hamish1985

Just an update on this thread, I’m seeing a significant slowdown appearing in the south on our sites, quite a few completed plots sat for sale on various locations. Anyway else seeing this?

I would certainly say in some areas there is an oversupply of new homes. When you have villages which then get a number of developers building a few hundred homes over a couple of years it completely, then the next village over gets the same, no wonder there is an oversupply to the local area. There are only so many people that want to live in rural situations with barely a local shop there.

To be honest I work in the building trade and and I will say the surveyors and architects get paid a lot more than that. That wage is certainly junior level in the house building sector at present! Let’s just say site managers are on 60k plus, let alone everyone else.

We have one site which has been slowed right down and is now going through a re plan. Last time we did this was 2012 time on sites due to larger houses not selling, we end building smaller 2beds and 3beds in place of 4beds.

Let’s just say I’m also in the industry in the south. Most areas are selling well still, mainly due to either htb prop or certain areas which are typical retirement areas so cash rich downsizes. We have seen the larger properties 4beds start to struggle to sell in last 6 months, purely due to affordability. Certain rural areas have also seen heavy development in past few years and it now seems to be showing over supply of properties so slowing sales, reducing prices.

Winchester like previous poster has mentioned was known for having drug problems, probably linked to students and wealthy side of a lot of ex Londoners that come to the city to live hence the high property prices. I’ve lived in Hampshire all my life, personally I would stay away from Winchester as it’s overcrowded, overrated and overpriced, however I can see how it appeals to anyone from London as it does offer a decent ish nightlife with a few bars. Problem is like you say Andover is not great, unless in the villages, basingstoke, Southampton are similar and there isn’t much else to chose unless your prepared to go to villages or towns. Places like Romsey would be cheaper and even nearer to the forest, however maybe not as much of a nightlife.

Been going on for years, nhbc have key stages they inspect on, foundations, superstructure before the trusses go on, pre plaster, drainage and final inspection for occupation, all the other bits inbetween are self certified. Also if they can’t make an inspection you are allowed to carry on.

There is a lot of newbuild bashing on here and some of it deserved. But make no mistake general everyday persons homes have been poorly for centuries! Only when you have money can you purchase away from the mass produced. This is no different than any other products. So when people try and say they're mass produced Victorian terraced, or lovely cottage etc etc is better, it in reality isn't in build quality and have there own problems. I will agree space wise in older properties there is generally more internally and externally, but again people just haven't got the time or are interested or can't manage big gardens, the amount of overgrown wildernesses you see on older properties is quite staggering. Internally there is a limit, again you want enough, but not to much as it costs to heat etc. Plus when you have space you just collect crap which you don't really need. It's always interesting to look back and not even that far back when families would live in two up two down Victorian terraces with the likes of 6 kids! Personally you can see this slip back to this way of life. In relation to materials, again the mass produced home have always used whatever is cheap at the time, victorians I think in certain areas used old clinker in early concrete homes they used to throw up for workers. Previous comments about doors and mdf etc being crap is kind of true, but you have to eat that up that it's made from a recycled product, which is suppose to be a good thing! Same with a lot of other materials in the build, lightweight blocks are from power station ash, floor joist can be chipboard or hardboard, concrete blocks have recycled content in them, floor boards are chipboard, plasterboard has a high amount of recycled plaster in it, insulation etc etc, all these are what apparently we want because it's good for the environment

Glad I wasn't just imagining it! Like a previous poster has mentioned, also noticed the homeless on the streets of suberb towns now. There is talk of proffersional beggars etc, but I don't know if this would account for such a huge increase. I also think there is an increase in burglaries, seeing more windows being randomly boarded up etc on houses, plus someone I know had there house broken into and lityetally only took some cash that was sittting around and costume jewlery, which suggest someone desperate for quick money etc. Not sure if anyone else had seen small crimes like this going up aswell?

We have a late 1920s house with cavity walls and doesn't suffer mold apart from the odd bit on the windows in the bedroom. Grew up in a late 1900 house, that used to be terrible for mold on the walls if you didn't run the heating all the time in the winter months. House had single glazed old wooden drafty windows and open fire places etc, so ventilation wasn't an issue, issue was down to the walls being solid masonary so condensation on the walls. Not all house built in the early part of the 20th century had cavity wall construction,( even later into the conctrete prefab era) so might be what's causing the walls to run with damp. However even with new builds we get problems where people are drying clothes on aiers in the house which you can't really do, due to the lack of any background air flow.

Wait for the new government prop to buy these up and offer them as affordable rent flats. Ticks the boxes for the JAMs, props the builders and stops the market collapsing. I can see this happening in the areas of new build flats which haven't sold

I've heard a few pieces about the increase of rough sleepers in the likes of London in certain areas, however I couldn't believe yesterday when I went into southampton the large amount of rough sleepers/areas where they are living in the high street during the day. Looked pretty depressing to be honest. Quite supprise how many cardboard structures in empty shop areas are left up during the day, even piles of sleeping baysetc where homeless have managed to push up the anti vandle shutters and sleeping in the porches. Don't know if other people have seen an increase lately in other parts of the country?

Read the description of this one http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-62759792.html why haven't they taken the offer as yet if that's true?!!! Only been on the market since October....

Loads of old student houses trying to be flogged off in southampton, if you search for instance polygon area, you will find lovely places like this http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56382514.html some have been on the market since last June.

I work for one of the medium sized national house builders, last year was truly terrible in what was produced for us, we are known as one of the better ones aswell. There is a huge problem with available skilled labour at the moment, there just isn't the labour force in certain areas anymore. There is also major issues with the supply chain of materials which is also causing delays. In relation to quality, I find the housing association homes generally are finished to a much higher standard, purely because they have clerk of works which snag the hell out of the units before they get handed over. To be honest though I think most private mass built housing stock has been poor for a long time, purely because it's profit driven, and minimal quality control checks as minimal reprocussions. I do wonder though if the government stipulated you can only sell the plot once build complete if that would simple put up the standards as people would see what they are getting.