New Home Building in St Neots and Huntingdonshire over the last 10 years

Should you, as a landlord, for buy to let or for personal occupation, buy a brand-new home?

Well, let’s start by looking at the numbers …

Over the last 10 years, 3,603 new homes have been built in the Huntingdonshire area!

That is a lot of bricks and mortar! Rewind 20 years in the St Neots property market, and there were two types of property buyers - those who would only contemplate living in traditional properties with their original fireplaces and beams, and those people who preferred the low maintenance of a new home. Furthermore, old homes were described as ‘money pits’ by new-home experts, while new-home owners were accused of being boring, buying all the same types of properties - homogenous and bland.

However, it’s not as black and white as that anymore – or not as I see it in St Neots; New homebuilders are now trying to change their traditional-shaped rows of houses into developments that are as individual as the families that live in them, therefore increasing their appeal. Nonetheless, whether you choose a stone cottage, a Victorian semi or terrace, or an untouched new home, whatever home you buy, it can result in supplementary costs that are often not taken into math’s when buying by potential homeowners or buy to let landlords.

So looking at the numbers in greater detail, let’s see what type of new homes people have been buying in St Neots and the wider local area ..

Personally, I thought the mix of what was built/bought locally over the last 10 years when compared to the national figures was fascinating … it’s not surprising to see a greater proportion of flats built locally and fewer semi detached homes being built, when compared to the national averages. This is probably because of the nature of the St Neots area - its location in the country, the land availability, planning restrictions by Huntingdonshire District Council and the price of building land.

So, should you buy a new home just because a lot of people locally have over the last ten years?

Well, if you are considering buying a new home, take care when buying one, as sometimes the show home isn’t the actual property you end up buying. For instance, if you visit a car showroom and fall in love with the model, only to get the base model when handed the keys, you’ll feel pretty disappointed, right? In this situation, look out for things like curtain rails, tv aerials, kitchen appliances, carpets and curtains, and even the outside; make sure you aren’t unwittingly buying a square piece of earth instead of the manicured landscaped gardens.

On the other hand, New homes are a lot more efficient on energy consumption compared to the old drafty, high fuel bill Victorian semis. Older properties will have maintenance issues, with potentially hundreds of year old brickwork and roofs that might need replacement and extra insulation, rotten wooden windows and a dodgy central heating boiler (all sounding damaging on your bank balance if you weren’t aware). The point I am trying to get across is open your eyes and don’t assume .. ask questions and get a surveyor to make a detailed inspection of the property so you know what you are getting yourself into.

Next, I also wanted to break down the statistics to each individual year in St Neots to see if there was a pattern to when people bought a new home. As you can see, there was a drop in new homes selling at the start of the credit crunch years (2008) and since then; the general trend has been better! Looking at the much larger second hand housing market in St Neots over the same 10 years, the coloration between the new homes market and second market has been quite strong – which shows the new home builders don’t make or brake the St Neots housing market, they just follow it.

So, should you buy brand-new home or a second hand home? If price is your sole motivator, then new homes are always CHEAPER when the economy is bad. However, in normal and good housing market conditions, you will pay a ‘new build premium’. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors admits that this can be as high as 10% extra, when compared to a similar second hand property – so be aware of that.

On the other hand, older houses are bigger, yet take more money to heat. Older houses have bigger gardens – but you will spend more time tending to them. Older houses are in more established areas, whilst everyone is starting afresh on new homes. It all comes down to personal opinion.

The choice as they say … is yours!