Just accept no incentives/discount with new build?

[StrawberryCreamCake]

I thought it was pretty standard to throw in incentives on new builds. Is it just because the market has gone crazy at the minute?

We just reserved a new build house. It’s a 4-bed semi in Shropshire for £245,000 with a south-facing garden.

We love the house and only got to reserve it because someone else didn’t manage to get their AIP. There’s another house that is the same model on the development that is the exact same price but is terraced with a smaller north-facing garden.

The sales advisor told us a flat out no when we asked about them throwing in any upgrades (right now there is no flooring or white goods included) or reducing the price. She said she’s selling so many houses so quickly that it’s just not going to happen. They haven’t even built the show homes yet.

Most of the other developers said the same thing although did have higher specifications as standard. Two said they would include flooring but we’d only be able to afford a 3-bed and they are above the help to buy threshold.

Anyone else buying a new build at the moment?

Because the housing market is booming the developer doesn't need to offer freebies unfortunately

We have just bought a new build- sales agent wasn't given any budget for incentives- and was told it's because the houses are selling so quickly without them!

So we just took the basics of what they included in the sale and have went external for all flooring / garden etc

You have said yourself that you could only reserve it because someone has dropped out.

The flooring in these situations is often poor anyway and white goods being included would be unusual. Sometimes there isn't any turf or a doorbell never mind white goods.

We reserved a new build house around 3 weeks ago. Got free flooring, white goods, back turf, and extra 5% deposits contributed. It’s because someone pull out of this plot. And the house should be ready in June.

We've just got an 11k deposit incentive on a 350k build but most of that will be covering the stamp duty as won't complete until after the deadline so a tiny 3k discount really.

It'll all depend on how desperate they are for you to reserve. First time around we didn't know what we were doing and just reserved, second time around I knew exactly how much I wanted to save (knowing they wouldn't take it from the property price) and just explained we could only reserve with X saving so they built a discount package around that. The houses were selling, but not flying off the shelves. So I wouldn't say it's completely unusual, but I assume you discussed discount before you reserved and didn't wait until after the fact? Your post makes it sound like you reserved first so wasn't sure, if that was the case it would be hard to negotiate from that point.

We’ve just reserved, but after some advice from mn acthally!, played bloody hard ball at the reservation signing day. We knew we wanted X amount, either as options incentives vouchers or as taken off stamp duty, and we were absolutely prepared to walk if we didn’t. We did actually state half way through that we wouldn’t go ahead (this was when they’d told us they couldn’t do anything). V polite, but we were firm. They told us to go for a walk, and when we came back had spoken to their head office and managed to get us what we wanted, plus a little extra. They did mention how lucky we were and that no one else on the development had ever received this...

I’m not sure. But, you have to know what your bottom line is, and know that if you need to walk, you do