How much should I try to negitiate when buying a new build house?

bombfrog

Hi Guys. This is my first post so please be gentle.

We're looking at buying a new build house in the South East of England.

I know that the property market is in the doldrums right now and we've been advised to try to haggle as much as possible. The sales advisor at the showroom even said that if we were interested they were prepared to discuss the price, without me prompting!

So, the asking price is £335,000, we have got deposit and mortgage agreement sorted and don't need to sell our current house so I think we're in an OK position for negotiation.

Where price should we start at? Any other haggling advice?

brit1234

Don't get a newbuild, they are overpriced, small dimensions, and poor quality.


Even if you get a price reduction your lenders survey will most likely say the price is overvalued.

Better buy a non newbuild.

Lynsey

Why not try to reverse it and ask them to make you an offer and negotiate down??

Do they not have any incentives on offer??
The SE may well be different to the NE, but up here there are some very good incentives and new builds seem to be selling well.

Lynsey

sonastin

Look at what similar 5-10 year old properties in the area have sold for recently. Use that as your starting point to avoid paying the "new build" premium on top of what the house is actually worth.

bombfrog

brit1234 wrote: »

Don't get a newbuild.

Erm... thanks for the advice, but we want a new build.

brit1234 wrote: »

they are overpriced

That's why I'm asking about how far they can be haggled.

brit1234 wrote: »

small dimensions, and poor quality

You've seen the house we're thinking of buying, have you?

brit1234 wrote: »

Even if you get a price reduction your lenders survey will most likely say the price is overvalued.

In which case they wouldn't lend us the money and we wouldn't buy it. I'm not a complete moron.

brit1234 wrote: »

Better buy a non newbuild.

Again, thanks for that, but does anybody have any useful or at least relevant advice?

bombfrog

Lynsey wrote: »

Why not try to reverse it and ask them to make you an offer and negotiate down??

Do they not have any incentives on offer??
The SE may well be different to the NE, but up here there are some very good incentives and new builds seem to be selling well.

Lynsey

Yeah, I've read a couple of people say that they asked them to make the first offer. Might be a good way to start.

bombfrog

sonastin wrote: »

Look at what similar 5-10 year old properties in the area have sold for recently. Use that as your starting point to avoid paying the "new build" premium on top of what the house is actually worth.

That's another thing I was planning on doing. Printing out some recently sold properties and taking the figures along when negotiating.

pinkteapot

A friend of mine bought a newbuild 4-bed townhouse in mid 2008. He managed to find it when it had been up a few months and was vacant, and the builder was 2 months away from their financial year end. Asking price when the project was launched was £250k. By the time he looked at it, it was £218k. He got it for £168k on the proviso he completed before their year end.

23% off asking price, 33% off original asking price.

Other thing with newbuild is to find out what's included. E.g. carpets. You can spend a lot of money putting flooring down throughout a whole house. See if they'll throw it in.

Lynsey

pinkteapot wrote: »

Other thing with newbuild is to find out what's included. E.g. carpets. You can spend a lot of money putting flooring down throughout a whole house. See if they'll throw it in.

Exactly, look for incentives. Money towards deposit, legal fees paid, furnishings etc. - it's all do-able and has been for ages, just now could be a better time.

Good luck.

Lynsey

bombfrog

pinkteapot wrote: »

A friend of mine bought a newbuild 4-bed townhouse in mid 2008. He managed to find it when it had been up a few months and was vacant, and the builder was 2 months away from their financial year end. Asking price when the project was launched was £250k. By the time he looked at it, it was £218k. He got it for £168k on the proviso he completed before their year end.

23% off asking price, 33% off original asking price.

Other thing with newbuild is to find out what's included. E.g. carpets. You can spend a lot of money putting flooring down throughout a whole house. See if they'll throw it in.

I've been told not to worry about extras because they'r not worth the same as getting cash off, but I'm with you on this one, they're going to be able to buy carpets and turf cheaper than we could so I think we should try to work them into the negotiations.

I've been told by one person that I should go in with a first offer at 25% below the asking price. But that's £251 and it seems a bit cheeky?

pinkteapot

Is the house finished or are you looking at buying off-plan? They'll go a LOT lower once it's finished and they need to free up cash for the next project they're moving on to....

EDIT: No point offering £251k - you'd offer £250k to get the lower level of stamp duty.

As I said, a friend bought one at 23% off and negotiated up to that price. But the houses had been finished for a little while and the builder had 13 of them left to shift. A BTL landlord bought 8 and got them cheaper per unit than my friend did. So that's the other tip - buy lots of houses. :rotfl: