New Build - Any Discounts or Negotiations?

[Deleted User]

Hi,


I'm looking at purchasing a new build from Barratt in Worcestershire, and wondered if anyone had much success with discount or negotiating some sort of incentive? I wouldn't be using New Buy equity share. Just wondered what the market was like etc.


Thanks

Frustratedseller_3

Hi we are attempting to purchase through barretts and although we didn't get a reduction in the price they give us add ons in the house carpets tiles etc worth around 2.5k

somethingcorporate

Depends on a number of factors.

When we moved in to our new build we got £25k off the price and had the developer pay the stamp duty (another £9k) so there are deals to be done.

Ours was a small eco-developer desperate to get cash into their coffers on a small number of houses that had been on the market, hence they were willing to deal quite agressively. Our neighbours next door managed to get £10k more than us off for a very similar house.

chanz4

customer service is poor, build is poor

kingstreet

I'd say what you will be able to achieve;-

five minutes after the opening of a new site

six weeks from the builder's year-end

on the last plot on a development

will provide a spectrum from lowest to highest. There is no hard and fast rule on this and one person's experience is unique and possibly not representative of the situation for someone else...

[Deleted User]

Some good advice here. Since I asked the question, has anyone had any actual success or examples of what they managed to negotiate on a Barratt property? I've seen figures up to 5% mentioned, including on their own deposit boost offer...

PaulC5

Not Barratt and not negotiated yet but I'd be interested on peoples negotiation/deal sealing tips as Ive got to go in to the sales office this Friday to seal the deal on a new Redrow build, the site is new so not expecting loads but ant tips welcome.

Jon_B_2

Really all that matters is what your market is like in the locality.

All builders in Bristol aren't offering discounts, but will include extras like flooring etc...

I do know in a more rural calmer area discounts can be found and regularly I hear of Persimmon offering discounts, however you only have to look around the Internet to see what kind of reputation they have...

DaveJFT

When negotiating financial incentives I'd recommend checking with your mortgage lender regarding what incentives they'll allow without impacting your mortgage/deposit arrangements.

During our negotiations our developer offered to pay our stamp duty (but not much else) - cool, we thought, as this would then be able fund our upgrades and we could choose the carpets and colours we want and perhaps a bit of garden furniture too.

We were on the point of signing when we found out via our mortgage broker that the new "full disclosure rules" mean that this and any other incentives have to be declared to the mortgage company by the developer at the time of the mortgage application and the policy of our chosen mortgage company (Virgin Money) is to take that stamp duty offer value and deduct it directly off their mortgage loan offer as it reduces their risk exposure. As the sale price of the house would not change we would then have to top-up the reduced mortgage to the sale price of the house and still pay the stamp duty! This would actually have cost us an extra £4500 out of the savings we were reserving for our upgrades and carpets and we'd be moving into a bare house.

In the end we had to get a list of "allowed" non-financial incentives from Virgin Money (they vary by lender) and work with the developer to negotiate incentives based on that list. We got "contract flooring" (uggh!) throughout, extra tiling to the wet areas, TV points in all the bedrooms, electrics and lighting to the garage and an outside tap (whoo-hoo!).

[Deleted User]

Yeah, quite savvy with regards to the lending criteria and incentives. A lot will just deduct from the LTV and some will allow up to 5% of purchase price as incentives. For example, if you had a 90% deposit and the builder offered to add 5%, that would meet the criteria (as well as fulfilling most lenders' 85% LTV cap on new builds). If anyone wants to chip in on this feel free!


As you rightly pointed out there, sometimes it's worth negotiating the 'right' incentive. The monetary value of stamp duty paid of deposit contributions is often much higher than the worth of flooring and upgrades that can often be bought after moving in at a fraction of the cost, or over time or using short term alternative finance. You only get one shot at getting a deposit together