ARE NEW HOMES ACTUALLY SAFER TO BUY THAN OLD ONES?
Sparkle & Shine v. Tried & True
Having been in the building industry for a long time now, and with over 3 decades under our (tool) belt, we can honestly say that a lot has changed. Workmanship, materials, supply chains, project management, training and education of the trades.
We aren’t here to humbug (back in my day…) but we can give this objective commentary on the difference between investing in a new property vs. investing in an older property:
Old Home Problems v New Home Problems:
New Houses carry a builders warranty for 7 years…which sounds like a lot but in the big scheme of things, is not. Most new homes don’t even really need much maintenance until year 9 or 10. So there’s an advantage there: it gives you time to save up for future maintenance costs that are inevitable. If you buy an older home, there will be maintenance costs pretty much straightaway.
Old Houses have generally been through all the environmental “events” that the area can throw at them, whereas if you buy a new home in a new subdivision, you might have a couple surprises coming your way. One example that we witnessed recently was subsidence due to excess groundwater in a new suburb where all the houses were under 10 years of age. It affected multiple houses in that suburb.
New Houses do not generally suffer from fashion faux-pas. Cosmetic renovations, even a fresh coat of paint (in vivid white) are a long way off. Also, the past 2 decades of architecture have been quite bleh and inoffensive so even if you have the small white tiles instead of the large ones, or herringbone subway tiles instead of straight ones, there’s just no way it can be “that bad”. A half shower frame vs. a frameless shower is what? Half a pane of glass. No big deal.
Old Houses can contain Asbestos as well as multiple other building materials that we have since discovered are not good for us the dust is inhaled. It’s not confirmed whether or not the building materials we use now are better for us, but one thing is for sure - building industry PPE is much more in use than it once was. This isn’t to say that living in an Asbestos house is bad for you - it’s not. But renovating and making changes to that house can be more difficult or costly.
Our biggest concern with New Houses: Education in the Trades has been in slow decline over the past couple decades in Australia. We have hopes that the talented will rise to the top but it doesn’t always work that way.
Our biggest concern with Old Houses: The maintenance can get on top of people - all houses require maintenance and if you’re not handy, you better have money set aside for a handyman.
Surface level says that new is better. We haven’t found that to be universally true…we prefer to look at it as New House Problems v. Old House Problems.
