FTB negotiations on new build

tootiefrooties

Hi all

Aside from being hung, drawn and quartered for looking into buying in this terrible climate, I'm interested if anyone has some positive advice for my situation.

My husband and I have an appointment next week with the developers of a shared ownership scheme. We had been saving up to buy in 2 or 3 years time, but this has come along and is perfect for us. The mortgage, rent and service charge combined is lower than our monthly rent, and the property is in such a great location compared to where we are currently. When we come to remortgage or move in 3 or 4 years time, I will have graduated and qualified as a teacher so will be in good a financial position to pay off the loan part, so that doesn't worry me too much either.

My question is this - what is the best way to get them down on the price? Obviously we are only going to buy if it's a reasonable investment (although we see a flat as a home, not a profit-maker) so I would like to knock them down a little bit on the price.

I'm thinking that the stamp duty news today would be a good way to make them drop to below the threshold - are there any other good bargaining tacks? The other thing is that if they absolutely don't budge on prices, is it legally possible to have some of the price reclassified as fixtures and fittings to make the actual property price below 175? Because it does include carpets, white goods etc. etc.

Thanks in advance

Doozergirl

How much are they asking for it?

wymondham

I do have positive advice, but I would suspect it's not what you'd want to hear ... Good luck with your meeting anyway...

SquatNow

piefacerecords wrote: »

We had been saving up to buy in 2 or 3 years time, but this has come along and is perfect for us.

Perfect except that it will drop in price by 30% when you move in then 10+% a year for the next few years...

brit1234

Shared ownership properties seem to be hardly dropping in pricw at all. I keep getting offered £400,000 shared ownership 1 bed flats classed as affordable. I doubt they will drop the price in the near future they have to much tied up in them.

I would stay well clear especially if you ever want to climb up the ladder especially with all these nightmare stories floating around about them.

I would wait and by a conventiontal property.

tootiefrooties

Oh, that's rather disappointing. Well I can't say I am going to follow that advice, because I know a couple of people who've managed to get a house through the same association and they are very happy with the help they got, and wouldn't have been able to buy otherwise. And like I said, I know that newbuilds can lose value, like a new car, but there are a few reasons I'm not too worried about this:

1- It's in central Brighton, where there is always demand for flats, especially if they have allocated parking (which it does). Resale should be fine.
2- When we come to move, our household income will be double what it is now as I will have graduated, and so we can take a bit of a hit even if it has depreciated.
3- As I stated earlier, it's more about a home than an investment. We will live there as long as we need to.

The flat which we like the look of the most is 185k and has balcony, allocated parking and 2 bedrooms. The others which we like are around 177k, so they're closer to the stamp duty threshold, but would still like a bit cheaper.

So is there anybody who can actually give me some haggling ideas? :rolleyes: I've read quite a bit about the open market but it's different with a new build, and I'd like to know how to approach it.

Thanks!

SouthCoast

An active Brighton forum can be found here:

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=50475

hethmar

I sometimes think the best way is just to say "What is the best price you can offer us" - emphasising your position as FTB and no probs re mortgages and so on, as a starting point.

Chris2685

I am not sure how well you can haggle with a shared ownership property... I guess the only thing to do is try it! Tell them you will buy the share based on you valuing it at a full purchase price of 170k or whatever you're happy with. They can only tell you yes or no.

You could probably buy an older place, and haggle down the price and STILL use a shared ownership scheme. Maybe that would be a better way to get money off a property?

tootiefrooties

Gosh, what a miserable lot you are! I'll ask for advice from people who live in the real world, where people actually buy houses to live in, not hang on for years and postpone progress in their life just to save a few quid.

4 more years of renting = about £35k of dead money. I'm hoping we can get 10% off the developer's price and get one of the properties for about £166k. You can't be serious telling me that 4 years time, a nearly-new 2 bedroom apartment with private parking in the middle of Brighton is going to depreciate so badly that it would have been more worthwhile to rent and wait and rent and wait... Of course, in a few years I might come back with my tail between my legs, feeling very silly - but even then, there is a right time to buy for the market, and a right time to buy for a person / family. They don't always coincide, but i know which is more important to me!

tootiefrooties

Thank you hethmar and Chris2685