Buying a new build.

[smudgedlipstick]

Considering buying a new build, using the help to buy government scheme, any advice?? Things I should look out for or points to think about when buying a new build?

Anyone?

Make sure you can get out of both doors of a car on your drive. I think ours is one of the only ones on our estate where you can.

Room size; showhomes sometimes use teeny tiny furniture to make rooms seem bigger.
I think builders are also legally allowed to make their houses something like 10% smaller than their plans.
Check what is an extra; things like a shower over the bath might not be standard.
Remember you can negotiate over price and negotiate for free extras and upgrades.
Beware of buying a plot on the edge of an estate because it has a nice green outlook; that field might be earmarked for phase two of the estate in a few years' time.

There's a lot of negative stuff written about newbuilds. We've had two, simply because we were too busy to be messing about doing a house up from scratch, and both have been great.

I actually work for a developer (please don't give me hate! Haha It's a job). So things I would check are:

1. are they actually building using the materials specified on the plan
2. has the foul sewage system for the new estate been connected up to the main drainage system yet
3. which car parking spaces are actually yours and ensure that you check this regularly as they can shift about
4. is the size garden on the plan the actual size you are getting
5. check the garage size - is it actually able to fit a car in and does the garage count as one of your car parking spaces?
6. where are the developers in terms of actually delivering landscaping and any play spaces
7. how long before the council will be adopting the road, if at all
8. what internet connections are available and when
9. how long until any community benefits will be developed if there are plans to
10. are there any future phases that will be built
11. are garden gates and fences included, often they aren't for our developments
12. where are the visiting spaces and how much are there
13. how will the landscaping places and green verges be protected from crappy parking, e.g. are there proposed knew rails I'm place to protect
14. if any trees or other planting dies, will the developer be responsible for replacing them or will it just continue to look shit?

That said, new builds can be great places to live and we so create some amazing new communities with lots of new shiny stuff. If you pop into a show home, a sales person will be more than happy to walk you through the steps of help to buy scheme.

We're in the process of buying our second new build on the help to buy scheme.
Ask for freebies, don't be afraid to look cheeky - don't ask, don't get. We were told each plot has a certain amount of money set aside for upgrades. Or they may pay your stamp duty/solicitors fee. Look at the parking allocation on the site map, you don't want to end up stuck in a part of the estate where cars are just dumped on the roads due to insufficient parking.

We almost bought a new build on two separate occasions - thankfully we ran into issues before exchange on both.

My advice would be to take anything the salesperson says with a ton of salt, do lots of research on the area and the builder, engage a professional snagging company before completion.
Oh, and avoid Bovis. We almost bought one and after seeing some of the issues people have had I thank my lucky stars it fell through.

Our new build is huge with massive bedrooms and lots of parking but it will depend on the plot and layout . Be careful with the help to buy scheme as you will have to pay it back in 5 years ( or something like that , I can ask dh who understands it ) we didn't do it .

We also blagged stamp duty which was fab !

This is all hugely helpful thankyou!!