What does "Purpose Built" mean?

I've been looking at flat listings online and keep seeing blocks referred to as "purpose-built." Can someone please tell me what that means?

Thanks!
Denise

Hi Denise,

Purpose built means that the flat was built to be a flat, instead of a house that was converted into a flat or a set of flats.

Ah! That is so obvious, and yet it never occurred to me as a possibility (figures   ). Glad I asked. Thanks!

Good luck on your flat search. I've also seen "purpose built" in reference to storage units, besically anything that was built specifically for one thiing and nothing else.

If you have a straight choice between a purpose built flat and a conversion flat you're almost certainly going to be better off with the purpose built flat.  

Most, though not all, purpose built flats are likely to be no more than 60 years old, whereas conversion flats are usually buildings that are 80, 100, or more years old, the flats in them are often a wierd shape, have funny little spaces that are unusable, they are likely to have poorer insulation, and may be less fire-safe than a purpose built flat - not least because many (most?) purpose built flats have solid concrete slab floors, whereas conversions have wooden floor joists.

On the other hand purpose built flats lack any character - they are often souless little boxes.

Concrete slab floors?! Be still my heart! Can I then assume that most purpose-built flats are relatively soundproofed? I've spent the past 6 years in LA going from crappily built apartment to crappily built apartment, with minimal (maybe no) insulation, creaky floors and walls so thin I can literally hear people talking in neighboring houses, even with the windows closed. It's totally insane, and I've never lived anywhere where buildings were so badly made. And it's not like I've lived in the worst part of town or anything--even houses I've been in have had such problems. Oofah! Anyway, sorry for the rant, but it's a longstanding pet peeve. I'd be THRILLED if I could get a nice, solid apartment in London, with or without character .

Concrete slab floors?! Be still my heart! Can I then assume that most purpose-built flats are relatively soundproofed? ....

Yes, so long as you stay clear of ex-public housing, the building codes for sound insulation are pretty good.  I've not been in any myself, but there were a lot of publically funded flats built in the UK in the 60's that were very badly built - including, but not confined to poor sound insulation.  Check here for a real horror story! .... The page also has some useful background on how so many cheap publically funded flats came to be built at that time.

I lived in a privately built "maisonette" (two story appartment) built in the late 70's for a couple of years and you wouldn't have known that we had neighbors next door and above.  

Aiyeeeee! I cannot WAIT to move! Whoo hoooooo!

Mr Val, can  you post that link again?  I get nothing when i click on it.

I didn't get the link either, but I'm assuming, perhaps wrongly that it is about the King's Point (?) development that collapsed in the 60's?
Shoddily, shoddily built...one flat on top of another, bolted to the wall of the one below it with like one small bolt..there were no steel posts supporting the building, it was like building a shoebox house with scotch tape holding one box to another.  OK for Barbie dolls, but not for people.  And it was like 30 floors high or something!
Someobody's gas heater (or was it their electric kettle?  Can't recall) exploded and half the building collapsed.

Sorry my recollection isn't better....but I think that's a nutshell anyway.

Mr Val, can  you post that link again?  I get nothing when i click on it.

Sorry!    ...... It should be fixed now!