Making low offer on a new build - possible?

[FruitSaladIsNotPudding]

Hello,

We are currently house hunting. The market is pretty overpriced where we are but we were planning on putting in low offers and seeing what happens. We've had a couple of ea's tell us sellers will be happy to take offers, so that's great, except we haven't yet found anything we really want.

Anyway, I had completely written off newbuilds as horrendously overpriced (at least 15% over pre owned here) and because I had thought you couldn't really haggle on the price. Is this true? It would have to be a hefty discount for us to even consider newbuild, since they are not exactly generously proportioned!

Would love to hear from anyone who has successfully got a big discount on a newbuild.

I have heard of a 'friend of a friend' who got approx £150k off of a £500k new build house because they were so desperate to get rid of them. Think a lot of them, here at least, aren't selling very well.

I think its much easier to make a low offer on a new build especially if it's developers selling, and if it is one from the last of a plot. this is because the price includes the profit, and once they have broken even on a development everything is profit.

By way of example for my first flat in a rising market we paid £112k against an asking price of £145k

Find out when their financial year end is, try and get one of the last ones on the plot, and haggle for fixtures (or a deposit contribution).

The only drawbacks with new builds is that they haven't been 'tested' so you will have to sort out any snagging issues, the NHBC guarantee is quite useless and check that you're not going to be stung for 'estate charges' for the upkeep of the development - if you're aware of it then fine but it can be a bit of an unexpected cost.

Thanks everyone, that's really helpful. Looks like I don't need to totally discount newbuilds then.

How would I go about finding when a company's financial year ends? Wouldn't it be the same as the tax year? Excuse my ignorance if that is a stupid question.

We were given the figure in our survey when we bought.

Hi
A good few years ago I used to sell new builds(actually got made redundant due to housing market)
There is always a deal to be done!!!
Many developers have had it very hard and have had to hold back on the build schedule with regards to the rest of the development.
The two developers that I worked for it was end of June and End of December so we really went for those as that is what we had to achieve to get our bonus
The plot to often get a really good deal on is a stock plot ie the property is finished and just sitting there
Sometimes they will even put carpets etc in to help a stock plot look more saleable well as curtains etc
Make a silly offer,you have nothing to lose!
If there are other developers on site say they have offered you x,as in the past when I have told my sales manager they were looking at another property from a competitor they would do their best to get the sale for themselves
Also use websites to see what they have achieved for other properties
You have nothing to lose!
Good luck

We purchased our new build 2 weeks before the crash in 2007. House was marketed at 465k we offered 420k and they accepted and that was in a good property market. I think there is more reason to haggle now. Also get them to throw in extras, as it doesn't really cost the developer much but could save you oodles of cash.

That sounds encouraging. So, how much do you think I should offer. The houses we'd be looking at are priced from about 220K to 240k. A similar pre owned would be on for about 180K - 230K I'd say.

Go in around 190k they can only say "No" and you can up your offer. If you go higher say you will up it but you want 3k's worth of options or something like that. Remember 3K of options won't cost them 3K. It is all about negotiation. You will always pay a premium for a new build, but in my experience TW build basic houses, you don't get bells and whistles unless you pay for them. We have done loads to ours like floor tiles, fitted wardrobes, marble fire place, landscaped the garden and to be honest even with the slump it has been valued at more than we paid. It is our forever home though so not too worried, but nice to know we still have a good bit of equity.
To be honest ours was a really cheeky offer, we went to see a smaller house but liked the plot ours was on. Way out of our price range at 465 so made the cheeky offer and were gob smacked when they accepted, even wangled 5k options in that as completion was delayed from March to September !

agree with justaweeone find out when quarter end is, Companies House I think should have the details. They always push completion for the end of the quarter, poor neighbours completed last day of the quarter only to find a plumber still fitting their bathroom the day they moved in lol.

Thanks HaveToWearHeels. That was the kind of figure I was thinking too.

best of luck FruitSalad