New build buying process

[MaJoady]

I realise this is probably a very silly question, but is someone able to talk me through the process of buying a new build house off plan?

We never thought we'd be interested in a new build, but one has been released in pretty much the perfect location and design for us, so we're keen to find out more. It's a Taylor Wimpey estate if that makes any difference. And we're FTBs.

Current situation is that we're early, the plots aren't officially released yet, although we do have the costs for a number of the plots we are interested in. The show home isn't even built yet! (Have been looking at a couple of the nearby developments and the foundations on the site we're interested in)

How does haggling etc work? I know we won't get money off the cost, but are hoping that with us not having to sell anything and it being a quiet time of year, we'd hope for them throwing in a few extras. What are our chances of them paying our stamp duty for example?

And when do we haggle? Before you've reserved the plot? But then how do you have an accurate view if the specs? If you wait until the options meeting then surely they can just say no because you're committed?

The estate is one of their plush ones, so a lot of the usual negotiating higher spec stuff is already included: turf, flooring (although thinking of asking for a better carpet etc), outside lights, higher spec kitchen (ie double oven)... I think I'll ask for a shower over the bath and full height tiling, but what else? I'm thinking I need a longer list, so that when they whittle me down, I'm still left with what I want iyswim.

Sorry this is long! Any advice appreciated! :)

You may find the mortgage company will undervalue the house and then Taylor Wimpey will need to reduce it. That's happened on several of their estates in our town. They're very overpriced.

The ones near us have sold as soon as the plot has been released so they may not be open to any haggling as they know they can sell them. They usually only offer free stamp duty if they're struggling to sell it (usually if its a bad plot).

I would read into reviews on them, they do have a bad rep. We almost bought one 4 years ago, same situation you are in that it wasn't built, no show home yet etc. It didn't work out and I'm glad after hearing from people who did go through with it.

Screenshot I kept from somewhere (maybe MN?) With questions to ask:

I went recently to look at new builds by a local developer. Much nicer , bigger and cheaper than the ones by TW and other big firms around here. If I bought new I'd avoid TW as reputation isn't great.

Thanks to everyone for your replies, but we're going into this with our eyes open. We have been looking for a while now, we know the value of houses in the area and are happy with the prices they are quoting. It's a small development of 15 houses, down the road from one done by a small local developer which we haven't considered because it's very shoddy. I know MN doesn't like new builds, but this one may work well for us.

Anybody with any info regarding the process, I'd love to hear from you!

Not TW but a new build. We didn’t manage to negotiate anything extra at the point of purchase, neither did our immediate neighbours who we met while they were viewing the site and we ended up comparing notes. Theses particular houses were desirable and had a waiting list so the builders were not motivated to do anything more. Other neighbours did manage to negotiate several things like the stuff you mentioned BUT their houses were already built and had sat unsold for a little while so it very much depends on the house. However, as things started to go wrong (and unfortunately you should expect things to go wrong) we did end up negotiating for a couple of things. Nothing we got was really an extra but more like putting things right iyswim. E.g. we lost some storage because they showed us the wrong floor plans - so we insisted they provide built ins in other places to claw that storage space back. But actually we ended up with less storage than we initially thought because we would have done those built-ins anyway. We also ended up insisting on refunds for some extras that we had paid for that didn’t match the samples we were shown (Not even close and we could prove they used much cheaper versions). We did say they could take those items out completely, but they declined as it would cost them even more to Replace, repaint etc, so technically those items were free. So ultimately we did pay slightly less than what we originally signed up for, but it was more about reducing our loss/getting value for the money we did pay rather than getting a bunch of freebies. But I’d rather they had just done what we had paid for properly and saved us the hassle and delay. My advice would be to get hold of a copy of the customer service charter TW subscribe to (and then ask that organisation for the version of their Guidance for the builder) which tells you what they consider to be best practice. It’s no use finding out what TW should have done after it’s all gone down.

We bought a TW new build off plan six years ago. We part exchanged so couldn’t negotiate too much (but actually got a price we were really pleased with so didn’t mind). The houses sold very quickly but friends of ours on the same development negotiated various extras at the options meeting. Not sure about stamp duty though. We were really pleased with our house (moved out a year ago but for relocation reasons! Would still be there otherwise!!)

We've just reserved a new build - got included - Stamp Duty Paid, Legal fees, Turf and outside tap, flooring throughout, upgraded kitchen, integrated appliances. We went in with a list and the specific plot we want (south facing garden, not overlooked) told them we would reserve that day if we could have our list of requests. They said ok and wrote it all on the reservation form, Paid our £99 reservation fee, and now we wait.

When I bought my new build the process was:
Visit site, meet sales team; Pick a plot; market and Sell our house; house sells; Visit sales team with official notification of sale on our property, mortgage in principle for new purchase and £1000 reservation deposit; Instruct solicitors and financial advisors (I pushed back hard on using my own and not the developers own “recommended” ones despite being offered £1000 cash back to use them, in my opinion it’s too much conflict of interest to be buying and selling with the same solicitors); provide solicitors details and financial advisors details to sales team on site; 28 days to exchange countdown begins; Exchange; Wait for house to be built; 2 weeks notice of completion given; Completion.

The whole process took 9 months.

With regard to internal specification, they should have carpet samples, kitchen samples, tile sales etc in the sales office. Ask to see the working drawings and you’ll be able to see where sockets are, where light switches are etc and if you want to add more for an additional fee.
The development I bought on was so popular, but I managed to negotiate an outside tap and turf to the back garden for the win!! They accidentally gave me extra bits and bobs to the value of about £1500 without telling me which was a bonus.

Depending on how much the property is you may not have to pay stamp duty anyway as a FTB.

We didn't buy a new build but our vendors did. I don't know exactly what deal they had but they had at least £10k worth of "extras". And told us if we didn't move before Christmas then they would lose those incentives (after already agreeing to a January completion).

We bought a TW house a few years ago. you negotiate before reserving the plot. We got quite a few extras thrown in. We got the shower over bath and tiling to ceiling (but not the glass shower door), a burgler alarm, turfing, electric in the garage and outside, extra cupboards in the utility room, built in appliences in the kitchen, TV ariel sockets in each bedroom, £1000 on completion, an extra large terrace and carpets throughout.

We then paid the reservation fee and waited a few months for it to be built.

Thanks all, this is really useful!

I’m meant to be exchanging on a newbuild this week (if our buyers get their arses in gear )

We got £55k off list price, stamp duty paid, upgraded bathroom tiles and kitchen worktop and all top range kitchen appliances included. Weren’t expecting them to accept our opening gambit offer so we’d planned to ask for carpets etc in the next round of negotiations but as they accepted such a massively reduced price we’ve been happy to add cost of those.

Definitely do the haggling before you reserve as the reservation agreement forms the basis of the ultimate contract.

As above, we got this good a deal as it was one of the last plots that’d be completed in December when their half financial year end is. Have told our (FT)Bs we need to complete in December.

We're buying a new build at the moment.

We narrowed our search down to 2 new developments in our area, one was TW and the other Countryside.

We went with the Countryside development, mainly due to the plot we managed to get. However the TW houses had next to nothing Included with them and they wouldn't budge. It was approx 12k of extras with TW to the equivalent of what came as standard with Counrtyside.

Check service/maintainence charges. Ours is £47 per year, the TW site was £250 presumably due to a childs play area being at the front of the development.