Taylor Wimpey New Build

swanny78

I was "forced" to pull out of a William Davis home due the perceived over pricing of the property. The valuation came in at £25k less than price and they wouldn't budge on price. The property was in my opinion unmortgagable as no bank would lend the amount the house was on the market for. I was basically told oh well we will just hold out for a cash buyer. Needless to say I walked away. I think with all the new build schemes and government help, they feel they can charge what the want....sad state of affairs. Im now in the process of buying a second hand property of equal size for 100k less.

Tancred

anselld wrote: »

Most newbuilds are undersized and over-priced.
They generally wont negotiate on price whilst they are still building.
Why not see what you could afford in the "pre-loved" market?

I'm getting a bit fed up with all this flaming of new builds. I spent months looking at pre-loved houses only to find that most were in pretty poor condition and needed at least partial modernisation. There is a premium on new homes but at least they come with fitted kitchens, double glazing etc.

Tancred

swanny78 wrote: »

I was "forced" to pull out of a William Davis home due the perceived over pricing of the property. The valuation came in at £25k less than price and they wouldn't budge on price. The property was in my opinion unmortgagable as no bank would lend the amount the house was on the market for. I was basically told oh well we will just hold out for a cash buyer. Needless to say I walked away. I think with all the new build schemes and government help, they feel they can charge what the want....sad state of affairs. Im now in the process of buying a second hand property of equal size for 100k less.

Interesting. I had the same experience with a 'nearly new' (6 months old) house. The seller eventually dropped £20k off the original asking price, so it's still £5k above valuation, but we decided to go for it as our deposit is over 50% of the price.

Duvaljones

Thanks for all the replies so far.

We've looked at 'pre-loved' and there really are some dives out there, but we're still looking, we're not concentrating solely on new builds.

We've told the saleswoman that we won't go over budget and left it at that for now, we may call back in a week and see if her position has changed after letting her think she's lost us.

I don't think ours is a 'stock plot' as it's not been 'released' yet.

What's really annoyed (that's the lightest word I can use here) us is that we specifically asked how much the house was and said we'd go away and work out what we could do based on that figure. Then the price went up. At the very least she could have explained that that was 'at the moment, that might go up'. Not great as a sales technique of course, but it would've given us a better picture of the situation, knowing the price could potentially change.

I think a little naivety has crept in and we've shown ourselves as too keen, so we've learnt a lesson there. Is it just old fashioned to ask how much something is and then take someone at their word these days?

Thanks again so far guys, much appreciated.

thedalmeny

The tactics you find with builders is quite varied.

We've walked onto some sites and been told categorically no discounts or extras, on others they've offered a slight discount and extras without me even prompting. We've also had builders go from unwilling to negotiation to throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us.

Like you, my wife wanted a brand new build.. I was quite happy with that providing we got a fair price.

New builds 'can' be overpriced - but then so can open market houses. Few ways to help you decide on it's 'worth'.

• Find the average sold price for a property your size in a 5 mile radius
  
• Look at currently listed property prices on open market of similar size in 5 mile radius (Knock around 7% off, as that's on average what houses go below asking)

We ended up securing a 4 bedroom detached new build at a good price, around 10k less than anyone else had purchased one on the site for (looking at sold prices) with extras.

Also they were pretty reasonable priced to begin with, with only 5 or so houses in a 5 mile radius of similar size on the open market.

There are deals to be had, just need to be patient. Only issue you have at the moment is Help To Buy has really pushed up new build demand, so they really have less reason to be flexible. On the site we purchased on i'd say prices have gone up by a good 10k since we reserved. Thankfully we reserved our new build in April.

Either way you do it, try and get to what you feel is a reasonable price. You wouldn't want the mortgage valuation coming back lower than the price of the house, which can happen when some new builds are overpriced.

caeler

I wonder if you hold your nerve, walk away but walk back in a few months when they've not shifted any and do you an even better deal? Find out when their year end is, that is how I got an awesome deal.

With regard to loss of value. This is what I assumed when I first starting buying new builds and on the first one I lost a significant sum because I sold within 2 years. It would have been a whole lot worse if I'd paid what my neighbours had paid but thankfully I didn't. However a few neighbours around my current home have recently sold, for either what they paid or a profit! Hard to imagine isn't it! I'm not planning on moving but it does make me feel slightly happier that I could get back what I paid for mine. My neighbours are currently selling theirs for £17K more than I paid for mine 6 months ago. I think I saw those developers coming!

gazzabboi

it depends on how much you like the development/ plot for sale. If you wait, there will always be someone else looking at the same plot, and you may loose it. If you get the chance to buy it, then do. With help to buy, the new builds are selling well, they dont seem to be discounting them much.

makeyourdaddyproud

seriousDFW wrote: »

PLEASE can we have some balance? Not all new-builds are created equal and it's rubbish to make sweeping assumptions about losing value. I've done lots of research in this area and have seen using sold price websites many examples where a new build has sold for less than it was bought a few years previously, but I've also seen new builds which have sold for more than they did a few years previously, and this includes all types of houses.

Yes some new-builds have small rooms/gardens etc but that is also true of some pre-loved homes. Some new builds have massive rooms and massive gardens. I know lots of people who have been happy with their new builds, and lots of people who have lost money on pre-loved homes or had to spend lots renovating them.

Every single house has pluses and minuses and as a buyer you need to weigh things up and decide what you want. Yes, some people will never want a new build, fair enough. Some other people will only ever want new builds. Different people place different values on different things - what's right for one person isn't right for another.

Can we please just stick to answering people's questions rather than advising anyone who asks a question about a new build that new builds are evil: it is really tiresome!

As for the OP, yes I would be mightily annoyed by this situation. I would say that you are happy to pay the price originally agreed but that you can't stretch to any more. Then leave it because that is the reality of the situation! The salesperson will either accept that offer and move forward or not and you can move on to something else.

Not many owners of pre-loved or period homes come on here complaining. Whilst there's a modicum of sense in your newbuild mantra, in nearly all cases the demand for land and profit results in an inferior home in ways you might not initially see.

Plus, very fewer and fewer newbuilds appear in established 'high price' areas or villages, mainly regen areas. The downside is typically unproven future value.

For example, it would be good VFM if new houses were built in Caversham Heights, Reading as opposed to Calcot, Reading - the latter already being built up whereas the former enjoys leafy green 'acacia avenue' type roads and village-like ambience.

So your comment only has minuscule merit.

makeyourdaddyproud

swanny78 wrote: »

I was "forced" to pull out of a William Davis home due the perceived over pricing of the property. The valuation came in at £25k less than price and they wouldn't budge on price. The property was in my opinion unmortgagable as no bank would lend the amount the house was on the market for. I was basically told oh well we will just hold out for a cash buyer. Needless to say I walked away. I think with all the new build schemes and government help, they feel they can charge what the want....sad state of affairs. Im now in the process of buying a second hand property of equal size for 100k less.

And a £100k of future value.