Halifax newbuild incentive limit?

Ozzy89

Hi,

Does anyone know the incentive limit accepted by Halifax?

I have been offered £6k incentive by Taylor Wimpey such as carpets, tilings, upgraded kitchen etc. I obviously need more upgrades and price reduction. Before I negotiate with TW, I need to ensure I don't go above the incentive limit. I'm a first-time buyer using the HTB scheme.

Regards

kingstreet

It depends on the level of deposit you put down on HTB.

If your deposit is 5% only, your newbuild cash incentives are limited to 1% of the purchase price.

There is no limit on non-cash incentives.

Ozzy89

kingstreet wrote: »

It depends on the level of deposit you put down on HTB.

If your deposit is 5% only, your newbuild cash incentives are limited to 1% of the purchase price.

There is no limit on non-cash incentives.

Thank you for a reply.

I will be putting down a 10% deposit.

I will not be accepting any cash incentives such as legal fee or stamp duty. I'm under the impression any optional upgrade such as carpet and kitchen etc is a non-cash incentive. I have heard property price being marked down during valuation if non-cash incentives are accepted.

kingstreet

Ozzy89 wrote: »

I have heard property price being marked down during valuation if non-cash incentives are accepted.

I have heard of non-cash incentives being ignored completely.

conavar1903

Just had this explained to us by the Halifax.
Your cash incentives can't take the value of your deposit to less than 5%.
As an example if you were buying a house for £100k and you were putting £5k down you wouldn't be able to take advantage of any cash incentives.
If you were putting £10k down you could accept £5k incentive.
Hope that makes sense?
Also hope I understood correctly.

Thrugelmir

Ozzy89 wrote: »

I have heard property price being marked down during valuation if non-cash incentives are accepted.

Surveyor values the property not the quality of the fixtures and fittings. Next purchaser might not like the colour scheme and rip them all out. Hence no material value.

Nicola83

It depends what kind of cash incentives the developers are offering. If they offer so much towards your deposit then that has to be on top of your 5% deposit, but if it's towards legal fees etc i don't think it makes much difference.
We got carpet and flooring throughout, a washer/dryer and £1300 towards legal fees which totalled £4500 altogether, and we're doing help to buy with a 5% deposit and it's not affected us.

kingstreet

You HAVE to put down the minimum 5% deposit from your own resources to qualify for HTB.

Under HTB, Halifax will allow the mortgage and CASH incentives to equal no more than 95% of the 80% share.

In practical terms, this means that CASH incentives of no more than 1% of the purchase price are acceptable on HTB cases with only 5% deposit as I said earlier...

... and you would have to put down at least 9% deposit to be able to take advantage of the full 5% cash incentives permitted normally.

kingstreet

Nicola83 wrote: »

We got carpet and flooring throughout, a washer/dryer and £1300 towards legal fees which totalled £4500 altogether, and we're doing help to buy with a 5% deposit and it's not affected us.

Only £1,300 is a cash incentive, so your purchase price is more than £130,000 so the cash incentive is within 1%.

Ozzy89

I have managed to get a non-cash incentive in terms of expensive upgrades (upgrade kitchen, titles, carpets, etc) totalling £12k from Taylor Wimpey. I'm using the HTB scheme and putting down a 10% deposit. I simply need a confirmation that non-incentives will not cause any issues during the mortgage process.

kingstreet

From whom?

Your broker?

The lender?

Your area HTB Agent?

Unidentifiable pixels on a screen where when they said "There is no limit on non-cash incentives" and you replied "I have heard property price being marked down during valuation if non-cash incentives are accepted?