Charles Church & Persimmon Homes

charliesf

anokayperson wrote: »

can anyone offer advice on the above please?

Managed to get 35k of a the list price just by asking in the Essex area, as needed it to be under 250k for the 1% stamp duty. Was the last two plots so I am sure that had something to do with it. got a free kitchen too. but i need to sort out the flooring and carpets.

Tancred

RenStar wrote: »

We are in our new build persimmon home, which is 5 months old. We love the space, we have 4 double beds all of which can take double beds, wardrobes and dressers if need be. Our lounge and kitchen are all excellent sizes and we have a separate dining room. We also got it at what we considered to be a good price for the size of the property. It is simply untrue to say that ALL new builds have small rooms; like everything else in life you get what you pay for and you should do your research. Have a look at these which are within spitting distance to us: www.charleschurch.com/buckinghamshire_milton.../hepburn-chase-1234

The compromise is the garden, it is just about big enough for the table and chairs, BBQ and kids trampoline and the rotary dryer. My husbands prefers a small garden as it means less upkeep. It was a compromise we were willing to make because the internal space was more important to us.

As for cracks, any newbuild (even an extension to an old house) will suffer shrinkage as the place dries out. We have found Persimmons customer care to be very responsive to the few issues we have had so can't complain really. We pretty much have all the major house builders in our neck of the woods and nearly everyone I know either lives in new build or one less than 15 years old at most. I don't hear tons and tons of complaints. Make of that what you will, though the plural of annecdote does not facts make, as they say.

I didn't mean to say that all new builds have small rooms. It depends on the area and the particular development, but it does seem to be the case in my area (Berkshire). Up north land is cheaper, so houses are bigger.

The house you refer to is over £700K!! :eek: Hardly the sort of house that most people could buy!

Of course you are wealthy and can afford it, which is fine, but I'm looking at the standard average house, which, in the south-east would be around the £275-300k mark.

Take this shoebox, for instance: http://www.charleschurch.com/berkshire_bracknell/dukes-place/3-bedroom-detached-house-14782

Tancred

charliesf wrote: »

Managed to get 35k of a the list price just by asking in the Essex area, as needed it to be under 250k for the 1% stamp duty. Was the last two plots so I am sure that had something to do with it. got a free kitchen too. but i need to sort out the flooring and carpets.

You were lucky - or else the house was significantly overpriced to begin with. You need to look at similar sized houses in the local area.

RenStar

Tancred wrote: »

I didn't mean to say that all new builds have small rooms. It depends on the area and the particular development, but it does seem to be the case in my area (Berkshire). Up north land is cheaper, so houses are bigger.

The house you refer to is over £700K!! :eek: Hardly the sort of house that most people could buy!

Of course you are wealthy and can afford it, which is fine, but I'm looking at the standard average house, which, in the south-east would be around the £275-300k mark.

Take this shoebox, for instance: http://www.charleschurch.com/berkshire_bracknell/dukes-place/3-bedroom-detached-house-14782

Fair enough but for what it's worth, the Victorian semi I grew up in was fair bit smaller than the one you link to. I remember my parents had to have a bed made to fit the box room for my younger sister as it was too small to take standard single.

I wish we were wealthy enought to afford one of the Hepburn chase houses, but sadly not; I was merely using it to illustrate a point. Most people wouldn't consider MK to be up north though..:rotfl:

This is our house type
http://persimmonhomes.com/oxley-springs/4-bed-semi-detached-house-202444 - it was well within the 275-300k mark (well we made sure of it tbf). It's plenty big enough for the 4 of us. We could have had a detached with smaller rooms for 20-30k more but didn't seem the need to pay the premium.

gazzabboi

anokayperson wrote: »

Hi all - been looking around at new homes for a while now but many developers just seem reluctant to reduce their prices or throw any freebies in like carpets etc. Is this the norm these days? There are many developers around the stanway/colchester and chelmsford area but a vast difference in price. Bloor, bellway and perssimmon have many developments around here but are holding their prices. Have researched some forums and have read horror stories with many of them. Any advice both negative and positive please with extras people have been given in todays market? Thanks in advance

I had the same experience when I reserved in June in colchester. Nothing off the price, but I think now they have increased their prices by 5k. Most of the good plots go very fast. I'm fairly happy though because most of the recent sales on the land registry show that the plots have been selling for the asking price. As they are all off plan though, it seems that any of the plots that are built already and somebody is now selling, they are making profit.

Tancred

RenStar wrote: »

Fair enough but for what it's worth, the Victorian semi I grew up in was fair bit smaller than the one you link to. I remember my parents had to have a bed made to fit the box room for my younger sister as it was too small to take standard single.

I wish we were wealthy enought to afford one of the Hepburn chase houses, but sadly not; I was merely using it to illustrate a point. Most people wouldn't consider MK to be up north though..:rotfl:

This is our house type
http://persimmonhomes.com/oxley-springs/4-bed-semi-detached-house-202444 - it was well within the 275-300k mark (well we made sure of it tbf). It's plenty big enough for the 4 of us. We could have had a detached with smaller rooms for 20-30k more but didn't seem the need to pay the premium.

Ok, it's not that small but I like big open spaces.......:)

To satisfy my urge for space I'm going to have to fit a long conservatory at the back......and there goes another £20k.

I could have got more value for money by not going for a detached but I'm a grumpy bu**er and I don't like hearing next door. I've just left a mid terraced where I've lived 8 years and I got fed up with the rows and door slamming from the Asian family next door.

Tancred

One general question: is Redrow any better than Charles Church? Redrow houses do look bigger, overall. Certainly in terms of room sizes.

RenStar

I honestly don't know Tancred, but suspect it's six of one and half a dozen of the other; the smaller your budget the less space you get it seems whilst obviously the more you have to play with the more space you get. We saw some Redrow houses a few years back when they were building in Broughton, the other side to us. Only ones in our price range at the time were three storey town houses which weren't particularly spacious. Having said that, their show home IIRC felt very spacious but was also on for much more. The best house builder I ever came across for space were a small company I think called Abbey Homes, but they were building in the wrong location for us. They had very large 5 bed detaches with huge gardens on at £280k or something like that. My husband still thinks we made a mistake not buying that but I just wasn't keen on where it was. My dream is to ultimately own one of the self builds littered around us, when those lucky enough to be born before us bought their land for nought and built amazing mansions. One day...

Georgesmum79

Tancred wrote: »

Yes, stop looking for freebies and either buy or don't buy! :mad:

Honestly, what on earth do you expect? In 2011 or maybe early 2012 developers were struggling to sell in some areas and put all sorts of incentives out - but not now! The market has changed and prices are rising. There are the government help to buy schemes now, so you can advantage fo those if you need to.

A bit rude...
Anokayperson, I replied to your PM....

I do not agree that you can't get freebies and negotiate the price: I very much stuck a deal with CC on my new house, got £8K off asking price with quite a lot of stuff thrown in. I bought my Crest Nicholson house three years ago and got nothing, not a single thing thrown in, and only got £ 1 000 discount for exchanging within five weeks. I would guess that all the builders have their own procedures, some will negotiate and some will not. There is no harm in trying to negotiate, but I would give you the hint of sticking to 'open' questions, which make it harder for the sales person to say no:

• "Is it possible to get a discount?" is a closed question, instead I would suggest:
• "What kind of discount would you be willing to consider"

As for room sizes, I am very pleased with the room sizes in my new CC house, all the four bedrooms are generous double rooms, with two of them easily fitting kingsize beds, side tables, large fitted wardrobe and a dresser. Our garden is ok in size, it is by no means huge but will allow some trees at the back, borders, a BBQ area and a seating area. The garden partly wraps around the house so we will have some separation from the neighbours. Some detached houses are built only about a few feet from the next house, which really doesn't offer a detached lifestyle. We will have neighbours at the back, but our garden and garage will separate us from the neighbours on the side.

I agree with all the comments that whilst you would get a larger garden with an older house, you will not get brand spanking new floors, kitchens, bathrooms, carpets, appliances, and no roof or guttering maintenance for a good few years at least.

Dean_newcastle

Hi,

I live in a Persimmon house in the Brunton Grange development in Newcastle, and have to say I'm really happy with the house we
got in December 2012. Having read a few horror stories on here.

When I bought I got the opportunity to start recommending Persimmon to people I know in exchange for a financial reward.

I did this for the first time for my boss two months ago, and we both got £500.00 cash (for nothing but handing in a form)

If anyone is going to buy persimmon. And you want to get £500 towards whatever you need in your house, send me a PM and I will post you one of my recommend a friend vouchers.

Thought it seemed to be a no brainer to put it on here, as its win win.

What I would say though is negotiate your house price to the lowest price you can get THEN go in and say you have the recommend a friend, so you know your getting an even better deal.
Obviously don't sign anything before you tell them in case it's too late.

Hope this is allowed on this thread, but can't see why not if a new homeowner can get £500 for nothing but handing in a card.

Thanks,

Dean