New builds - negotiating price down

skm1981

Just wondering if anyone has been able to negotiate down the price of new builds and by how much?  I am currently in the process of selling my house and have seen a beautiful house which is £30k more than I'd really like to spend (asking price £330k).  Is it more challenging to negotiate down a property price on a new build?  I've only ever bought one house before and that was 15 years ago, plus I bought it off my grandad so didn't need to negotiate the price.  I mean I think I'm probably expecting a lot to get £30k knocked off the asking price, but we could go up to £315k.  

I reckon I'd be a terrible negotiator on price, but luckily the estate agent that we're using has a negotiating service that they include as part of their service, so hopefully they could work some magic, but I'm just curious to know how much you can knock them down by.  I know it will depend on development, demand, location, etc., but what have your experiences been?  The property I'm looking at is in Seaton in Devon.

steve866

A lot of developers had incentives such as paying stamp duty (no longer applicable) so £315k doesn’t sound impossible. What is a negotiating service? I would say just make an offer for £300k and see what they say.

bucksbloke

It depends on the site and how busy it is. I don't think you are going to get 10% off the price of a new build. 
Developers would prefer to keep the price high and include incentives, legal fees, stamp duty, flooring, appliances etc. 

Vestraun

Getting the list price down will be difficult but you should try to push for deposit contribution and reasonably get 5% I imagine. 

gwilson30019

We recently tried to negotiate the price of a new build in Leeds and managed to get no incentives other than carpets and turf. We initially went in for 10% off hoping they would meet us in the middle. But they were not willing to move at all. Unfortunately the house is now reserved....as are 5 out of the 6 that were remaining. The current market is really fast and developers know this....they are therefore (in my recent experience) not open to negotiation. I do think however this will vary from estate to estate. Best of luck with it and keep us posted. Always remember....if you don’t ask you don’t get!

skm1981

The negotiating service is where the estate agent that's selling my house will try and get the price of the house I want to buy  down for me.

Looking on rightmove, it says it was first listed in April 2018. So perhaps that will give me some negotiating room.

I think we'll just put an offer in, go up to £315k max and if they don't accept, we'll walk away.

Crashy_Time

skm1981 said:

The negotiating service is where the estate agent that's selling my house will try and get the price of the house I want to buy  down for me.

Looking on rightmove, it says it was first listed in April 2018. So perhaps that will give me some negotiating room.

I think we'll just put an offer in, go up to £315k max and if they don't accept, we'll walk away.

You would think so, but developers live or die on people believing they are paying "normal" prices, accepting too much reality and allowing for price reductions kind of spoils the magic.