They may lack charm, but they also have many advantages
Debate
YESLiz Hodgkinson
As the government announces that 300,000 new homes are to be built this year (212,500 were built last year) would you want to live in one? For all of my adult life I have lived in lovely Victorian, Edwardian or Georgian homes, believing them to have more charm and character than soulless new-builds. I have also enjoyed the process of renovation and modernisation, frustrating though this can sometimes be.
But now, for my next move, I have put in an offer on a new-build flat. Why is this? Am I mad? Although old homes can be beautiful, they also require a lot of maintenance, and hiring contractors is not always easy. I have now waited for more than a year for the boundary wall between my garden and next door’s to be rebuilt after it fell down.
Boilers and central heating systems in old houses are usually antiquated and difficult to upgrade, whereas new-builds come with all the latest energy-efficient devices already installed. Another advantage is that the plumbing is completely up to date and shower rooms and ensuites are the norm, rather than an exception. They are also easier, and often cheaper, to run.
Another major advantage is that you can make a featureless new-build your own in a way that might not be possible with an existing home, which will inevitably contain elements of the previous owner’s tastes and décor – a new home is not likely to have an avocado bathroom or a mock-wooden kitchen.
It may be true that a new-build will never acquire the ambience of a Georgian terrace or a country parsonage, but most vicars these days choose to live in modern, draught-free houses. And I am happy to join them.
NOGillian Spickernell
Liz says most vicars these days choose to live in modern, draught-free houses, but the only one I knew lived in an old thatched cottage. Admittedly, there was a rubber shower attachment that fitted awkwardly onto the bathroom taps, but it would have been unthinkable to envisage him in a new-build. The old thick-walled cottage was a living, breat
