New housing development, sought after area

hunte78

Hello. I appreciate before responses that this is all going to depend on area and demand within area. A new housing development will open in our local area (Scotland) - first new houses in sought after area for 30 years, good local amenities and commuter area for city and rail links. We are finally in a position to buy (possibly, depending on prices which will be announced soon), and will seriously consider if in price range.

I am looking for experiences of people buying from new developments. I remember 15 years ago when people were camping out for days prior to sales office opening just to have a chance of buying, have people seem this happen in recent times? There will only be around 40 houses in the development and I think it will be popular. We don't want to miss our chance.

Thanks.

P.s I know this might be a 'how long is a piece of string' question.

Sibz

The camping out thing seems quite extreme... I was recently looking at new build developments and not once saw any signs of this.

Do you know who the developer/builder is going to be? Do they have signs up? Registering your interest with them should get you contacted early in the sales stage I'd imagine.

hunte78

Hi and thanks for the response. Your right, it is extreme and the market might not call for such drastic action currently. My biggest worry is the sought after area and the fact it is the first new builds in years. Maybe I am wrong and people aren't that interested.

I am signed up for info and received an email last night confirming the sales office will open soon and a brochure/price guide will be released before this date. Not seen signs and no show home available currently, I imagine we would be buying off plan. I suppose it all depends on the number of people who have signed up for newsletter.

Sanne

A colleague of mine has recently bought a new build (completion this summer - SE England, third phase) and after registering their interest they told they’d get a call when the next four houses are released and then it would be whoever gets to the sales office first will get to choose etc.
They made out that there was a lot of interest so he dropped everything that day and rushed over that day.

davidmcn

hunte78 wrote: »

I remember 15 years ago when people were camping out for days prior to sales office opening just to have a chance of buying, have people seem this happen in recent times?

Nope, never heard of it since the noughties, when people were paying students to keep their places in the queue.

hunte78

Thanks for the further replies. Hoping I'm just misjudging the interest, will just need to wait and see.

Silvertabby

Do you have HTB ( help to buy ) in Scotland? If so, this could push up interest as first time buyers could use the scheme instead of having to find a big deposit.

I do think that this scheme has pushed up (new build) house prices, though.

applebite

Hi

I was in the same position. Information was released about a small development in scotland of about 40 homes of which only a handful were being released for the first phase. I couldn't make it down due to work but phoned bang on 9am when they opened and had missed out. Apparently there was a queue from first thing in the morning, I don't think it was mega early but they were there before the first staff member turned up.

hunte78

We do have help to buy I think. We're using a HTB ISA. We plan to go first thing but it is close to where we rent so I might keep an eye on area on the days leading up to sales office opening.

MysteryMe

If you really want to buy then just get there early. Don't worry about looking stupid.

You could always do a drive past around midnight to see if a queue is forming and again at around 5am. Losing a few hours sleep will be worth it

hunte78

Thanks MysteryMe that's exactly what I was thinking of doing.