FTB dilemma- Cattle Market!

LWils · 28 September 2011 at 1:24PM

Myself and my husband are first time buyers, we have been renting for 5 years and have a pretty low deposit of £10,000. We have reserved a new build property paying £500 and agreeing a price of £163000, as the developer offered 5% deposit paid.

The house is at a premium compared to the same style house in other positions of the development, as it has a view of countryside/river. We were told by sales staff that the area behind would never be built on as it is a floodplain. After reserving the house my hubby checked planning, and found a local council plan detailing the area directly behind the house designated to be developed into a cattle market! :eek: This would really impact upon the view, and I think would make the house difficult to sell on in the future.

The plan has been in place for 10 years, and so far not acted upon but the council confirms that it is still active. There is currently a cattle market elsewhere in the town, which is earmarked for housing development, only if the cattle market is relocated to the land directly behind our house first! There is no time line for when this will happen, but it is only a matter of time.

We went back to the developer with the plans (which they denied previous knowledge of) and they are not willing to negotiate the price further. We are considering walking away.

As we have a low deposit, we would find it difficult to buy on open market outside of the new build developers offering 5% deposit. Although I have seen that some 95% mortgages are available.

My dilemma is do we
1) continue with the purchase, and just hope that the cattle market does not get built anytime soon.
2) pull out of the sale and carry on renting with the aim to save a bigger deposit so we can buy somewhere else.