Persimmon Homes

bexfizz

Hi,

My partner & I are currently looking at buying a new build with Persimmon Homes using the homebuy scheme.

I just wanted to hear some of your experiences with Persimmon & new builds. I've just searched Google and read quite a few negative comments. But with everything, you always seem to hear the negative & never the positive.

Also, if anyone here has actually bought a house with Persimmon in Derby, I would be very interested in meeting them to have a chat.

Thanks

timmyt

new builds generally I avoid. they get built too fast, have no garden size, you seem to pay a premium, and selling it a day later I suspect you would lose money, roads are not up to scratch when you move in, minor works are needed, as compkletion can be rushed so they get their money.

and will it be made of orange bricks like most new builds in this country.

mbga9pgf

Go in SIGNIFICANTLY below asking, especially at the moment with the tax year coming to a close. When I mean significant, I mean 30%+. Anything less and you will be overpaying.

And forget homebuy. Its just another silly government scheme to try and keep house prices artificially high. Look at who ends up paying the bill when you sell your newbuild home for significantly less than you bought it for. Homebuy benefits companies like persimmon, NOT FTBs!

If you do go for it, insist you will inspect the property before you will be happy to sign it over as well. Get a local brickkie in for 50 quid to inspect it and tell you what he thinks.

Muhasib

mbga9pgf wrote: »

Go in SIGNIFICANTLY below asking, especially at the moment with the tax year coming to a close. When I mean significant, I mean 30%+. Anything less and you will be overpaying.

And forget homebuy. Its just another silly government scheme to try and keep house prices artificially high. Look at who ends up paying the bill when you sell your newbuild home for significantly less than you bought it for. Homebuy benefits companies like persimmon, NOT FTBs!

If you do go for it, insist you will inspect the property before you will be happy to sign it over as well. Get a local brickkie in for 50 quid to inspect it and tell you what he thinks.

If you could stop to look at the facts of the Homebuy Direct scheme before posting you would see that the negative equity should you sell for a lower price than you bought is paid for by the developer and the Housing Association.

Can you explain why the end of the tax year is significant when making an offer? It would be more relevant to look at the half and full year accounting dates of the developer as that is when they have their main sales target cut offs, these won't necessarily coincide with the end of the tax year.

Kyrae

Hiya! I'll try and give a balanced point of view Currently buying a new build and so far so good. They do have their draw backs but each house is different, and some don't have tiny gardens, and some aren't vastly overpriced as some people would try and have you believe. Yes most new builds probably will cost more than a second hand house on the same street, but you're paying extra to get the fixtures and fittings of your choice, plot of your choice, and the benefit of having everything to your tastes so you're not going to have to fork out money to redecorate. I'm sure there are some very overpriced new builds for sale from some builders, but some charge reasonable prices, it varies. Check prices that local houses have sold for, and that'll give you an idea of whether it's a fair price or not

Previous house i lived in was a new build, and 2 other family members have new builds. Lovely houses, never had a problem apart from a couple of minor snags that were fixed quickly and without problem. That said, buying new build does have it's negative points too and there are risks involved, especially if you're buying off-plan. Feel free to check out the post I made here with some new build advice:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=30203927

Our house is nearly finished and completion should be in the next couple weeks or so (fingers crossed), and in all honesty it's had its ups and downs and plenty of stress. Though I imagine it can be just as stressful when buying a second hand house and being stuck in a chain.

For the negative side of things, to give a balanced view as plenty of people have bad experiences too, take a look at this website:

http://forum.snagging.org/persimmon-homes/

Good luck, let us all know how it goes!

dodgy

We purchased a Persimmon new build, and were able to negotiate a discount off the asking price that brought the property to what we considered a fair price given the surrounding area and what other properties had sold for.

Kyrae above makes some very good balanced points, as soon as you mention new build on the forum you will have hordes of people telling you it's built of cheese, priced at twice the market value and has a garden smaller than a lawn mower.

For what it's worth ours isn't built of orange bricks and has a garden considerably larger than our last property.

Yes there are snagging issues, but our experience with Persimmon has been good so far. They are very willing to fix issues, even minor decorative problems.

mbga9pgf

muhasib wrote: »

If you could stop to look at the facts of the Homebuy Direct scheme before posting you would see that the negative equity should you sell for a lower price than you bought is paid for by the developer and the Housing Association.

Can you explain why the end of the tax year is significant when making an offer? It would be more relevant to look at the half and full year accounting dates of the developer as that is when they have their main sales target cut offs, these won't necessarily coincide with the end of the tax year.

You are of course right, but they do generally tie in with the tax year. Go to companyhouse website for full details.

As to your negative equity, you are obviously a VI.

If the value of the property has increased by the point of sale, the buyer, the developer and Government will all share in this increase. If the value of the property has gone down, Government and the developer will only share the sale proceeds that are left over once the mortgage has been repaid. This provides the buyer with greater protection against negative equity.

They DONT cover the loss. What would stop a HB purchaser selling the home to a mate for a drastically reduced price and splitting the difference if this was the case? They may lose the small porttion of thier loan, but I would suggest this is offset by the rediculous markup on newbuild property. If your negative equity is greater than the loan from the builder, guess what, you are in negative equity and still have to cough up.

Much better to have lower house prices instead of silly schemes that are propping up prices unneccessarily.

Lil_Me_2

A week before we moved into our house we got taken round and shown everything by effectively a sales rep. When this happens make sure that you open/close, test EVERYTHING in the property. Really nitpick at it. Insist that they get everything sorted before you move in, otherwise it'll be a pain and a lot of time of work before it's sorted.

Keep an accurate record of every letter/phone call including dates and times and what you said, so you can remember what you've complained about!

Our house is a lovely large 2 bed house with a big garden and wonderful views. The layout is almost perfect. The only problem was the quality of the finishing and the state it was left in when it was "completed".

If there was plumbing involved it leaked. Every single thing with water leaked, they couldn't have done a worse job! Luckily I can look back and laugh, but at the time it caused so much stress that if it hadn't been my perfect house I'd have given the keys back.

After they site was completed they really dragged their heels with finishing last few things. It took 18 months after they left the site before we got a road and had the lamposts switched on. It'll be 2 years in May since they left the site and we still have a handful of outstanding issues. A couple of lamposts that aren't on, a couple that are always on, missing fences and gates, gates to a car park that don't work etc.

So as long as it's the house of your dreams and you're prepared for the hassle then there isn't a problem in buying a new build. Just don't expect it to all be perfect when you move in.

Feel free to PM me if you want the full list of everything that needed fixing after we moved in, but it'll probably put you off! We know we had a carp site manager, so the problems won't be the same on every site.

Richard_Webster

I don't know whether this applies to Persimmon but if it is flat then ask who they will sell the freehold to and then Google the name of the buyer - if they won't tell you ask them why not. Some builders sell their freeholds on to property companies who do not have the best reputation.

If it is a house there is no reason at all why it should be leasehold - if it is, walk away and buy freehold somewhere else.

See this thread:http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2354361
and this one: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2354647

bexfizz

Thank you for all your replies so far, they've been really helpful!

I suppose the best way to look at it is that with any house you move into you're going to have a few problems that need sorting out.

I know there's a lot of negativitiy with new builds but they can't be all bad!

Looking forward to hearing more from you all. I really appreciate all your replies!

brit1234

Personally I believe you will be over paying for a home on this scheme. Government funding is ending for these properties shortly and this will lead to far cheaper properties especially as hose prices are set to fall as government ends up the back up for securitisation for normal lending.

We are expecting big falls in the comming years and I fear like my friends with shared ownership home buy people will be trapped for years in negative equity.

My advice is to save a bigger deposit and enjoy the price falls. Hopefully this thursday we will see the second month in the row of price falls.

Use your head instead of your heart and you can't go wrong.