Buy or build a home?

The decision between buying or building a home is, in many cases, one of the most significant decisions in a person's life. Buying or building a home not only involves financial considerations—usually the largest expense for the average person over the course of their life—but also a decision linked to the idea of home, permanence, and cultural values.

1. Buying a home: immediacy and adaptation

Buying an existing home offers a clear advantage over building one: immediacy. There is no need to wait months or even years to move in; once purchased, you can enjoy it right away. Among other advantages, one important one is the opportunity to choose aprime locationthat is already developed, such as city centers where most of the space is already consolidated.

However, the obvious disadvantage of this option is the need to adapt to the home. In many cases, the interior space, layout, size, location, and age are characteristics specific to the home. Additionally, elements such as the composition of the walls, energy efficiency, or installations can be difficult to ascertain when purchasing the home and may be insufficient to achieve a good level of comfort.

1.1. Purchase and renovation: a middle ground

A good option when buying a house is the possibility of renovating it. With a renovation, you have the possibility of changing, adding, or repairing certain aspects of the home, although there are always more limitations than when building a new one.

2. Building a home: personalization and context with the environment

Choosing to build a home allows for total customization in terms of size, layout, materials, and any other details that go into it. This freedom offers an opportunity to make decisions and, as a result, create designs that adapt to each person's specific aesthetic, functional, and sustainability preferences. When building a home from scratch, it is essential to have the personalized and professional help of architects and quantity surveyors. This will ensure that the home meets your requirements, with the level of technology, climate control, and energy efficiency that best suits you, and that you achieve greater architectural interest in its design and spaces.

On the other hand, there are other disadvantages to this option. Normally, building locations are more limited, and the land available for sale is located on the outskirts of cities or in smaller towns. In addition, there will inevitably be a long construction period lasting at least a few months.