There are certain situations in which it is usually better to build a new home rather than buy an existing property. Read on to find out what these situations are.

You don't have a lot of spare money for repairs and renovation work

Regardless of whether you decide to build a house of your own or buy a pre-existing one, you will end up spending quite a bit of money.

However, if you purchase a pre-existing property, there is a risk that you could end up incurring additional, unexpected expenses after you have paid for the house itself.

The reason for this is as follows: the materials from which a house is made will deteriorate over time. This deterioration may be accelerated if the previous owners failed to perform routine maintenance or if the property was exposed to extreme weather conditions.

As such, if you buy a house that was built 15 or 20 years ago, it is possible that you will have to have some repair or renovation work performed on it in order to make it safer or more aesthetically pleasing.

For example, if after buying a house you discover that the timber floor joists or roof rafters have been damaged as a result of an old termite infestation, you would have to have these replaced in order to prevent structural issues from developing in the future.

Likewise, if the house's guttering is on its last legs, you may have to pay to have this replaced in order to prevent rainwater from seeping into the foundation and causing cracks and rising damp.

Conversely, if you were to build a new home, you would not have to worry about incurring these types of extra expenses, as the materials that the property is made from will be in perfect condition and as such, there will be no pre-existing problems that need to be dealt with.

Given this, if you don't have a lot of spare money to put towards repairs and renovation work, it might be more financially prudent to build a new home.

You have a very specific vision of what you want your home to look like

It is unlikely that you will be able to find a pre-existing house that is designed to your exact specifications, particularly if you have a very precise vision of what you want your home to look like in terms of its size, layout and features.

The best case scenario is that you may discover a property which meets most of your criteria and which may be able to meet your other requirements if it is renovated.

However, renovating a property takes a lot of time and money and there is no guarantee that the end results will be what you had hoped for, as your contractor will have to take the property's existing layout and aesthetic into consideration when making changes, and it simply may not be possible for them to re-design the house in the manner you originally wanted.

New homes, on the other hand, are ideal for people who have very specific visions of what they want their houses to look like. If you go down this route, your only real limitation will be your budget. Provided you have enough funds, your contractor should be able to help you build the house of your dreams.

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