Where to Find Off Plan House Purchase

ariaane

AdrianC said:

ariaane said:

Slithery said:

ariaane said:

I haven't ruled out completely purchasing an old home but I know I can get more bang for my buck from an offplan property 

Where did you get that idea from? New-build properties usually command a higher price than the equivalent second-hand property.

When bought early in development I've known people who have had a lot shaved off the price when bought complete. 

That's simply because those particular properties on those particular developments were not selling as well as hoped-for at that particular time...

There is always a new-build premium. A new-build house, size-for-size, will always be more expensive than a "used" one in the same area. It will almost always have more onerous conditions around rentcharges and covenants.

Ok, this explains it. Considering that furlough ends early next year which will increase the current high unemployment, coupled with a likely rise in cost of imported goods when Brexit passes (even with a deal), add on house prices dropping even further, I hypothesise that a lot of new build homes will go unsold and developers will be desperate to sell off properties at a larger than normal reduction. Do you not think so?

ariaane

70Jenny2184 said:

If you go on your local authority website they will have a page where you can search planning permission.  Search for major and medium sized residential developments and you will see all the plans submitted for upcoming developments well in advance of any building work starting.  You'll be able to see loads of info including a site plan, traffic reports, house types - I'm hoping to buy next year too and its become somewhat of a 'hobby' for me now. 

That is a very helpful tip, as you've pointed out the bargains may be there for only very early purchases before any groundwork has been put down / developers struggling to offload property

ariaane

OldMusicGuy said:

If you buy a new build from any mainstream developer, you will be paying annual service charges even on freehold properties to maintain the common areas. And you will need to be aware that the third party management companies that manage these areas (in most cases) are pretty much universally awful and will try to increase the charges so they can make more money each year. Unless the development has a resident-owned management company (which is rare), you will not be able to replace the management company or take over running the common areas. So you will be at their mercy.

If you don't like the sound of this, you cannot buy a new build from a mainstream developer. Your only chance will be finding a small, local builder that may be putting up a small number of new properties where they will not bother with this type of arrangement. You will need to decide the area you want to live and then research small developers in that area and find out what they have coming to market. We did this and reserved off-plan with a small local builder who was putting up 3 houses (with no annual maintenance charges). However, dealing with small local builders can have its own challenges, which is what we found. We pulled out after many delays and ended up buying a new build from a midsize developer. This development has service charges but at least we have a residents management company, so we decide what gets charged.   

Very helpful tip. 
So, so far I have find development plans on local authority websites (from another poster) and restrict myself to a smaller medium builder who are less likely to charge service charges. 

Can I ask if these small builders manage to get Local Authorities to maintain roads etc or is it the case that due to the developments being so small in number Local Authorities have some funding to carry out the standard duties in these small developments that they already carry out for long standing houses?...