FIRST TIME BUYER new build?

dentisteve

HI, WOULD LOVE SOME HELP/ADVICE PLEASE!!!

We have £30,000 saved up for a deposit on a house which we have seen, a new build (due for competition June 2009) with a price of £325,000, which should be negotiable to £300,000. Its a Charles Church property which we would be buying off plan to fully customise to how we want. Is there any thing we should look out for with this? Or any tips on how to negiotiate?

poppysarah

How much mortgage can you afford?

dentisteve

I started off as self employed in feb 08, so this year (jan 2010) will be a double tax year, So i estimate my take to be around £60K. Bearing saving for that it mind I can afford £1000 per month mortgage. It could be possible to increase my deposit to the region of £45K through family loans. After Jan 2010, I can afford £2-2500 per month

dentisteve

The other option would be to wait until next year to purchase the house, but my partner now has her heart set on the one we have seen. It will not be completed until around June of this year either

poppysarah

Buy it when it's built and not before.

geoffky

Have a search for the nightmare storys on here with people who have paid before build....its not nice reading

maninthestreet

If it's not built, don't buy it yet. In 6 months time it might have lost another 5% in value. It may also never get completed due to the market downturn.

dentisteve

yeah? so it works off just better staying in rented for the time being then? IT just I feel bad in my own mind about giving someone else money and not having equity to my name

zone

You may be able to get a better price than £300k. But in the current market you will need to be cautious of putting down a deposit on any property that isnt completed.

Mr_Matey

First, find out how many have sold. If not many you're in a strong bargaining position, but there's also the risk they'll have financial troubles.

You could tell them you want an additional discount for the risk involved in buying a place that's not completed.

Mention that since you're happy to buy now for £300k (i.e. put down your deposit), you'd also be happy to buy in 6 months for £300k, but house prices are falling and there's the risk of something going wrong before completion. So knock off say, another £30k?

Richard_Webster

What are similar 10-20 year old houses in the area selling for? What will they sell for in 6 months time? Offer that! That's a more reliable guide to comparative values in a few years time when you want to sell it.

If there aren't any similar houses nearby then how do you know that the values are anywhere near right. Common builder's trick is to vary the spec - build different kinds of houses so nobody can compare them with older nearby ones e.g. using "link" detached etc.

You will pay dearly for the ability to customise. It really isn't worth anyone buying an off plan property these days.