FTB - New Build Dilemma !

El_Nino_4

My Girlfriend and I are first time buyers and are looking at the following new build properties, both due to be built approx October/November 2009:


Property A
3 Bedroom end mews with garage £160,000 – 5% builders deposit paid = £152,000


Property B
3 Bedroom 3 storey middle mews house with garage £180,000 – 5% builders deposit paid = £171,000

We have first refusal on Property A with the developer (thanks to an early bird scheme) with negotiations on the price due around September; however, we would now prefer Property B and would be happy to go in between £158,000 to £162,000 max (A reduction of around 10 to 12% off the listed price). Is this an achievable reduction in the current market with a new build?


I am worried that if our offer will be refused on Property B, that it will affect negotiations on Property A, as the builder will know how much money we have to play around with !


Any advice please!

cattie

My first thought is why you prefer a middle terrace property over an end of terrace, especially when the end of terrace is cheaper than the mid terrace one? End of terrace is considered a better buy than mid terrace.

milliemonster

My initial thoughts are that if these properties aren't even completed yet, there will be little negotiation on the price other than the 5% deposit already offered, most builders will wait the market out a while before they will even start looking at reducing their prices

ciano125

Just because you've got money to play with doesnt mean you're going to spend it. You're the one holding the aces here, you choose when to play them. When we bought our house we could have spent another £70k, and the estate agent knew we could afford a lot more than we were spending because of some other houses we had looked at were up at that level. You've just got to stick to your guns and only offer the price you're prepared to pay, don't listen to any B.S. they give you. In this market money talks, nothing else.

El_Nino_4

Thanks for the replies folks.

Both houses are totally different designs.

Property B is a 2.5 storey, Property A is not. Overall Property B is by far the better house, with all 3 bedrooms a generous size and more storage space, hence the extra 20k on the listed price. Prop A is nice, but maybe this might be our opportunity to try for a better spec house in light of the current housing market.

Just a little concerned that going for Prop B and not getting it, will damage our chances of getting Prop A for what we initially wanted to pay.

Has anybody buying a new build got anything like a 12-10% reduction off the price?

FoxtonsRIP

New Build and even worse off-plan? Have you learnt nothing from recent events?

milliemonster

New builds are vastly overpriced as you know, we purchased a new build in 2004 and paid full asking price, there was no negotiation on that, even the remaining housed on the development that had been finished for a year when the market started sliding in 2007 they still didn't reduce the price, just offered incentives like carpets and a lawn at the back!

Fortunately I saw the error of my ways and sold it last year for a nice £60k profit and bought an old house which I love.

However, despite how crap new builds are and how over priced they are, most developers are still in cloud cuckoo land over their value, but I don't think you stand a chance getting them to accept an offer lower than they set the purchase price at when they have not even yet been built, if they were built and remained empty for some time you would have an opportunity there for negotiations but I fear that the builder will be quite happy to reject your offers (unless it is asking price) and wait to see if they sell

El_Nino_4

Milliemonster, I also have a feeling they will not budge on the price at first.

Incidentailly, even though we have first refusal on Prop A, we have not handed over any £ for this, it is just on paper (ie top of a list) so I thought we would take up this option just in case. When the time comes we will be given approx 1 week to negotiate a price or pull out, then the next person on the list gets the opportunity !

I am totally new to all this !

brixham

Are you sure there is a "next person on the list" ?

El_Nino_4

Well no, but that how its supposed to work. I know the builder will try it on with "we have got someone else interested" to boost a better return for themselves, and I am expecting it to be honest !

ShelleyC_2

PLease have a look at some of the threads on new builds. You need to negociate a really good chunk off if you decide to go that way.

For example