New Build buying incentives

spiritless

We're looking at a newbuild after living in our current house for 14 years. This will be the last move we do, so we're determined to get it right (financially as well as the right plot/house size).


The house we're looking at is on for £350k in phase 1, ideally we'd like to buy in phase 4 which is not likely to be until 2017. But we're happy to wait and realise a whole lot of things could change between now and then- which we're thinking through (house price rises and falls, job changes etc).


But today's question is:
If you buy off plan, how cheeky can you get with the bartering? What would you be asking for on a 4 bed detached house?


My husband would pay the asking price to the penny and not ask for any extras. On the other hand, I'm happy to see how far we can go with the sales staff

chris198232

'How much'

You need to advise where it is, one could be £170k in Stockport or ££450k in Surrey!

Anyway, builders usually are not far off the mark with house prices, they do need to sell them! How popular is your area?

MissBx

We have just bought a new build, the plot we bought was already built. They wouldn't knock any off the price but we got things like stamp duty paid, legal fees paid, a couple of appliances that were not included as standard, upgraded flooring in kitchen and hallway and a couple of other bits. When we sat and worked it out we got about £15000 in extras which we were happy with as we had asked for £10000 off the price of the house as that would have covered legal fees and stamp duty

spiritless

Stamp duty being paid would be fabulous! We've just totted up the costs of the finish touches- carpets, kitchen floor and an internal door from the house to the garage- comes in at around 10k <faints>. Maybe these things are things worth asking for then!

adhara

Bear in mind that certain incentives or extras are not worth the price - ie flooring from the developer costs peanuts to them, so they're more likely to include it for free. Or because you're paying overpriced £XX amount anyway, you've already 'paid' for the incentives, so it's no skin off their nose to include it.

So it's best to check what your extras would cost outside of the build, in case that £10k discount turns out to be only £5k.

StumpyPumpy

I'd be looking at persuading the builder to add things that are easy to do during construction but a pain to retro fit. So, for instance in your example I would sacrifice carpets for the internal door if that is what I wanted and see how much I could alter the floor plan to suit.

And remember, that it doesn't matter how much it costs the builder to do it, it is how much you would save over doing it yourself later.

ethank

I don't think you are close enough to moving to even start negotiating yet. Anything for sale in 2017 has probably not even been released yet! On our site, they don't even have detailed planning permission for the 2017 phase yet!

spiritless

I'm not considering negotiating yet. We're considering our options financially. I'm a planner, I enjoy this phase of any project more than the actual completion...

Alligg

If you are paying a reservation fee then it is not too early to barter,just make sure you get it all in writing.
We bought off plan and negotiated around £8,000 of extras,most of it on upgrading kitchen appliances and additional sockets/wiring and an extra shower but also on things like putting our light fittings and curtain rails up which most builders either wont do or charge extra for but saved us so much time.we also got a shed base and our shed built and the patio extended,we also got to choose the paint colours for each room so didnt just have to have white or magnolia.we also put in an offer £6,000 under the asking price and as we were to be the first ones moving in and having to put up with other building work going on for a while they accepted.
Dont be afraid to ask,they can only say no but if you dont ask you dont get.