New builds

[cookielove]

Hello all,

My mum is selling her house and looking to move to a new build. What is the etiquette of buying a new build can she offer below asking price? Or does it have to be what they are asking?

Thank you 😊

You can ask, or ask for extras to be thrown in (upgraded kitchen, flooring etc).
That said I'd never buy another new build again, our builder (very large local builder with supposedly a 5 star rating) are currently in our house 5 years after we bought it for a MONTH to try and fix everything that's wrong with it.

In my experience you can offer under asking price, but they rarely accept. What they may offer instead is to add extras like turf, carpets or legal fees. Unless it's a haed to shift plot for some reason.

Depends where in the build stage they are. You are more likely to get extras if the kitchen etc has already been ordered and is in-build with the house unsold.
I know the local new build development near us is offering stamp duty paid on some units.

Agree 100%

More likely to haggle over the extras but pay full price. Things like carpets, turf, levels of kitchen fitted, small changes to be made, decoration changes etc.

Unless she buys the show home there are usually a fair few extra costs too - you buy the house but need to fit many fittings from curtain rails to phone lines and loo roll holders.

Depends what level of finish the builder offers too. Ours includes flooring, carpets, integrated white goods. We got stamp duty paid instead.

You could attempt a negotiation for upgrades, depending on how finished the house is and what stage the development is.

My parents offered £50k under asking and it was accepted, was an expensive house though so this wasn’t a big %. They also asked for a wall to be knocked down and that was done too. I live in a new build, local developer, high end and it’s amazing, but there were only 3 houses built and the finish is outstanding

We bought from one of the medium sized builders last year (before things started to slow down).
Top quality and a beautiful house plus we ordered off-plan so had plenty of time (12-months) to order all the options we wanted.
No negotiation on the price but after we had reserved they threw quite a few options at us (not really an incentive as we would have paid for them anyway so it was nice).

Fast forward and they now have houses available that are nearing completion (unheard of last year) so while you would be restricted on options you should get some extras thrown in.
A few months ago (when rates started to increase) they did drop the price slightly on a couple of them (£20k on not so attractive plots) but would they drop them again?

@ISeeTheLight just jumping onto this thread because I was wondering if you were referring to Story Homes? I've always been very wary of new builds but Story Homes are apparently 5 stars and have a good local reputation, so I was thinking about it. But ideally would prefer to hear from people who have experience of what they're like (especially the aftersales approach to snags and problems etc).

We live in an ex show home and negotiated over price and what they left in it. Ended up with 5k off, all the light fittings and curtains/blinds, stamp duty paid and a contribution to legal fees...worth asking!

@neverenoughplants no it wasn't Story Homes.