Buying a New Build?

bro2171

I'm currently looking to sell up and move to a new build. The house I'm looking at is on a development of 14 houses, up to now 6 have been built, only 4 have been sold.

The interesting thing is that when you do a "Check how much houses in any street sold" the 4 that have been sold show as "Not New Build".

As one of the stumbling blocks to buying this new build is the 20% deposit required, if the houses are registered as being "Not New Build" this might be in our favour.

Can anyone tell me if:
a) these house price valuation sites are not that accurate?
b) builders have a get round in that they can register their houses as not new build, in order to make them more sellable?

The trouble is the estate agent dealing with the property is next to useless and when asking the builder questions they point us back to the estate agent. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Owain_Moneysaver

You need to check the full purchase history of each house, not just the most recent price. It's possible the developer sold the house as new build to a mate at a marked down price, then the mate sells it at market price but declares it as his home so escaping Capital Gains Tax?

bro2171

Thanks for the quick response. I understand what you're saying but what I said applies to all the 4 houses soild. The houses have all been sold in the last 6 months so they are the only sales. Plus its a big building firm rather than a local brickie.

mark5

I bought a new build in 2006 and I know nethouseprices show it as a "not new build" but the price is correct. Next door is also detached but shows on nethouseprices as a semi-detached.

bro2171

Thanks, thought it might be the websites that perhaps aren't accurate. it might be worth me paying £4 for the land registry details on one of the houses, to be doubly sure.

Richard_Webster

You need to check that you are not being ripped off by paying over the odds. Quite easy for a builder to tell everyone how wonderful his houses are and then 5-10 years later nobody thinks they are any different from 20 year old houses a few roads away.

So check comparables of slightly older similar houses in your area and then decide whether the price is worth it.

DJ1UK

Yorkshire Bank do a 90% mortgage on New Build Houses for FTBs (not flats)... that might be of use to you.

DJ