Bellway, negtiate for new build?

mysti77

harrys_dad wrote: »

£26 a square foot? 4 bedrooms and only 1300 sq feet? I suspect that there are better value homes out there that you could affordy.

Thats the problem, we are struggling to find something we can afford without help to buy as stamp duty eats up so much. We need easy commute to work in London and has to be under an hour door to door as we have a little one in nursery.

We have looked at so many places in the past few months. Most had one bathroom, little storage space, tiny third bedroom that can fit a single bed without a wardrobe.

gazzabboi

harrys_dad wrote: »

£26 a square foot? 4 bedrooms and only 1300 sq feet? I suspect that there are better value homes out there that you could afford without helptobuy.

How do you work that one out? The maths is 375000÷1350= £277.78 a sq foot

mysti77

From Zoopla:

Detached Avg. £ per sq ft.= £260 (avg beds 3.4)

Semi-Detached Avg. £ per sq ft.= £270 (avg beds 3.2)

So definitely more expensive as expected but not hugely so (or is it hugely more expensive and I'm just bad at this)

Rain_Shadow

Off topic but I really don't like the kitchen layout one bit.

harrys_dad

gazzabboi wrote: »

How do you work that one out? The maths is 375000÷1350= £277.78 a sq foot

Apologies for a misplaced decimal point after rounding error. Having said that, it is still very expensive and very pokey, but then I don't live in the overpopulated south east.

dgtazzman

Dragging this up, but maybe still of interest. We negotiated the purchase of a new build today (Barratt's, not Bellway though):

- price was not negotiable, that was wiped off the table before it even got there...
- Turfing was included as standard.
- We put stamp duty paid, legal fees paid, flooring included and white goods on the table.
- They gave us the choice: stamp duty + flooring or legal fees + stamp duty + white goods.
- We went for stamp duty + flooring, totalling around 7k worth, tried to squeeze another £500 towards legal fees out of them, that was a no go.

We were basically told we were lucky to get that much, sales have gone up so much in the last 3 months, they won't even consider incentives on most properties any more as they simply don't need to.

Sale price was cheaper than OP's though at 210k.

mysti77

dgtazzman wrote: »

Dragging this up, but maybe still of interest. We negotiated the purchase of a new build today (Barratt's, not Bellway though):

- price was not negotiable, that was wiped off the table before it even got there...
- Turfing was included as standard.
- We put stamp duty paid, legal fees paid, flooring included and white goods on the table.
- They gave us the choice: stamp duty + flooring or legal fees + stamp duty + white goods.
- We went for stamp duty + flooring, totalling around 7k worth, tried to squeeze another £500 towards legal fees out of them, that was a no go.

We were basically told we were lucky to get that much, sales have gone up so much in the last 3 months, they won't even consider incentives on most properties any more as they simply don't need to.

Sale price was cheaper than OP's though at 210k.

How long did it take for them to get back to you after you first put your initial offer stamp duty etc?

mysti77

Spoke to a manager today as the sales lady at the show home is horrible. Rude and condescending and didn't act like she wanted to sell the house.

Her manager said definitely no on price, but will do floor, white goods and turf (it comes with fence).

I wonder if it's because it's 'London' that they don't want to budge on price. Have been told by another sales Rep (who was lovely but apparently a temp and has left) that they had a couple of the ones we want sold before the show home but since the show home went up in July 8 out of the 12 have been reserved or contracts exchanged now. I don't know if to risk it as the plot we want is the best of the 4 left. We were willing to pay full price before we got to researching and thought to negotiate. We will be really angry with ourselves if in a few months time we see land registry prices for the same houses having gone for less money.

mysti77

Rain_Shadow wrote: »

Off topic but I really don't like the kitchen layout one bit.

We really like the kitchen layout. Reminds me of my mum's kitchen -American though so kitchen was twice the size and the hob was on an 'island' and not attached to the wall. I like how it separates the dining area yet makes the place still feel open.

BUT it does remind me that if we ever for whatever reason need to sell, others may feel the same as you regarding kitchen layout.

dgtazzman

mysti77 wrote: »

How long did it take for them to get back to you after you first put your initial offer stamp duty etc?

About 15-20 minutes, we had to go to the regional sales office as they have already closed down the office on the site we're buying at. The sales rep called her manager and everything was boiled down to those options in that time frame. Really wanted some money towards the legal fees too, just for a sense of self-satisfaction, ah well :P