To make an offer on a new build?

[Gemm83]

A new development of Barratts near me has 4 properties left to sell, 2 of them being 3 beds.

They are ridiculously over priced at £414,950 (South East), so was going to make an offer of £360,000. Is this reasonable or am I completely taking the piss??!

I know I can make an offer and I know they can only say no, but has anyone had any recent experience with this?

If people have and know I'm being unreasonable please tell me before I go and make a tit out of myself!!

@OrangeCinnamon

God, I hate Chichester. Get more for your money that way though....I used to spend a lot of time in Bognor for my work, but it never appealed!! 🤔😂

I'm desperate to get back to where we used to rent, as eldest goes to school there. If we cant get to our budget though we will have no choice but to move her and I desperately don't want to do that 😢

I know people who have made offers on new build been accepted. Friends made a really cheeky offer on the last one on a nearby development and got it accepted.

Also they will definitely pay your stamp duty because for some reason they don't have to pay it, they fill in a form and exempt themselves.

Certain parts of Bognor are unappealing but it is just like any town really plus the seaside ! Barnham is supposed to be nice too ...more villagey feel. House prices are a bit ridiculous in the South East. We were lucky with one child , perfect rental which was v cheap for many years. Horley and Three Bridges supposed to have good links.

We did this in 2013. The house was the last of its type on the estate and we went to look although weren't really that interested.

They hounded us for 2 weeks, ringing to see what we thought and did we want them to get us a mortgage quote etc. in the end I told them I'd make them an offer on it. They wanted £225k (I'm up North), I offered £179k thinking they'd laugh at me. A week later they rang back to say they'd accept .

So, worth a try I reckon!

I'm a sales advisor selling new build houses.
I would be very surprised if they would accept an offer like that. But you can ask.
The comment above isn't true re stamp duty. The stamp duty has to be paid by your solicitor on behalf of the buyer so there is no magic form!!
And to counter another comment, I can assure (well in our case) that the recommended solicitors without a doubt act in the clients best interest. Of course they want to keep the builder happy but never at the risk of the client. It just generally means it's quicker as they know the site, have already realised a million enquiries on the site and there fore are not looking at it blind when your file gets opened.
I would imagine that the "deal" could be a good one.... especially in your position.

Like wise see what the competitor is offering down the road.
Though my argument when presented with " so and so are offering me XYZ on a site down the road"
"Maybe you should go and reserve that house then" politely of course
Because the point is you don't want that house. You have fallen in love with their house.

We offered 325k on a new build - was priced at 425k then dropped to 400k the dropped to 375k then 350k, we offered 325k as it was the last one on the development they accepted, chucked in stamp duty, legal fees (didn’t used), and flooring. Practically bit our hand off.

Unfortunately our sale fell through - which was really lucky for us as the house next door subsided about 9 weeks after.

Friend of mine looked online to see when a developers End of Quarter was and put in an offer 25% under their asking price and achieved it, presumably because the developers wanted it off their books asap.

Ooh is that true @wonderstuff? We got told they definitely couldn’t do anything for the stamp duty!

I would have to politely disagree that the solicitors act in way that is not to the detriment to the client based on my experience of some of the clauses they wanted to put into our contract. It absolutely would have been to our detriment, as we would have been liable for all sorts of stuff! Although of course it does speed up the process a little as, as you say they are familiar with the site. But any decent conveyancer would be able to get up to speed very quickly.

It maybe that they can only sort it on a % of the development, but certainly when we bought they made a big thing of paying our stamp duty, but during the exchange it became clear that they were in fact exempting the house from liability. The scheme allows housebuilders to not pay tax if they need to offer a discount to sell. We did pay list price, but it was a part exchange in an area where the 3 bed we were selling was one of many similar and the 4 bed we bought was really the only one on the market.

Ah that might be on the part exchange then, as they can exempt themselves from stamp duty on the house they part exchange I believe? Whoever buys that property from the builders has to pay it though.

It was annoying at the time, as we’d seen that particular developer offer paying stamp duty on another of their sites. I wondered whether they were trying to get as much out of us as possible by not forking out for our stamp duty as well.

Maybe that was it. We definitely didn't pay stamp duty, but did pay list, it was the show home and penultimate on the development. We felt at the time we'd paid a lot, but been in 6 months and not seen a comparable house on the market yet.

OP, have your googled fleecehold by any chance?

They have a healthy margin so they absolutely do accept offers, as do car salesmen do. They have to sell houses in order to start on the next batch so usually end of phases or financial years, bargains are to be found.

Developers can usually take a7% drop on asking price

Ring the main office and find out when their half year or year end is, they always have targets to hit and will often allow a property to sell at a loss to hit their targets. This works best with the big developers ie Barratts persimmon Taylor wimpey beltways etc

When we bought our new build 4 years ago asking price was 275,000 and we offered 245,000 they said no but did agree to 251,000
You have nothing to loose by trying

We didn’t get a reduction in price but we did get a reduced fee for letting them sell our old house, flooring and lighting included and turf. All of which they said we couldn’t have at the start and we haggled for.

Similarly my sister got an upgraded kitchen and flooring because she pushed for it.

If you do start the process it’s worth being a bit pushy about extras.

We did just that. We offered 10k less than asked (at the time 225k instead of 235k). The women in the show home pretty much scoffed at us and said we can try but they would likely turn us down. They didn't.

Something to bare in mind though, you get far more house in older properties, ours is now older and in a sought after location. However we have outgrown it and feel the rooms are tiny (bought off plan). We are also tied into paying a management fee to a company who do sweet FA twice a year which is seemingly the norm for these sights. We have tried to sell but not much interest. I think once the shine of a new build wares off they do decrease a bit. Sorry I doubt that's what you want to hear, but I wonder if anyone else feels like this about their new build?