To put in a low offer on a Newbuild?

[terazzoChips]

Im not sure on the etiquette and don’t want to look silly. I’m living with family at the moment so don’t need to sell a property and am looking at a Newbuild estate nearby. It’s only got about 6 plots left but I can see that for the same style houses the price is about 20% higher than asking prices from 2 years ago.

Would I be unreasonable to make an offer at a lower price? They are already offering incentives such as stamp duty paid and upgraded kitchens etc.

I think if you’re going in with facts and figures, asking politely and confidently, you won’t look naive. When house prices are going down, they are ignoring that fact. Albeit building costs are rising, so they will probably counter with that. But if you don’t ask, you don’t get!

Hi @terazzoChips
Yes, i would put in a lower offer hun. Hope they accept!

I think they’ll say no but you can try.

Good luck but they’ll say no. New builds are artificially inflated (particularly the ones backed by help to buy etc) but usually the price is the price. It’s silly I know, but the building companies can wait, whereas people in chains usually can’t.

I would add it’s best not to buy new build because of the inflated price - they tend to be the only properties that lose value.

I once had a friend who worked in sales for a big house builder. She said that you should always put in cheeky offers end Feb / start of March when the sales year was drawing to a close as they have targets to meet and a closed sale for a lower price was better than none at all. Good luck!

They give things like upgraded fixtures and fittings etc, they don’t ever accept lower offers unfortunately

If they’re keen to get the site finished they might accept a reasonable offer. Doesn’t sound much now but we managed to get £6000 off a £68000 house in 1993 in the same circs

Re the post above - definitely correct but you should look at the year end of the listed company (assuming it’s a large one) as they all differ. Expect discounts in the month before half year and the month before full year.

We offered 15k lower on a new build 20 yrs ago & it was accepted. 375 down to 360. Good luck.
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I worked for new home builders. A client with no property to sell and a mortgage agreed in principle who came in at the end of the build would always be listened to.

You would have to come up with proof of deposit and mortgage agreement paperwork before they will consider you though.

Typically developers will inflate house prices by up to 10% to allow for incentives. The level that they will accept depends on strength of market. During last couple of years incentives were much lower but they are starting to move out again.

Incentives may include upgrades, stamp duty paid, carpets etc.

When we bought our new build house we preferred to see cash discount rather than anything else and negotiated 5% off, which was around £15,000.

I think they might well accept an offer, if it’s the end of the build. They’ll be keen to get the last few houses sold. Its probably the end of Q3 too.