after the first few months or years.
Financial
Currently there are the Help- to-Buy initiatives and assistance around for first time home owners – and although there are offers available for assistance purchasing older properties, the majority of the financial assistance suits the purchase of brand new properties straight from the developer. For this reason alone it may make more sense for you to purchase a new property rather than an older property.
For tenants however, older properties seem to offer a lot more space for the same monthly expenditure, due to the fact that newer properties are deemed to be a bit more ‘luxurious’, with the additional en-suites even in a two-bedroom apartment, for instance.
Location
If location is important to you, it may well be worth taking note of the location of newer developments in comparison to older properties. Oftentimes, again due to lack of space, or cost of land in towns or built up areas, the newer developments are situated on the outskirts of towns. So if you are in to walking instead of driving, and need shops and pubs etc nearby, newer developments may not suit your lifestyle because you will inevitably need a mode of transport to get around. However, if you are going to commute in the car, or need to live near an out of town train station, newer property developments may be much closer to transport links and so suit you much better. Some developers even make agreements with highways agency or rail networks to ensure that residential developments will be well connected.
Features vs. Conformity
I personally love walking down roads and lanes where every single property is unique; when you know some of them may have been built decades ago, some centuries ago, some recently renovated or extended, but mainly that they’re all different. Some may have sash windows, some may have thatched roofs, some may have old style stable doors, some may be more recently built and have lovely brickwork more modern style feature windows. In new developments there seems to be a lot of conformity and I find it a bit bland.
Efficiency
However, in the defence of newer properties, they are more likely to be energy efficient, as they’ve been built with modern standards in mind, i.e. no draughty sash windows. Also they are less likely to suffer from issues such as mould as they will have proper ventilation and insulation, and possibly even hi tech HVAC control systems to regulate the air temperature. As they are newer they’ll also have less inherited issues, such as chipped paintwork or deteriorated flooring etc., so for the conscientious owner or tenants, upkeep will be much easier on an unspoiled property, than it would be on an already somewhat dilapidated property.
In older properties, especially in listed properties, you sometimes aren’t even able to update the period features such as the sash windows which may be causing draughts. For this reason, older properties can sometimes be more of a labour of love than a sensible financial decision – depending on which features an older property has.
To summarise, for me, preferring to look for property to rent in a great location somewhere in Northamptonshire, with local shops, pubs, restaurants etc, and prioritising a couple of spacious rooms with a bigger garden over more smaller bedrooms with a tiny courtyard in a hi tech modern development, an older property would have to be the one to go for, especially as a renting tenant.
I would like to be able to afford to buy an older property, but with the Help-to-Buy scheme focusing mainly on new developments, I think the time may come in the near future where I have to accept that I will only be able to buy new, at least for my first property investment anyway.
Bio: Hannah writes on behalf of www.ashanproperty.com/to-
