Do people negotiate the price of new build properties?

[rezolootion]

DS1 is looking for a flat as a first time buyer and I'm helping him. One of the properties he would like to view is a show home for a new build development. I have no experience of this type of property. Do people negotiate on the list price like they would for other property purchases? What else do I need to be wary of?

Yes, and on what’s included and they’ll push hard to use their brokers and legal team etc. They may or may not accept an offer, he needs to be strong about it. Also really look into the charges on the property, leasehold and estate charges if applicable.

No I didn't. I bought off plan. It was a Shared Ownership scheme so am not sure about open market 100% ownership.

Definitely. If you can look at some from different builders they will compete with each other.

Yes people do

often it easier to get say a kitchen upgrade or your choice of flooring included rather than something off the list price

it often depend on how well things are selling

I have a new build and it’s rare in my experience that the developers will move on the price. You can, however, ask for other things - 5% deposit contribution, cash back, Stamp Duty paid, free optional extras etc. which can add up to a significant amount

He can try, they need to sell, but he doesn't have to buy from them.
We didn't get a change to the price, but we did get extras included with the house, and they paid the stamp duty and solicitors fees. Another developer in the same estate (literally the next street) wouldn't budge on anything; it was their loss.
It just depends on how much demand the developer believes there is for the properties they're selling, and how fast they want to shift them.

They may well be more willing to negotiate as it’s the show home and presumably the last / one of the last properties to be sold: they mostly won’t before that, as it sets a lower precedent for other buyers, affects mortgage valuations, and can signal a struggling project, which aren’t so much of a concern once everything else in the development has been sold.

They may do a deal on legal fees and SDLT. He can also negotiate for upgrades - though may be pleasantly surprised to find that the show home already has many of the premium kitchen appliance, flooring etc options already installed.

Absolutely! I've bought 3, got money off all of them. The most substantial discount I got was for my current home where I agreed to complete before their financial year end...which gave me just 6 weeks to get the whole thing done! It nearly killed me (and I pretty much landed up doing the solicitor's job for him) but I succeeded - and in return got around 15% off, including stamp duty being paid, £10k worth of carpets and a load of money off the price.

Absolutely. We got a brilliant deal on our new build.