fitzscoob

Hi all, well know we have some intelligent people on here (some being the operative word )

I am going to view a new build apartment / flat whatever you want to call it this weekend.

It would be the first property for me and the gf.

At the moment we had not planned on buying one just yet, we wanted to save for another 6 months and have about £16k to put down as a deposit, however......

The new build price for the 2 bed is 175k, the incentives being offered are this, 5% deposit paid leaving us to find 166k mortgage, less the 10k I have ready as a deposit now. They are also paying all legal fees and stamp duty. It will be fully carpeted and have all kitchen appliances, oven, fridge, washing machine, dishwasher etc.

Now as these properties are nearly finished there are not many more left on the market so I would need to be quick here to pick it up.

My question is this, would I be better off if I waited and saved up to 16k and looked for an established property of the same value ish later on in the year?

Seeing as if I did wait, I would then have to pay all legal fees, stamp duty etc, and then when we moved into the place, they may not even have carpets let alone the fully fitted kitchen etc.

This is all going to be academic if we do not even like the place, but if we do like the flat - does anyone have any reserves about buying a new build property?

Does the fact that housing association have plots cause any worries? (not like I can change this, all new builds have to allocate a certain amount now).

Any input would be appreciated.

Brendan Hughes

Sounds good to me.

Raks

all new builds actually take a little depreciation before they reach their actual 'real' price.

i would also heavily barter on the options list they have for new builds - eg. plusher carpets, fittings etc. make sure you pay for as little of these as possible.

remember, they HAVE to sell these - you don't HAVE to buy one.

julian N/W wrx my93

you could buy a house where i live for £16K....................

could buy my steet for £175k



Shameless has nothing on where i live!

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

I'd have thought the market would be very quiet for the developer at the moment, (post Xmas blues & general slowdown).
They'd wet themselves if you paid what they're marketing it at, take off a chunk & see how loud they scream !

D

fitzscoob

So you can actaully haggle on the purchase price of a new build then?

Actually I have answered my own question, if the sales agent is working on commission then there is always room to move on the purchase price. I will see what I can do.

Thanks for the input so far, anything else anyone wants to add?

OllyK

FWIW many companies are more prepared to throw in freebies or upgrade specs than they are to cut the price. It may be worth taking that approach.

SJ_Skyline

Used to live in a new-ish build flat, I had "issues" with the plasterboard and timber walls being no good for hanging things from and the double glazing had timber frames that needed treating every 2 years.... Along with the penny pinching gits that ran management company I was glad we moved out to an "old-build" (read bricks and mortar!) house.

scoob_babe

By the sounds of it, you are saving more with the extras being thrown in as opposed to saving the additional £6k. Stamp duty on that will be £1750. The 5% deposit has saved you another £8750, legal feees (can't remember what it was!) and then you have approx £1k worth of appliances mentioned there without any flooring.
If you like the place and its in a decent area then I would go for it. There's never a good time to buy a house...you can think what if forever.
Do you know of any other developments that you like the look of that will be close to completion in 6months time with similar extras? If not, do you want to spend any longer than you have to in your current place?
Yes, new builds tend to be quite badly sound-proofed and you'll prob have uPVC windows as opposed to our timber ones (much better!)...but it sounds like you'll save more and be fully and newly furnished instead of buying 2nd hand or living off takeaways. Try and beat the price down anyway, you won't have anything to lose!
Good luck!!

P1Fanatic

At the end of the day they arent dropping these things off the price or giving them for free - they will just add a % on top of the price they want so you end up paying for it anyway i.e. they want £160k for house, they chuck all the freebies in etc and charge £170k.

The good thing is that for many people stumping up the deposit and other fees at the start is the hard thing. This way you dont have to do that.

It always pays to haggle - I went to one place with the mrs and the guy knocked off £10k without me even asking.

The guy who bought the semi attached to us paid £8k less than the people who we bought ours off and he got more included (both bought as new builds).

Simon.

salsa-king

I've just put Depoist down on a NEW bulid ONE bed Flat in Nottm... £95k!!!

www.wynbrookhomes.co.uk
Lowater Place


If there are hosing association house arround you... COUNCIL HOUSE... comes to mind.. with single mothers etc etc... living next door... you have a mortgage of £150k+.. they live there for ££ a week!!! make you sick?? does me.

Look for a smaller developement where Housing Association won't be there! IMHO

Email mail me for mail chat info@neoquip.com
I will run through a few things with you

Phil

MattN

Although it's been pointed out that you are getting 5% paid etc. EVERYBODY is being offered that, what will they do for YOU, there and then. That's the question.

I was looking at new build flats recently and what put me off was the massive maintenance bills and ground rent. Up to £1500 a year. That's a lot to pay someone to clean the stairs and cut the grass. How much is it on the places you've looked at? It's worth noting they sometimes offer to pay this for the first 2 years or so. Which I always find a bit supsect,

1. Are they inflating the maintenance charge to make it sounda sweeter deal or
2. Poorly built so need masses of fixes doing!!!!

I have a house now but my lifestyle suggests a flat would be better but, house are better VFM.

salsa-king

£400 a yr maintainance on the Lowater Place... but it should be cheap as not much to do.. don't forget that will include Buildin Insurance!!!

I've other SMALLER flats that are over £800 a year.. and a lot of that is spent just on general maianatainace of the OLD building!!!

Phil

Brit_in_Japan

Absolutely. It is increasingly a buyers market right now. A friend of mine has just moved up the ladder (December), from a one bed flat to a 3 bed town house. Both were new build, same developer.

He liked the look of the town house, but reckoned it was about 30k more than he wanted to pay. After stone-walling them about what he could afford, they eventually took his house off him for "top book" and offered a 25k discount on the town house. This was a sub 200k town house so a considerable discount.

If you don't ask you don't get. It's worth reading up on negotiation skills or something, could be the easiest 5 or 10k you ever save!!!

fitzscoob

Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it.

This could all be academic if we view the property and dislike it.

I shall keep you informed as and when I know any more.

Cheers

Mark

fitzscoob

viewed the property this weekend and to say I am dissapointed is probably an understatement.

The woman we dealt with was nice, no problems there, the flats though where do I begin....


The interior of the stairwells reminded me of childhood holidays in naff chalets and a cross between an nhs hospital painted in shades of pastel pink

Opened door no 1 and here we have a lovely flat................no light bulbs in the sockets, so the girlfriend had to walk to the end of the hall and open another door so we could look at the rooms. Room layout appeared to have been done by a 5 year old using crayons, there was no way in these seemingly big apartments that you would have got a setee and a dining table in

They did not even have carpets down, plastic tiles that your feet stuck to.

First impressions count, and the impression I got was that the developer build these using the cheapest nastiest componants and marked the price up as high as they could. They had those nasty storage heaters and not central heating

Car parking was going to be a joke, 1 space for each flat (2 bed flats), un allocated, so every night was going to be a nightmare parking there.

I actually left the sales meeting feeling insulted that the sales agent would expect me to pay that much for something of that quality.

As far as I am now concerned, we are going to save our money and start looking properly in 6 - 8 months.

ADP

If its any help Ive rented 4 new build appartments / houses - the newer they are the crapper they seemed to get. The first one I rented I was really quite happy with it(built 1998ish) it was pretty solid. The next 2 were built 2002/03 the quality was significantly down, room sizes smaller, walls thinner etc etc................I dont own, but when I do come to buy Ill be looking for a non new build, either Victorian or flat that is more sturdy.