The New Home Edit · Original Data
Four Homes Later: What New-Build Owners Would Do Differently
Four homeowners, one to four years after handover. The decisions they’d make again, the ones they’d rethink — and where the money really went.
Most new-build advice is written before the keys arrive. We wanted to know what happens afterwards.
In September 2026, four homeowners who had lived in their new-build homes for one to four years looked back at the decisions made before handover: what they would choose again, what they would rethink, where the money actually went, how they feel about their electrics now, and the one piece of advice they would give someone starting the same process today.
This is a small exploratory study, not a representative survey. Four people are not a market. What follows keeps each of their four experiences visible rather than folding them into an average — the editorial value here is in the individual answers and the themes that genuinely recur across them, not in a statistic.
Home 01
1–2 years
Home 02
2–4 years
Home 03
2–4 years
Home 04
1–2 years
4 homes · 1–4 years lived in · September 2026
01
Space kept winning.
Each respondent could name up to three choices they would definitely make again. Multiple selections were possible, so the counts below do not sum to four — they show how many of the four homes named each theme.
One choice appears in every single answer: some form of extension or extra living space. After that, preparation around electrics — extra sockets, empty conduits left for later, or smart-home wiring — recurs almost as strongly.
- Extension or extra living space
- 4 of 4 homes
- Extra sockets, empty conduits or smart-home wiring
- 3 of 4 homes (Home 01, Home 02, Home 04)
- Extra or adjusted lighting
- 1 of 4 homes (Home 03)
- Floor and/or wall finishing
- 1 of 4 homes (Home 02)
- Kitchen upgrade
- 1 of 4 homes (Home 03)
- Sun shading or roller shutters
- 1 of 4 homes (Home 04)
Multiple selections were possible. Counts refer only to these four homes.
Source: “Which up to 3 choices would you definitely make again?”
02
What they would change.
Four different answers to the same question — kept as four individual cases rather than one combined list, because none of these choices are shared by more than one home.
Home 01 · 1–2 years
Would add a dormer window and a second office in the attic — and would place the garden shed themselves rather than through the builder.
Home 02 · 2–4 years
Would choose a different kitchen layout.
Home 03 · 2–4 years
Would choose a different overall layout after all.
Home 04 · 1–2 years
Would not choose a garden shed through the builder.
Source: “What would you, starting again, most like to do differently?”
03
Handover isn’t the end of the budget.
Each home named where more money went than expected — in their own words, not from a fixed list of categories. Shown here as four individual receipts rather than one chart, because the categories weren’t standardised across respondents.
In these four homes, the extra spending wasn’t confined to builder-offered upgrades. It kept going into making the house liveable after, or around, the handover date.
Home 01 · 1–2 years
Spent more than expected on:
- Floors
- Garden / outdoor space
Home 02 · 2–4 years
Spent more than expected on:
- Window coverings
- Furniture
Home 03 · 2–4 years
Spent more than expected on:
- Electrics and lighting
- Garden / outdoor space
Home 04 · 1–2 years
Spent more than expected on:
- Extra work through the builder
- Electrics and lighting
- Plastering / paintwork
- Garden or outdoor space
- 2 of 4 homes (Home 01, Home 03)
- Electrics and lighting
- 2 of 4 homes (Home 03, Home 04)
No euro amounts or spending shares were collected, so none are shown here. Counts refer only to these four homes.
Source: “Where did more money go than you expected?”
04
You notice a socket when it isn’t there.
Preparation for electrics and connectivity — extra sockets, empty conduits, smart-home wiring — was named by three of the four homes as something they were glad they did (see “Space kept winning” above). Asked directly how they feel about their electrics and sockets now, the four answers ranged from settled to wanting more:
Home 01 · 1–2 years
Adjusted this after handover.
Home 02 · 2–4 years
Doesn’t know — this wasn’t planned by them.
Home 03 · 2–4 years
In hindsight, would have wanted more.
Home 04 · 1–2 years
Planned roughly well.
Source: “How do you feel about your electrics and sockets in hindsight?”
For the room-by-room thinking behind sockets, lighting and conduits, see Plan the Life in the Room Before You Plan the Electrics.
05
Four pieces of advice, after living there.
Asked for the single most important piece of advice they’d give someone buying a new-build home tomorrow — in their own words, translated from Dutch where the original answer is shown.
Home 01 · 1–2 years
“Probeer je heel goed in te beelden hoe je straks praktisch alle ruimtes gaat indelen en gebruiken.”
“Try to really imagine how you’ll practically lay out and use all the spaces once you live there.”
Translated from Dutch.
Home 02 · 2–4 years
“Kijk met interieurstylist naar realistische maten en invulling van woning.”
“Look at realistic dimensions and how to furnish the home with an interior stylist.”
Translated from Dutch.
Home 03 · 2–4 years
“Ik zou het gestuct op laten leveren en besteed veel aandacht bij de oplevering of alles naar je zin is.”
“I would have it delivered plastered, and pay close attention at the handover inspection to whether everything is the way you want it.”
Translated from Dutch.
Home 04 · 1–2 years
“Maak een moodboard en blijf erbij.”
“Make a moodboard — and stick to it.”
Translated from Dutch.
Source: “What’s the most important advice you’d give someone buying a new-build home tomorrow?”
07
What four homes can — and cannot — tell us.
This was a small exploratory study conducted by Essy’s Essentials in September 2026. Four owners of new-build homes responded. At the time of the study, each had lived in their home for between one and four years. The questionnaire combined multiple-choice and open-ended questions about decisions, spending, electrics and advice after moving in. With four responses, these findings should not be interpreted as representative of new-build homeowners in the Netherlands or elsewhere. Counts refer only to these four homes.
Source: Essy’s Essentials, Four Homes Later study, September 2026.
Want to reference this study? Please credit Essy’s Essentials and link to this page.
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Planning your own new-build? The hardest decisions often happen long before you know what living with them will feel like.