Two factors to consider when deciding if you should buy a pre-owned property or construct a new home

Two factors to consider when deciding if you should buy a pre-owned property or construct a new home

Two factors to consider when deciding if you should buy a pre-owned property or construct a new home

13 March 2018
 Categories:
Construction & Contractors, Blog


There are a number of factors which you should take into consideration when deciding if you should build a property or simply purchase a pre-owned one. Here are two such factors.

The amount of work you are willing to do to the property

If you purchase a pre-owned home, there is a possibility that it may have both structural and cosmetic problems that will need to be addressed before you can move in.

For example, if the property is several decades old and is, therefore, lacking in insulation, you may need to buy insulation materials and hire a tradesman to install these materials in the loft as well as in the wall and floor cavities. Additionally, you may have to fit extra radiators and seal up all of the draughts that are allowing heat to seep out of the building.

Similarly, if the property has not been redecorated in a few years and is quite rundown or outdated, you may need to re-plaster and repaint the interior walls, render the house's exterior, replace the flooring, as well as tear out and replace the kitchen cabinetry and the bathroom suite.

If the property has a subsidence problem, you may have to arrange for the sinking foundation to be underpinned and fix any resulting structural issues (such as warped doorframes and cracked walls).

Taking care of these types of issues will require a substantial investment of both time and money. If you don't have the funds or the patience to spruce up a pre-existing property, it may be best to have one constructed for you by one of your local new home builders.

New properties are always well insulated and freshly-decorated, with no pre-existing structural problems. As such, you can simply move straight in as soon as the builders have finished their work. Perhaps more importantly, you won't have to spend any additional money on making cosmetic or structural repairs after you purchase the property.

Your personal requirements

If you have very specific requirements that a pre-owned property may not be able to meet, then it may be wiser to opt for a newly-built home which can be designed to suit your unique needs.

For example, if you suffer from arthritis, you may need a wet room (so that you don't have to climb into a bathtub or step into a shower each time you want to bathe), a kitchen with very low-positioned countertops (so that you can sit down when preparing food), as well as an unusually high number of plug sockets in each room (so that you don't have to move very far when you need to plug in an electrical device).

It is unlikely that you will be able to find a pre-existing property that has all of these features. As such, if you decide to buy a pre-owned house, you may need to make a lot of time-consuming and costly changes, to ensure that it can serve as a safe and comfortable space for you to live in.

In this situation, it would probably be better to hire a new home builder to design a customised property that takes your physical limitations into consideration.

About Me
Planning Contractors and Construction Work

If you are planning to carry out construction work on the interior or exterior of your home, you should first take professional advice. My home is located on quite a steep hill and I decided that I would like to build an extension. Not only would this involve digging a new foundation, it would also involve backfilling some areas of land so the new extension would be properly supported. I decided to call my friend who works as a contractor for a construction company. He offered me lots of great advice and thanks to him the job was a complete success.

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