Pros and cons of existing homes

I shared our thoughts on the pros and cons of new build homes in the blog post last week and wanted to do a post on existing homes too! On our property search, we kept our options open and looked at both types.

Pros

1. Character and history

I love the period homes in London! Hubby and I started cycling in the first lockdown and one of the reasons we like to cycle is because we explore new areas of London and see the different style of homes.  I would love a home with bay windows in the future!

There’s a great article from Foxtons about the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian properties and their main characteristics. I’ve also been following @victorianterrace120 on Instagram!  Their victorian terrace and home decor is stunning!

Photo: @victorianterrace120

2.  Doesn’t have the new build home premium

According to Chancellors, new build homes tend to be more expensive than existing homes. For one of our preferred areas, the new builds were outside of our budget but existing homes were within our budget.

3. You can renovate and design the home to your liking

I’ve been loving this @littlevenice_london Instagram account! The before and after photos are amazing!

Photo: @littlevenice_london

4. Community

An existing home might already be in a well-established community where neighbours have lived there a number of years and there are already schools and supermarkets. A new build development might be further away from these existing amenities or you might need to wait for these amenities to be built in the development.

5. More historic property price data

Before making offers, I would research historic sold prices as I found it helpful to see how much the property was purchased for in previous transactions and also what properties in the area were recently sold for.  

From our experience, there was more information available for existing properties as for some of the new builds that we looked at, the property sales were quite recent and were not yet showing up on the Land Registry so we couldn’t see the sold prices.

Also, where there was only one new build development in the area and limited data on recent new build purchase prices, it was difficult to compare with the sold prices of existing homes because of the new build premium.

Cons 

1. Depending on the age, there might be more repair and maintenance costs

A relative previously made an offer on a flat which was part of an older home and the survey found a number of issues. The estimated repair cost was over £30k! As a result, she withdrew her offer.

2. The property might be less energy efficient than new homes

According to Viessmann, older homes tend to be less energy efficient than new homes. I’d previously lived in an Edwardian period property and in the winter months, it was always so chilly in the flat even though we had our heating on!

3. There might be a property chain which could cause delays

For more information on property chains, please see last week’s post! 

4. Renovation costs

If you plan to renovate, then will need to budget for the renovation costs and also plan for how much time it will take! Our friends recently bought a house and decided to renovate the bathrooms and kitchen which meant it was a few months before they moved in. 

For us, we weren’t keen on renovating as we wanted to quickly move and settle into our first home so when we viewed properties, we tried to look for places which would need minimum to no renovation work.

5. Shorter remaining lease length

If buying a leasehold property (which was pretty much the case for most of the flats that we viewed in London), the remaining lease on an existing property might be shorter than if you purchased a new home.  For instance, we saw a lovely older flat but the lease length was around 80 years but we were looking for a remaining lease length of over 100 years as a minimum.

A lease of under 80 years can make it difficult to sell or remortgage and the cost of extending the lease can be expensive. More on this in this MoneySavingExpert.com guide.

It’s not an exhaustive list but just what we thought about and there are articles online with pros and cons too!

Jess