Also with new builds buyers are paying a premium price and the homes may lose value the moment someone moves in.
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When you buy a new house you’re able to customise your new home - if you then sell the house without those benefits AND selling against the developer (who are great at this stuff with schemes like Part Exchange, Assisted move & help to buy) you’re in a more competitive market place.
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I can speak to this, it’s my industry.
Nope! Builders are incredibly conservative and have to plan 3-20 years ahead when buying land and planning houses. They need to make sure what they build sells well and important is mortgage able.
They need to adapt to timber frame and off site manufacturing first before we get into 3D printing.
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Could be
Wow. 20 years of planning?! Regulatory burden?!
I don’t think 3D printing for housing technology is ripe for mass adoption. But it will be. Soon 
. It will allow for different business models, will increase competition to a certain extent cuz it can only build houses with a couple of stories, ie as far as I can understand the technology can’t be used to build a 10 stories building. Yet. Maybe it will never get there. It will not necessarily drive prices down. But could become a valid alternative in time I think
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Long term projects are often classed a ‘stratland’ or Strategic Land, buying up a large area that isn’t including in the current master plan and then hoping / schmoozing the MP & councillors until it is included.
Most Ftse350 builders have land plans for 3 years ahead with pencil plans for a few more after that.
Banks are also very conservative as they’re lending against something for 30/35 years often so don’t want to risk the property being uninhabitable. Of site pre fab makes more sense. Making a wall panel with the wiring inside and on-site they install the wall and then do the connection is far faster and saves wastage.
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I’d like to see more ICF builds and greater mortgagability before the 3d printer ones personally.
Midas Construction gone into administration
Have you guys noticed nobody is building the ‘British dream’. Like, I’m not seeing home builders build beautifully detached properties for the long term vibe of the country,
…in fact, the past 5 years I’ve seen a SIGNIFICANT and disturbing amount of high rises sprawled across absolutely anywhere they can be granted.
Pretty concerned by the direction of this. A small box with no garden, no space, 30 floors up and no real ownership of anything, really.
Where is the British dream?
Redrow are the closet at building what I think you’ve described. Their heritage collection are all 1930’s inspired, majority detached family homes.
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Own nothing and be happy!
That seems to be the way for future generations
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The thing is IMO that’s a flow on effect from other policies not a deliberate move by home builders. They only care about food returns, not social engineering or whatever.
The problem is for lots of us that isn’t really a choice. The reason so many apartments etc are being built is because if we’re lucky that’s all lots of us might one day be able to afford! That said my friend has recently ish brought a new build detached house and garden near Birmingham. But she’s a partner in a corporate law firm so 
.
The really fancy shit isn’t being built by the big developers anyway it’s being built bespoke on individual plots of land.
Re detached houses being the “British dream” - Personally I grew up in a terrace house then we moved to a detached house in my teens. There were pros and cons to both.
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I feel that the property developers/builders are not building what the British population want.
You can see people buying new properties, for only 5 years later building extensions or moving to a bigger house.
Its pretty clear that a 3 bedroom house it’s a two bedroom house with a nursery and gardens are smaller by the day. Also, new houses are not having under floor heating installed or any other super efficient technology, making the purchase a terrible investment. Super expensive extras, bad finishings and unregulated maintenance fees, that could stay with the property forever, are not what the customer want.
Also, people are demanding space to WFH and it’s impossible to get a proper workspace when the size of living area is reduced to the minimum possible.
Everything to squeeze as much profit from the least capital employed.
I just feel sorry for the next generation, that have to pay so much for a living space that is not enough for they needs, if they’re lucky enough to save the deposit.
Maybe this is just temporary until a bubble burst in the U.K. housing market, but the demand is here the supply is not increasing.
I might be wrong, but I moved from Europe, and my parents humble working class family home was much bigger than any of the higher priced houses being sold as new here in the U.K. and unless you are fortunate enough to borrow a lot of money or have a lot of money, you won’t have the property that you have dreamed in the U.K. Maybe abroad…Europe, U.S. and Australia have generally much bigger houses (not comparing pricing, just size).
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I’m just going to push back on a few points here.
Your argument makes no sense to me. In one paragraph you’re saying that house are too small and lack the amenities people want. On the other you’re saying they’re too expensive already, how do you propose having bigger gardens, renewable tech etc without the price changing?
Developers are largely price takers, they can maximise their opportunities but they don’t set the market. For every 1 new house sold around 9 existing homes will be sold.
I’ve just moved into a 1961 home, it was extended 10 years after by the same buyers. It will be extended in 2023 by me, homes change inline with the needs of their occupants. Towns and cities also do this.
I do agree the system doesn’t work well, the vast majority of new homes are built by just a few companies but this is a new development.
If you want competition for different designs then all new build developments should have a percentage set aside to be bid on in single and small lots. This would enable self building to put money directly into the local economy, many trades don’t live anywhere near the sites they work on, and boost smaller regional builders.
To compare the UK to Europe isn’t really helpful. Land costs, labour costs and materials all vary widely.
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Or maybe it’s the fact it’s bought for 170k and 5 years later it’s worth £320k nothing to do with That? New houses are always warmer and don’t need heating on as much so I’m told 
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I mean, we were all there in Feb/Mar ‘20 ready to enter, but not all of us already had houses and a spare £150k to deploy.
Such a simple game when positioned correctly on a larger scale.
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For some context from my own experience:
I bought my first house in 1998 with my ex - the house (a 3 bed semi in the north west) cost £56k.
My salary at the time was £12k, his not much more.
We got a 90% mortgage.
However, the mortgage interest rate was 8%.
Thankfully, it didn’t ever go higher than this but I remember not a lot of money left after making mortgage payments each month.
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I was the same, paid 36950 for a 2 bed terrace in York in 1996. I was on about 10k and my ex worked in a departmet store for about 6. Our payments were 320 a month Mortgage and Endownment policy. Same as you, not a great deal left for living after paying the bills.
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First house (3 bed terraced) in 1989, £65k. £18k salary. Purchased on my own. Mortgage plus endowment was £702.11per month (cannot remember interest rate but payment amount etched into memory). Take home was somewhere between £1000 and £1200 i think. I remember thinking “i just need to endure this for 24 months then things can start to improve”, early 1990s saw negative equity etc, BUT, its now mortgage free. We didnt move and buy bigger etc as never wanted to “keep up with the Jonses” and consider ourselves fortunate to have a very midest small low cost mortgage free home to live in. Many do not have the same in life.
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