New Build Developers Discussion

Always check that whatever is being bought is Freehold if a new house...

I wouldn't say we settled on our home by settling on Taylor Wimpey as such, it just so happened their development ticked all of our boxes, whereas some of the others didn't.

For example, with Redrow, we could've got a four bedroom terraced townhouse, with no garage. We thought about how we could make this work and felt yes, we would have enough space, but it wouldn't be the ideal home we want as we really need a garage. Some people as first time buyers are definitely doing so with a view to moving on soon afterward, first step on the ladder so to speak. Perhaps we are "doing it wrong" but we wanted to buy a house that we at least thought could be our forever home, though one can never predict the future.

Interestingly as others have described, we looked at two Redrow developments. One at St Andrews Park in Kent, the other in Sittingbourne in Kent which is 17 miles further out from the M25. The difference in price between the two was £70k! Remarkable. On the face of it, great, let's save some money. But actually when we worked out the savings in travel costs, at £200/month in fuel alone for us both let alone time and wear and tear, the pricier one actually made a little more sense.

Regardless we didn't end up going that high in cost, and settled on a three bed semi, with a garage, which Taylor Wimpey are offering.

Bellway were also a contender for us in a reasonably useful area, same price point as the Taylor Wimpey build. However, TW's property is a stone's throw from my work so I could completely remove my travel costs by cycling. Additionally, the Bellway home had a car port + one parking space, so again lacking the storage that we need. The TW property is garage + two off road parkings.

Interestingly, in this area and all of the developments we looked at, Redrow offered by far the least in their houses. No appliances, no flooring, no turf, not sure about fences. I got the impression the Bellway offering was similar to Taylor Wimpey as I mentioned - everything but flooring. And lastly we looked at another developer in Sittingbourne which I think is local - Hyde New Homes/Westerhill Homes and they included everything. The house there was our second choice but again, the Sittingbourne location is just a bit too far for us.

Not sure what else to say! :-) We are still in a bit of limbo whilst we await our hopeful mortgage offer!

paddycharlie wrote: »

I have bought with Persimmon and more recently Bellway.


I wouldn't buy another Persimmon home due to size, quality of build and poor customer services with regards to snagging.


Bellway homes (in Scotland) that I had looked at were much bigger than other builders, found Taylor Wimpy home to be tiny in comparison. I am happy with the house and Bellway have been quick to rectify any snagging that has come up

That's interesting; the two homes we looked at from TW and Bellway, both three bed - it's actually the Taylor Wimpey home that's the larger one. However I've been led to believe that this particular phase had held their prices whilst the other phase of TW homes has gone up, so perhaps the other phase homes are more in line with pricing of the Bellway...