Reserved New Build - Identical House Much Cheaper

MrsKH92

We reserved ours at either the very end of October or the start of November - cant quite remember. So it was about 2 months ago.

Not sure if I am right or wrong for feeling it's now overpriced really.

Doozergirl

MrsKH92 wrote: »

We reserved ours at either the very end of October or the start of November - cant quite remember. So it was about 2 months ago.

Not sure if I am right or wrong for feeling it's now overpriced really.

It's the same house.

If course it's overpriced. They'll feed you any line they can to pretend one is more expensive than the other. It isn't.

You think in 2-3 years time, if yours was back up for sale at the same time as the other house that anyone would pay £15k more for yours?

It's just sales BS. Shared ownership nearby, special discounts available only on one plot at one time. Don't listen to it.

There market has been so quiet for the last few months, they've dropped the price because they needed to.

franklee

The other house was advertised at £299,950 but you do not know what it sold for. It could have gone for less and/or the buyer could have discounts like stamp duty and legal fees which for you totalled £2,247 which would make their deal even better.

OTOH they may not be using HTB, or need a mortgage etc. so that may make them more attractive to the developer. The developer may have their own dates to meet, like company year end and perhaps the other buyer can make that and you cannot.

So it's more than the headline price that matters.

I guess a question for you is if you pull out what else can you buy instead?

Is there another phase to the build or other equally good houses for the lower price?

Hectors_House

If you go ahead and buy the property you have reserved you can effectively wipe that difference in price off the value of your house.

Whether you sell it in two years or twenty-two the difference in price will get flagged up to anyone who shows an interest in buying yours.

It will, at the least become a bargaining point your buyer might use to get you to lower your asking price.

There are some thoughts that property will keep increasing in value and this will wipe out the difference but I have to ask myself how far property prices have left to rise until no one can afford to buy who has to work for a living.

RelievedSheff

This happens with new housing developments. We bought our house for £210k but two identical properties sold for £235k and £230k about three months before we bought ours.

Properties are reduced to sell them the closer to completion they get. Ours was complete when we reserved it the earlier two were secured off plan.

whatdoyouthink...

MrsKH92 wrote: »

It was listed cheaper because the buyers had to cancel right before completion at the last minute.

This could be the reason it's cheaper. If the original buyer had to pull out right before completion the house would have been ready to move into, so I assume the buyers chosen kitchen, carpet, flooring, tiles and whatever other choices the developer offers had been installed?

Before I bought my new build we looked at a different new build house on the development where the buyer pulled out just before completion and we didn't like their choice of kitchen, carpets or tiling so didn't go for it. Maybe this is their reason for the lower price...

LittleMrsThrifty

I bought a new build years ago and later found out that a bigger house on a nicer plot had been sold for the same price. Of course this was no fault of the developer, we agreed a price we were happy with at the time, but it annoyed me a lot.

If you're genuinely prepared to walk away now (and it sounds like you are) then tell them you're reducing your offer to £299,950; you can proceed quickly to exchange on this basis, but you're not prepared to pay more. And ask for a response by the end of the day so you can start looking elsewhere over the weekend if they say no.

RelievedSheff

LittleMrsThrifty wrote: »

I bought a new build years ago and later found out that a bigger house on a nicer plot had been sold for the same price. Of course this was no fault of the developer, we agreed a price we were happy with at the time, but it annoyed me a lot.

If you're genuinely prepared to walk away now (and it sounds like you are) then tell them you're reducing your offer to £299,950; you can proceed quickly to exchange on this basis, but you're not prepared to pay more. And ask for a response by the end of the day so you can start looking elsewhere over the weekend if they say no.

I can tell you what the developers response will be!!

SmashedAvacado

The developer will respond based on the price it believes it can now get for the property. If in re-marketing the property, it would only get the lower price, then they are likely to want to keep you as a buyer for less money. If they think someone else will buy for the price you have currently offered then they will turn you down.

Be bold, assume that the other buyer got the benefits that you got and start from there. They won't want to lose you as a buyer if there is a deal to be done. In terms of mortgage offers etc, if you get the price reduced, then you are likely to need a new mortgage offer which could take some time to come through - so factor that in mind in terms of any timing you agree about exchanging.

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

IF (and only if) you are willing to walk away, be brave and reduce your offer to 300k. The identical house might have sold for the asking price of 300k or even less than that, you won't know until it comes on the Land Registry.