Is this new build worth the money?

The same house, two towns

One house type. Two prices, £225,000 apart.

Builders sell the same plan on many developments. Put them side by side and the price per square foot tells you what the location is costing you.

Then check each price against its own market.

74%

of the 397 detached homes sold in OX11 went for less than £625,000. In Didcot, the cheaper Poplar sits in the dearest quarter of its own market.

52%

of the 250 detached homes sold in SO22 went for less than £850,000. In Winchester, the dearer Poplar is a middle-of-the-market home.

HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, detached homes, standard sales, 1 Oct 2024 to 30 Sep 2026

CALA Homes · 4 bed detached

The Poplar

Prices checked 30 Oct 2026

1,553sq ft in Didcot

2en-suites

Singlegarage

Studyground floor

Nobel Park, DidcotOxfordshire · OX11 · plot 328

£625,000£402 / sq ft

ConfirmedBuilder price. Plot 323 on the same site is £650,000

Kings Barton, WinchesterHampshire · SO22 · plot 833

£850,000£550 / sq ft

ConfirmedBuilder price. 1,545 sq ft version, ready to move into

Bars show price per sq ft from zero. Floor areas are CALA's published figures for each plot. Both plots list a stamp duty contribution; CALA does not publish the amount.

What the price buys

1,553square feet in Didcot. 1,545 in Winchester.

Eight square feet apart, and £225,000 apart. The plan barely changes; the land, the schools and the journey do. Plotfair separates the two, so you can see which one you are paying for.

Illustrative plan, not to scale

How it works

Four questions, answered separately.

A cheaper price somewhere else does not make a home overpriced, and a good price does not make it affordable. Plotfair keeps each question apart, and says so when the evidence is thin.

The same house

Is it expensive against the same house type elsewhere?

Every development offering that house type, with price, price per square foot and incentives side by side.

The local market

Is it good value against homes sold nearby?

Asking prices set against completed sales from HM Land Registry, so you see where a price sits in its own market.

Your money

What would it leave you each month?

Not the most a lender might offer. What is left after tax, the mortgage, council tax and service charges, with the upfront cash shown separately.

Work out your monthly picture

Your place

Does the location work for your family?

How far the furthest child offered a place at each nearby school lived in recent years, against how far this plot is. Door-to-door journey times to the places you actually go.

Historical

Your monthly picture

What will this home leave you each month?

Enter your own figures. The example is a £625,000 house with a 25% deposit and two salaries.

Left each month£0

Each month
Take-home pay, both salaries
Mortgage,
Council tax
Estate or service charge
Other spending
Left

Upfront
Deposit
Stamp duty
Legal and survey fees
Total

An indicative calculation, not a mortgage offer or financial advice. England and Northern Ireland income tax, National Insurance and stamp duty rates for 2026/27; no pension contributions or student loans. Council tax for a new home is only set once it is built: use the band of a finished home on the same development. Capital and interest repayment at one rate for the whole term.

Our sources

Every figure says how much to trust it.

Prices change weekly, plots are withdrawn and builders revise house types. So each figure carries one of five labels, its source and the date we checked it.

Confirmed

Published by the builder or HM Land Registry, and checked on the date shown.

Estimated

Worked out from other evidence, such as the same house type on another site. We show how.

Historical

True when recorded, such as last year's school allocation distance or an earlier asking price.

Unverified

Reported to us but not yet matched to a published source. Never used in a score.

Insufficient data

Not enough evidence to judge. We say so instead of guessing.

No paid scores

Builders cannot pay to change how a home is ranked. Any commercial partner is named on the page.

No portal scraping

We use builder pages, open public data and what you tell us.

No hidden method

How each score is worked out is published, including what it leaves out.

The buyer test

Buying a new build in the next year? Help us test it.

We are looking for 20 people actively choosing a new-build home. You get a full comparison for the homes on your shortlist; we learn what helps.

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Hertfordshire and Tyneside to start
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