BUYING OFF PLAN - Advice

breenie

Hi there

Myself and my partner are looking to buy our first house in the North Leeds area. Having gone through a couple of months of looking at houses to fit within our budget of £220k we have now decided to explore the route of buying off plan. The main reason been that each of the houses we have found to date, would require an extra £20k to be spent on them to get up to the spec we would like. Probably us been too piccy but at the end of the day it's a big move for us both and we want to be happy with what we finally end up buying.

As a result we have now decided to explore the route of buying off plan. The main reason been is that you can commonly get upto 15% off the purchase price, with the potential for a rise in property value once the build is complete. As well as the potential saving, the finish to the property will be to a standard of our liking, leaving us to simply buy the desired furnishings. So my thinking here is that we could have the house we fully desire and yet in keeping with our £220k budget.

So i would be grateful of people's advice/experiences of this if possible concerning the following points:

1) What saving have you typically achieved by buying off plan?
2) How do you go about learning of new & up and coming developments in the area? This i'm really struggling with!!!
3) How soon do you need to then look approach a developer?
4) How have you found the experience in general? Any problems, delays etc?

Any other thoughts/views would also be welcome.

Thanks again.

Breenie

PasturesNew

You can't buy off plan unless you can guarantee that you'll be able to get a mortgage at very short notice at some unidentifiable date in the future, usually a couple of months after they originally suggested it might be finished.

As most mortgage offers will expire after six months, this means you have to be real risk takers.

Once you sign/exchange, you're committed.... and anything that changes in your life is your problem if you can't get a mortgage when they suddenly announce "OK, next Friday do ya?"

How lucky do you feel....?

Salz

breenie wrote: »

Hi there

As a result we have now decided to explore the route of buying off plan. The main reason been is that you can commonly get upto 15% off the purchase price, with the potential for a rise in property value once the build is complete. As well as the potential saving, the finish to the property will be to a standard of our liking, leaving us to simply buy the desired furnishings. So my thinking here is that we could have the house we fully desire and yet in keeping with our £220k budget.

So i would be grateful of people's advice/experiences of this if possible concerning the following points:

Any other thoughts/views would also be welcome.

Breenie

Firstly, don't forget that prices can also go down, and if you have signed up, then prices fall, you will still be legally obliged to buy the property, but may not get a mortgage, and will end up owing the developer thousands. Personally, I would say that now is not the time for buying off plan (but what do I know )

badmoon

I'm hopefully just over a week away from completing on what was an off plan property. I've had my ups and downs with it and they started building in late november last year, so it's taken a while.

I'm still rather nervous about it all and wondering whether it could go kaput, it's all on the mortgage now and no last minute problems with that. Anyway, firstly when I was first looking round for developers, we have a free property magazine on Merseyside called Your Move. You can get it in shopping centres and supermarkets, may be worth having a scout around to see if you have a leeds based one.

If not, then I'd have a look at this website: http://www.findanewhome.com/yorkshire-and-the-humber/leeds/property-developers.fap which may help a bit and I've just found through google.

In terms of good deals, i think the feeling on this is mixed, i'm not the greatest negotiator but got free carpets thrown in, getting a nice kitchen (though none of the white goods) and my garden's being turfed and fenced too.

Problems? Well only the fact that the date has kept shifting, however it is possible to get mortgage offers that last for more than 6 months, mine was issued in early november and expires end of July. There is also a small way you can protect yourself and that's by putting in a long stop agreement which you would ask your solicitor to put into the contract which in my case is 23rd July, so a week before the offer expires. If anything were to happen to delay the house even at this late stage, I can walk away on the 23rd July. Being a born worrier, I'm constantly worrying about the mortgage offer and what could go wrong.

I'm off for the inspection of the house on Friday so will update then too. I'd also recommend having a look for Kyrae's posts if you can in some way, hopefully someone will have the link, she (i think) did a great thread about buying a new build and off plan.

Feel free to PM if you need any more advice. Good luck whatever you decide to do.

FraudBuster

Off plan + Leeds =

http://www.singingpig.co.uk/forums/1/514672/ShowThread.aspx

MobileSaver

I thought poppysarah's words of wisdom summed up New Builds perfectly.

poppysarah wrote: »

You buy something that doesn't exist and hope they don't go bust and actually build it.

I've always thought it's a bit mad - but apparently people do it all the time.

I'm sure there have been numerous threads on MSE where when it was finally time for the mortgage valuation, this came in at less than the price agreed with the developers causing all sorts of problems.

If you go ahead it is crucial you use a solicitor who is an expert in off plan properties.

badmoon

MobileSaver wrote: »

I thought poppysarah's words of wisdom summed up New Builds perfectly.



I'm sure there have been numerous threads on MSE where when it was finally time for the mortgage valuation, this came in at less than the price agreed with the developers causing all sorts of problems.

If you go ahead it is crucial you use a solicitor who is an expert in off plan properties.

Or the occasions when the valuation proceeds without any issues at all.