New Build and Waiting for it to be Built....

lis9388

Me and my Partner have just put our 3bedroom house on the market to purchase a new build – we have our eye on a development in our desired location, and we know they have houses being released in the next 4-6 weeks that match our criteria and price range.
We can’t reserve one of these until our house is sold STC and in a completed chain.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that we can sell our house in the next six weeks, ideally we would like to move out asap as we don’t want to loose a buyer in such a slow market, But we know these houses won’t be available to move into till August –September time and we don’t expect out buyer to wait that long especially if their a FTB, or even an investor without a chain.
We can move in with family and put our furniture into storage if it came to waiting say 4 – 6 weeks, but if where lucky enough to sell the house in the next month, then it may be a case of moving out in May/June - not a problem but we would ideally want to Rent somewhere.
As it’s just me and my partner I would happily stay anywhere aslong as it’s clean and has a comfortable bed, (i.e. a caravan) but due to all the solicitors paperwork etc. and having to reapply for a mortgage we would need a more permanent address. I know most Landlords only let their properties out for a minimum of 6months! I just wanted advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation and has lived somewhere temporary while waiting for a new build! Would like some alternative ideas and advice incase we need to move out for a couple of months rather than weeks.....

Slithery

Will the builder part-exchange?

Lucky_Duck_2

I lived onboard a boat for the period between completion of the sale on my old house and purchase of my current house. For that time I notified the bank, etc that my parent's address was the one for correspondence.

PasturesNew

In your situation, it might be a good thing to go down the part exchange route. Because:
1/ I don't think you'll sell yours fast enough and will end up not being able to get the plot you want
2/ it'll be more stress free as you'll move from one to the other
3/ no need to put stuff into storage and pay rental fees etc
4/ you'll make a saving on agent fees/VAT in any case.

I'd not normally recommend anybody go down the part-exchange route as it seems a bit of a shabby deal a lot of the time .... but, in your case, in this tricky market it's at least worth investigating... just to ensure you get the plot you want and don't end up in 6 months' time having the only plot left that nobody else wanted just because you couldn't sign anything sooner.

lis9388

We where thinking of going down the part-exchange route, but decided against it as we done some research and most people didn't speak highly of it, so we are now signed into a 12 week contract with the Estate agent, ( not sure how easy these are to get out of ) also the property we are buying is the same price as the one we are selling as we can't really afford to increase out mortgage. Part exchange with most house builders is not possible unless you are buying a house which is valued at 30% more than the one you are selling.
We have put our house on the market at realistic price, as we are aware its a slow market. We know even more plots will be released later on this year that be ready nearer Christmas so we are quite confident we will get the property we want otherwise we will consider going down the part-exchange route and looking at buying one of their larger properties.
We really just need advice on where we can stay in-between buying and selling as this is a concern if we are lucky enough to sell the house in the next month or so.

lis9388

We have now sold STC, and have now put a deposit down on a new build property which won't be ready till September, As the House builders want us to exchange and in the next four weeks we are look at moving our end of March. early April.
So we will be looking at short term let for about 4-5months. Anyone who has been in a similar position who wants to share their experience or advice I would appreciate it.

sugarplumfairymp

Hi

We are almost at the end of our new build buying experience but were in a similar situation to yourself in that we had a renting stop gap.

The development we were initially purchasing on meant we'd have to rent for 6 months but it fell through (long story). We've since found and are waiting for completion of the house we ended up buying elsewhere however the completion date has been moved back twice due to delays with utilities to the site, groundworks etc so will have stayed here 3 months more than we had wanted- by the time we've moved out it will have been a full 12 months. However this will work to our advantage as we can use the extra time (we will officially complete a week after then next months rent has been paid) to have our floors laid and wardrobes fitted and have a more relaxed moving in period.

We didn't however put a deposit down on the new place until we'd fully completed on the old property as both the developers we spoke to recommended waiting to put down the deposit after completion as there was no risk of the chain collapsing and us losing out financially. In fact one of them *insisted* we were out of a chain and wouldn't take a deposit.

Rental wise we had a bit of an overlap i.e starting the agreement a week or so before handing your keys in as you can move out, tidy any bits and bobs and go back without the stress of having the person sat outside waiting in a removals van- this worked really well for us! Our minimum rental agreement was for 6 months we are now on a rolling contract so just need to give the letting agency 1 months notice when we are ready to move out. I'd therefore take the 6 months unless the developer has absolutely guaranteed completion by a certain date.


Good luck with everything!