Modern housing estate living

[flanagaj]

I appreciate that I am most likely speaking to the converted regarding this topic, but we are currently renting a property on a large Persimmon built housing estate, and I honestly find it so depressing and cannot understand why anyone would choose to purchase one of these houses.   Not only is the build quality shocking, but each house is orientated 180 degree relative to the house in the parallel road.  Eg, you would never sit in your back garden, as you are overlooked by about 6 houses.   You have to always be mindful when looking out your windows, for fear of staring directly at someone who is looking directly at your house.

 

If nothing else, it will make us get on with our self-build, and make us appreciate that we are fortunate enough to be in a position to do a self-build.

[Jilly]

Building a pergola and plant lots of trees and shrubs would help, if you did buy one.

[SteamyTea]

My house is 3 meters higher than the ones across the street. I can look directly into the bedrooms, and from upstairs, can see their beds.

There is never any decent action where I am.

[Kelvin]

15 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

My house is 3 metres higher tha. The ones across the street. I can look directly into the bedrooms, and from upstairs, can see their beds.

There is never any decent action where I am.

“our neighbour’s have made a sex video. Well they don’t know that yet…”

[SteamyTea]

7 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

“our neighbour’s have made a sex video. Well they don’t know that yet…”

I am 200 miles from @Pocster, though I would worry about him hiding a camera somewhere.

 

Edit

 

This site is a bit spooky, went to 'new posts' and it is about extending semi and damp patches.

Filth, pure filth.

 

Edited May 6 by SteamyTea

[Redoctober]

3 hours ago, flanagaj said:

I cannot understand why anyone would choose to purchase one of these houses.   

 

I find this comment a touch patronising to be honest.

You are fortunate enough to be able to build a house for yourselves. I don't know your ages but look around you on your estate, and ask yourselves are you the "target audience" for this type of residential living?  I would suggest you are not - we lived on such an estate for 30 years before embarking on our self build and I have to say, the location, convenience,  price and a certain degree of "maintenance free" work, were very appealling to us as we were a young family. 

 

Obvioulsy no one "wants"  to live in the type of house you have described but unforunately the choices can be limited - Just for the record, "Residential living" worked extremely well for us, until we found ourselves in a position to move on.

[Pocster]

39 minutes ago, Redoctober said:

 

I find this comment a touch patronising to be honest.

You are fortunate enough to be able to build a house for yourselves. I don't know your ages but look around you on your estate, and ask yourselves are you the "target audience" for this type of residential living?  I would suggest you are not - we lived on such an estate for 30 years before embarking on our self build and I have to say, the location, convenience,  price and a certain degree of "maintenance free" work, were very appealling to us as we were a young family. 

 

Obvioulsy no one "wants"  to live in the type of house you have described but unforunately the choices can be limited - Just for the record, "Residential living" worked extremely well for us, until we found ourselves in a position to move on.

Agree . I hate all these “ estates “ . We are all lucky that by whatever means and sex favours we did ; it allowed us to build . The ‘choices ‘ are limited for new builds . It is largely one blueprint build , rinse and repeat on an estate . No time nor money for ‘nice’ builds . Though having said that a development near me has only 8 houses - looks ok . Cheapest is 1.2m - that might kick the 1st buyer out .

[Pocster]

46 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

 

52 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

“our neighbour’s have made a sex video. Well they don’t know that yet…”

I am 200 miles from @Pocster, though I would worry about him hiding a camera somewhere.

 

I’m watching you now … from 200 miles away . I’ve got some fantastic covert camera gear .

[SteamyTea]

33 minutes ago, Pocster said:

I’m watching you now … from 200 miles away . I’ve got some fantastic covert camera gear .

You are going to end up sharing a cell with Trump.

"Gagging Order 2"

[nod]

I quick answer to your question is 

Because they are cheap and convenient 

You can often buy a complex home for similar to what many of us are pay just for a plot 

[joe90]

5 hours ago, flanagaj said:

cannot understand why anyone would choose to purchase one of these houses. 

It’s because of silly prices and a housing shortage. My son has recently bought a house on an estate because he could not afford anything “better” and the only reason he had the deposit was because of some money he inherited from his grandfather ! Yes I would not buy one but because of nearly 50 years of doing up houses I have climbed the ladder somewhat and when I peg it he can pay his mortgage off. 🤷‍♂️

Edited May 6 by joe90

[ProDave]

Thankfully the majority of people consider living in a housing estate box with a small garden and lots of neighbours in close proximity and insufficiant parking to be "normal" and all they aspire to.

 

Right from an early age that was not what I wanted and I am finally living where I want in theo cuntryside.

[MikeSharp01]

39 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

You are going to end up sharing a cell with Trump.

I think the Judge is worried about incarcerating him because he will still need his security detail!

[SteamyTea]

1 minute ago, MikeSharp01 said:

I think the Judge is worried about incarcerating him because he will still need his security detail!

Trump's could resign on mass, @Pocster's can't as they are blackmailled.

[joe90]

3 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

I think the Judge is worried about incarcerating him because he will still need his security detail!

And I think the rednecks will revolt (another civil war.)

[SteamyTea]

2 minutes ago, joe90 said:

And I think the rednecks will revolt (another civil war.)

Won't matter, Putin is doing 'an exercise' with this tactical nukes'.

 

 

 

[JohnMo]

22 hours ago, flanagaj said:

but we are currently renting a property on a large Persimmon built housing estate, and I honestly find it so depressing and cannot understand why anyone would choose to purchase one of these houses. 

The same way as you choose to live there, no one made you rent there, you could have chosen a different place to live.

 

22 hours ago, flanagaj said:

 Not only is the build quality shocking, but each house is orientated 180 degree relative to the house in the parallel road.  Eg, you would never sit in your back garden, as you are overlooked by about 6 houses.

Again you would have seen all this, before you signed on the dotted line, and paid the deposit.

 

If you don't like it, move noone is making you stay there.

[ToughButterCup]

22 hours ago, flanagaj said:

...

and I honestly find it so depressing and cannot understand why anyone would choose to purchase one of these houses.   

...

 

People are where they are in the house-ownership cycle. Maybe their ' push ' to just get-on-the-ladder was (is?) harder than you realise?

[Kelvin]

21 hours ago, ProDave said:

Thankfully the majority of people consider living in a housing estate box with a small garden and lots of neighbours in close proximity and insufficiant parking to be "normal" and all they aspire to.

 

Right from an early age that was not what I wanted and I am finally living where I want in theo cuntryside.

People buy what they can afford in the area they choose to live in that’s practical for work and schools. One advantage of these kinds of estates is that they tend to be full of families roughly the same age so lots of kids. My sister (Dr) and her husband (Professor) live in such an estate. They have two young children who have a large circle of friends on the estate. 

[flanagaj]

This is one of those posts, I wish I hadn't posted.  I'll get my coat.

[Redoctober]

Fair play, we have all been there🤣👍

[ProDave]

Just because something is all you can afford, does not mean you like it.

 

I hated my first house, it was a tiny developer box with a tiny garden on an estate in a location with a poor reputation.  But it was all I could afford.  It served a purpose and it was 3 years before I was able to move up to something better, but moving to something better was always the plan.

 

Thankfully there are enough people happy with estate living to make it work

[MJNewton]

<Stands up>

We live in an estate - a Persimmon one in fact - and love it here.

<Sits down to a reassuring ripple of clapping from the amassed circle of new friends, and nods of acceptance now that I've finally been able to say such a thing out loud>

 

Joking aside, having spent many years renovating various Victorian properties and developed skills, knowledge and experience of pretty much every aspect (including, unexpectedly, building construction photography which found its way into the Haynes Victorian House Manual!) we never expected to end up in a new build (or rather 3 years old at the time). However, an estate agent suggested we had a look round even just to rule such a property out so we did and something just felt 'right' to both of us when we did. We bought it and 14 years on have absolutely no regrets. Indeed, I can easily see us staying another 14 as it suits us (small family now) perfectly.

 

Perhaps we've been lucky with having the show home but the house is very well built. Having extended it and retrofitted MVHR I've seen almost every last inch of the building fabric - inside and out - and the build quality is absolutely fine. I'm a fussy bugger too - non-aligned screw heads are all that's required to keep me awake at night. Compared to every single one of the older properties we've renovated it is world's apart. People say 'They don't make them like they used to' and all I can say is 'Thank God for that!'. It performs well and is an absolute dream to work on. It turns out things can be built square after all. We're not overlooked, although others are so of course not all plots are the same, and we've always had great neighbours so again maybe we've been lucky in that respect too (currently a vet one side and dentist the other so I want you to imagine a family photo hanging up in the hall showing our gleaming white smiles, even on the cat! 😂).

 

For those that can't understand our choice I wonder what the alternative is that is being compared with? Presumably the same general location and cost, otherwise does any such comparison make any sense?

Edited May 11 by MJNewton

[Alan Ambrose]

FYI there’s a good comparison between old and new here. He compares his experiences between a new build and a refurb of an older house in a very fair way.