Where to find freehold new builds?

Rony

Hi all,

New to this forum, pleased to meet you all.

So I am looking to buy a house for the first time soon in London and I have been browsing Zoopla etc for the past few months.

I want to make use of the gov's Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme, where I can borrow up to 40% the value of the house, however these must be on qualifying new builds.

Whenever I search new homes on Zoopla/Right Move, I am shown leasehold flats/leasehold houses and very rarely I will be shown some houses that fit my criteria.

I want to buy a freehold house. Are there any useful aggregation sites where I can find prospective developing houses? Or is there a list of developers from which I can use to search their websites?

Thank you,

diggingdude

I can't imagine there are many new houses being built in London. Just Google the main developers in the area you want and ask them.

hazyjo

If you don't want flats (which will be leasehold), choose 'Houses' under 'Property Type' when searching on RM. Then choose New Home' under 'Must Haves'. You may have already got that far...


As far as the FH/LH bit goes, you could add a search-word, but I'd not bother. You may be able to agree a price to buy the FH on a new build LH house, so don't rule them out.

davidmcn

Also consider to what extent freehold actually advantages you, as newbuild developments are still going to come with a raft of covenants and service charges.

michelle230

I think these schemes are only for new builds.
Any "freehold" houses on an estate will be "fleecehold" (Google fleecehold). You will pay unregulated, uncapped, yearly rising estate service charges.
Do not fall for the sales patter that you can buy the "freehold" (fleecehold) after two years for a small amount. The ground under your home will have been sold on to oversee investment companies well before this. You won't even know as they are under no obligation to tell you.
Incidentally fleecehold owners have even less rights than leaseholders (and they have little enough protection).

RelievedSheff

davidmcn wrote: »

Also consider to what extent freehold actually advantages you, as newbuild developments are still going to come with a raft of covenants and service charges.

Not all of them. Our recent new build purchase is Freehold with no managment company/service charges.

michelle230

I think these schemes are only for new builds.
Any "freehold" houses on an estate will be "fleecehold" (Google fleecehold). You will pay unregulated, uncapped, yearly rising estate service charges.
Do not fall for the sales patter that you can buy the "freehold" (fleecehold) after two years for a small amount. The ground under your home will have been sold on to oversea investment companies well before this. You won't even know as they are under no obligation to tell you.
Incidentally fleecehold owners have even less rights than leaseholders (and they have little enough protection).

RelievedSheff

michelle230 wrote: »

I think these schemes are only for new builds.
Any "freehold" houses on an estate will be "fleecehold" (Google fleecehold). You will pay unregulated, uncapped, yearly rising estate service charges.
Do not fall for the sales patter that you can buy the "freehold" (fleecehold) after two years for a small amount. The ground under your home will have been sold on to oversee investment companies well before this. You won't even know as they are under no obligation to tell you.
Incidentally fleecehold owners have even less rights than leaseholders (and they have little enough protection).

Not all of them. See my post above. Ours purchased a few months ago isn't Fleecehold in the slightest.

michelle230

RelievedSheff,
That's very unusual!
Who is the housebuilder?
Are you in Scotland or England?
Thanks

RelievedSheff

England. David Wilson in Gateford, Nottinghamshire.

All of the green spaces and there are a lot of them are maintained by the local council.

michelle230

Thank you for the information. Very interesting and good to hear
So - no service charges whatsoever?
Are you leasehold or freehold?
Do you pay any ground rent?
Were you the first owner?
Sorry for so many questions! Genuinely interested as it's very unusual.