Advice on new build offers

fulhamsam87

I'm currently considering making an offer on a new build flat in Surrey. The listing price is £275k. I've been a viewed a couple of different plots there. The sales team have basically said straight off the bat that they can offer 10k discount off listing prices. So £265k is obviosuly the most i'd offer. The site I like is still being built but is nearing finish early next year. They already seem to offering all white goods, flooring etc with the flat. So my question is, should I offer as low as say £245k? 
When I've asked the question the sales team casually they have said no, they say they don't need to etc. But sense they are giving me a lot of b*******t most of the time to be honest. 
In an ideal world I'd keep it below 250k, as it will allow me to use my Help to Buy ISA bonus, which I think I won't get on properties over 250 outside of London. 

gwynlas

If you are serious then make the offer of £245K and explain why, they might make a counter offer but at least they would have a sale at a time when these things are slow.

JustinTime19

Offer what you are willing to pay when looking at comparable properties/developments in the area if possible. Just as much as you want to get the best deal, so do they! It doesn't sound like they are in a rush to sell as they are still developing the site.

On a separate note New builds can lose value after you purchase them - it's a bit of a lottery with lots of factors - The new builds in my area are attracting a 20% premium over a 10 year old similar sized property.

UnderOffer

Are any of the flats occupied by new buyers/owners? Can you look up the sold prices for these, that will give you an idea of how much they negotiated and agreed as a sale price, you can then see if any are as low as £245. 

Builders seem to prefer to keep the price static but throw lots of offers at it, i.e. flooring, upgraded white goods, (turf if buying a house), covering solicitor costs, contributions towards stamp duty etc., this then keeps the price at £265 but you gain ~£10k of extras. 

ThisIsWeird

fulhamsam87 said:

In an ideal world I'd keep it below 250k, as it will allow me to use my Help to Buy ISA bonus, which I think I won't get on properties over 250 outside of London. 

If that is the case, then surely that's your lever? (Unless they can come up with a cunning plan to get around it - so check first. Eg, "£250k for the flat, but £10k for all the fittings...")

We used it as the stamp duty threshold - or step - when we bought our current house - "£250k is the max we can go to as the increase in SD above this was unaffordable".

RelievedSheff

When we bought our new build they point blank refused to accept an offer of less than the asking price.

What they did instead was offer lots of incentives. We ended up with a very good part exchange price on our old property, £10k deposit contribution, stamp duty paid, legal fees paid, moving costs contribution and free flooring throughout. 

The total of the incentives was far more than the reduction we were looking for!

GixerKate

No harm in trying.  Sounds like the developer we had - all the white goods etc were included as standard, we haggled on the price same as any other house and knocked off a good amount from the asking price, got carpet chucked in too.  They started at the asking price, we started much lower and we haggled to in the middle.

Actually, later during the process we haggled the price down further as the sale was dependant on selling our existing house and our original buyer dropped out and a new buyer offered less so we fed that back to the developer who then accepted a lower price on the new build.