Do new build developers accept less than 10% deposit on exchange?

[zuza96]

We are close to exchange on our new build home and are using our buyer's deposit on exchange which is less than 10% we would need for the purchase. Are the developers likely to accept this?

Will that affect your mortgage offer? How much are you missing?

We exchanged on a zero deposit for our new build as it was tied up in a Lifetime ISA. All funds were paid at completion. I think it's pretty normal for new builds but it's worth checking with your solicitor or developer.

We are using our equity as our deposit but that which is around 23% off the asking price but that will only be released on completion so we have to use our buyer's deposit as our deposit for the purchase on exchange.

You need to get your solicitor to ask the question now. Our sellers wanted the full 10% so we had to top our buyers 10% up with savings. This is really normal.

I'm not sure it is really normal. I'd say it's more normal to negotiate on amount of deposit, given how many people have their deposit in their equity only.

We're in Scotland so a bit different but the standard builder contract was 10% and they had no issue with waiving this as our full deposit was coming from equity.

Our 10% deposit was meant to be coming up the chain but on the day it didn't happen (not uncommon apparently) but the solicitor went through with the exchange anyway as they knew we had access to sufficient funds to cover it.
When asked what would have happened if we didn't have the money available they said exchange would have been delayed while the money was released and worked its way up to us.
Could have been stressful but luckily we had a plan-B.

We sold a probate house last year and just before exchange the agent started saying the offer had been made on condition of a completion date about 2 months away which was news to any of us.

There were loads of beneficiaries and everyone was getting really cross about it and saying put it back on the market but we were well over a year down the line at that point as had been a couple of days off exchange and the other owner died and starting again would have been a nightmare so we negotiated meeting in the middle with immediate exchange and completion in a month.

They had been spinning us out for ages and it was obvious then why and they are quite lucky we didn’t tell them to get lost at that stage but we all had enough by that point.