New Homes - what discount should I ask for??

silverflora

I am thinking of buying a new home from one of the new house builders. The house will be ready in May, and I am a cash buyer.

I live in the South West, and the rest of the development seems to have sold fairly easily.

What would be a reasonable discount to ask for - if at all? I have heard that house builders are happy to add extras -but not to decrease the price.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks
SF

Mickygg

This has come up so many times before. Do a search and that will tell you.

JennyJames

Mickygg, you are right questions like such have been answered before so many times. Make a search on this forum, we will be able to find your answer.

ess0two

Most of development quickly sold?this may hinder any discount.

silverflora

Yes of course, I did do a search before posting. All the earlier posts were from some time ago and with the economic situation changing all the time, I was hoping for some more up to date info.

It seems to me ( and the financial press) that all housebuilders seem to be doing well without giving discounts - so I would be really grateful to hear of peoples more recent actual experiences.

Thansk
SF

SuzieSue

silverflora wrote: »

Yes of course, I did do a search before posting. All the earlier posts were from some time ago and with the economic situation changing all the time, I was hoping for some more up to date info.

It seems to me ( and the financial press) that all housebuilders seem to be doing well without giving discounts - so I would be really grateful to hear of peoples more recent actual experiences.

Thansk
SF

It will vary from housebuilder to housebuilder and how difficult the houses are to sell.

I bought a new build in 1997 and the developer wouldn't negotiate on price at all - it was take it or leave it (we couldn't even choose the plot we wanted, only the type of house) as they knew they would have not problems selling it.

My OH bought a new build in 2004 and was able to negotiate a discount because it was the last one on the site and a previous sale had fall through and they were desperate to get rid of it.

vivtse

We are in the process if buying a new build.

We are in a weaker position than you as are taking advantage of a part exchange scheme but even so, we managed to negotiate our part ex price up by £6.5k and got them to throw in 5% deposit and 1% towards stamp duty but paid the asking price for the house (which was supposedly already £30k off the original price). As the house is already finished, I think there were keen to sell ASAP so a deal was always on the cards.

I think most plots have about 15% of the asking price for leeway and agree they don't like yo drop the sale price much. They would have provided flooring and turf instead of the stamp duty contribution so just depends what would be more useful to you. So definitely don't pay full price unless you buy is so early you get to specify all the interior fittings and fixtures.

Good luck!

daveyb1986

I guess it would depend on the situation.

i'm a first time buyer, with a mortgage agreed in principle - the development we were looking at had a property for £265K. We spoke to them and simply asked how much room we had for negotiation (mainly due to the 3% stamp duty we'd need to pay) - and they dropped the price down to £250K - saving us £15K on the property price and £5K on stamp duty. However I generally think with these developments, the prices you see originally offered, I think there is always room for negotiation - I'm just suprised how quickly they were to drop their pants (so to speak). Most of the development is sold and it was the last of this particular property type available.

I guess all you can really do is just be open and up front about how much you really want to pay for the property and then work from there.

geoffky

New builds drop in price like a !!!!!s nickers once you have moved in..we have a sea of for sale boards on a new estate by me with asking prices above what they are currently being sold for new by the developer..