New Builds

danielley

I am currently thinking of buying a new build.

I know people either love or hate new houses, but I feel that I am ready for the change.

There are two styles of property that I am interested in, one is by Morris Homes , the Dalton and the other is a Persimmon Homes , the Farthing

The Persimmon site is much cheaper despite only being 1 mile away.

I wondered if anyone had any opinions on these developers or on New Builds in general?

This house will be our 'forever' home and I want to get it right!

lincroft1710

Although I have no personal experience of Persimmon, their reputation was not that great a few years ago and I knew someone whose extensive problems with the house took literally years to get sorted.

SuzieSue

I'm with you - unlike most people I like new builds and I bought one 13 years ago from Barratts.

I haven't heard of Morris Homes but Persimmon is a national house builder like Barratts, however that doesn't mean that you won't have any problems. As you know, all new homes comes with a 10 year NHBC guarantee, however, I wouldn't rely on it as I have heard too many nightmare stories about new homes. I wouldn't trust them to act in the best interests of homebuyer as they are funded by the housebuilders and so they will often use any get out clause they can to avoid remedying any faults.

When I bought my new home, I took out and insurance policy which was aimed at new home buyers (I think it cost around £100) and that covered my legal costs if I had discovered something major wrong with my house. I assume there are similar policies available now and I would seriously consider one.

There is also an company called Inspector Home http://www.inspectorhome.co.uk/ which I would consider as well. I only heard about them after I had bought my home, but I think I would have used them as I was clueless about buying a property. The guy who runs the company has appeared on quite a few consumer programs on tv advising people who have had problems with their new home.

ILW

danielley wrote: »

I am currently thinking of buying a new build.

I know people either love or hate new houses, but I feel that I am ready for the change.

There are two styles of property that I am interested in, one is by Morris Homes , the Dalton and the other is a Persimmon Homes , the Farthing

The Persimmon site is much cheaper despite only being 1 mile away.

I wondered if anyone had any opinions on these developers or on New Builds in general?

This house will be our 'forever' home and I want to get it right!

Don't think I could live in a place called "the farting"

tr3mor

You want to live forever in Latchford? :eek:

To be honest, they're very very overpriced. You can get 3 bed semis the other side of the ship canal for this price. These won't be worth much more than £100k each once you take the new build premium away.

danielley

tr3mor, Do you mean the ones heading Thelwall, They are Wainhomes and they want £249,950 for a 4 bed (the rooms are tiny) terraced sorry mews house, now that is ridiculous!

Then on Chester Rd there is the David Wilson estate where they want £150k for a 2 bed and as there are no 3 beds, your next step is £328k for a 4 bed house. Eeek!

The Morris homes are of a very nice quality and I will only be buying if I can get at least a 10-15% reduction in the asking price.

I am thinking of staying in this house for a long time, so as long as I pay off the mortgage in 20 odd years and don't rely on the resale value for my pension, then any drop in value would be only be an issue if circumstances changed and I needed to sell sooner, but I think that estimate of down to £100k is pretty harsh; there is a new build site estate off Wash Lane which is also in Latchford and those values have held and increased quite considerably, even through the recession. I work with someone from Lymm, he bought a flat there 3 years ago in MAJOR negative equity now, I dont think the recession discriminates on postcode unless we are talking Kings Rd London!

Obviously if I had more equity or wanted to work full time after having kids then it would not be my location of choice, but I am being realistic and Latchford, isn't that bad!! It has good transport links to Warrington Town Centre and Stockton Heath, plus the motorways, the council tax bandings are low and I have family and work in the area, so its ideal for me and my circumstances.

We can't all live in Lymm, some of us have to live in 'worse' areas to make you feel better about yourself :rotfl:

danielley

ILW wrote: »

Don't think I could live in a place called "the farting"

:rotfl:Cheeky! It's FartHing!

But now I only can see Farting

You've ruind it now

ILW

danielley wrote: »

:rotfl:Cheeky! It's FartHing!

But now I only can see Farting

You've ruind it now

Sorry but I am from London and we all drop our aitches.

brit1234

Just be careful not to buy off plan. If you do you are endanger of not being of not getting a mortgage when it is built if values have fallen. This is a strong likelihood and buyers are being sued if they then can't complete.

SuzieSue

Also ensure you find out what was on the site originally (perhaps speak to some locals) as I'm not sure if the searches that solicitors do search for contaminated land. And if it would bother you if the developer sold off a chunk to a Housing Association, then you should assess the liklihood of that happening.

Yorkie1

Buyers often encounter difficulties with the mortgage company if it is a high loan to value, as the valuation comes in lower than the agreed sale price - leaving the buyer either having to fund a larger deposit to get the LTV down, or walking away.