Cheeky offer and additions on new build.

[tralalaa1225]

I am a cash buyer (as in money in bank) and have my eye on a newbuild. The development is selling very slowly and the 3 bed I like has had a 'discount incentive' of £20k for the last 6 weeks - so being marketed at £315k (with discount).

Friend who's an EA reckons I should go in at £300k as I'm in such a strong position and we're at year end.

Is this realistic? Could I also push for extras such as patio/white goods etc?

Developers don’t generally offer pricing discounts, but they’ll make concessions like paying your SDLT or adding in upgrades like premium flooring and garden landscaping etc - so your approach isn’t going to be unusual to them.

I wouldn’t worry about “cheeky” tbh. Developers will just say yes or no based on their financial plans, they don’t have the personal attachment to what they’re selling to have any emotional viewpoint about it.

Always worth a try!

I wouldn’t worry at all about being cheeky to developers, they won’t feel personally one way or the other about it. However they will probably want to offer you things that don’t affect the price as that will be recorded by the land registry and lower prices could devalue the development.

How many houses are left to be sold/ built? If nearly all done they may negotiate more on the price, if loads still to sell you may have more luck negotiating extras and/or stamp duty contribution.

They don’t like discounting the price much when it will devalue all the other ones waiting to sell, as when they get valued for mortgages the surveyors will look at recent sold prices.

But absolutely do negotiate hard on one or the other.

We looked at new builds and they did seem very keen to negotiate as not selling fast, I think the ones here were offering 25k "gifts". However I did get the impression as others have said it was towards stamp duty or flooring etc or including furniture rather than reducing the actual price.

It's not cheeky imo and definitely worth negotiating hard.
I agree that the developers will be less keen to reduce the sale price for the reasons given so I guess it depends on how desperate they are!
I've seen lots of reduced new builds in multiple areas of the country so clearly sales are not going at all well, which is totally unsurprising.
They may need you more than you need them at present!

We did this with our house - but that was 13 years ago, so a bit of a different market.

They were struggling to sell some houses with north facing gardens; & the agent said to make them an offer as all they could say was no.

We went away & worked out what we could afford mortgage wise etc.
The houses were priced at £199,995. We asked them to reduce the price to £185,000 & pay our 5% deposit. That way we could bring the LTV mortgage down.
We didn't want the integrated fridge-freezer, so got an outside tap instead.
They did charge us £1k for flooring - but we priced it up & it was cheaper to go with them. We didn't get the turfed garden, but that was easy to do ourselves.

It was a fantastic deal & no other house on our estate of the same type was sold at such a discount; but we were ftb's & it was just before the company's year end so they wanted to get as many sales on the book before the year end.

It's definitely worth asking; but go in prepared to negotiate on different items/offers.

Thank you All. I will go in hard, nothing to lose. If they won't budge below £315k I will push for stamp duty/solicitor reduction and as many extras as I dare get away with
The rep keeps emailing and leaving messages.

I'd say about 8 of the 50 or so houses have been finished; and about the same number of total plots sold. The development was launched last June.

So thinking of potential extras...

Outside tap
Turf
Patio
Dishwasher
Fridge/freezer
Better flooring
Better/more tiling

Anything else?

How about extra upgrades like:

Bathroom- heated towel rails, shower over bath if not already, more/upgraded tiling

Kitchen- dishwasher, upgraded sink/tap, tiling, extra sockets, washer/dryer, integral microwave

Garage (if one)- electric door, side door access, electrics

Outdoor- turf, extra patio area, shed, outside tap

Flooring

You’re obviously not going to get all of these but some upgrades to think about

Better developers have white goods, turf, patio, outside tap as standard.

If the one you’re looking at doesn’t, ask for them, but make sure they don’t just put in the cheapest stuff.

How long a term a home is this for you? On the basis that most new builds take several years to regain their sale price, I’d always look to things which are going to actually retain some value longer term: in say five years’ time, things like (by that point) secondhand white goods and a garden tap aren’t going to provide any additional value to buyers, whereas if you’ve asked for e.g. engineered wood flooring over carpets, really good quality garden fixtures, an EV charging point, the brand of kitchen they usually reserve for the top-end properties in the development that’s going to be a bit more appealing.

Sounds sensible.
I would put an offer of 300k in an email and wait for their response. Perhaps think about it for a day or two before you reply too. It sounds as if they really want to sell these properties if they are chasing you so much. I wouldn't try to negotiate on the phone as much harder to pull off.
Make the email offer and see what they come back with.

Work surface upgrades in kitchen
Integrated white goods - dishwasher, fridge, freezer, microwave
Tiled floors, higher end tiling in bathrooms
High end doors/wardrobes etc
Solar panels or hot water panels if they're doing it in some plots

Keep us posted..

So not as I thought 🙄
On that plot, no cash discount will only offer flooring and turf. Original price of £335k stands and they took 3 days to reply to my offer.

I'm walking away, ridiculously overpriced. The guy insisted the development was selling like hotcakes and quite rude

Wouldn’t be surprised if they come crawling back to you in a few weeks.

Well I guess that rude rep just lost himself a sale!
Maybe they will come crawling back to you as @Advocodo so and maybe they won't. If they don't, you are in a great position as a cash buyer and will find something else, no doubt.

Soooo....
Just had a call, rep is apparently now off sick. Head office have offered £10k off but no extras.

What do you lovely lot suggest I counter back with?

Am thinking ask for this lot plus
Patio paving
Outside tap
Outside lights

Got to worth a go right?

I would just ask for everything and see what happens. The reality is, extra outside lights, garden tap and extra flag paving wont cost them anything. They'll just amend the drawings and the contractor will do the work so you might get those with little fuss.

Thing to bear in mind though is contrary to your opinion of being in a good position, you're not really. The development still has a lot of sites being built so they are in no rush to sell up and close the sales office...they have plenty of time to wait. Most large builders work to calendar years for their sales financials but do often have 6 monthly targets, so extra deals maybe on to complete in May or December. And finally, cash buyer wont mean much to a sales rep, i certainly dont think it'd give you anymore advantage over a person needing a mortgage. If anything it's probably a lost opportunity for them to get commission from a mortgage advisor.

Try to get the garden landscaped as I think that would cost you quite a bit of money although I must add I am no expert.

@tralalaa1225 - 25 years ago we were offered an extra £7000 off a new build if we completed prior to year end. The house we were buying then was about half the price of yours - so I think it's a reasonable offer to make and you're not cheeky. Agree with PP that a large developer isn't going to see it as cheeky in the way an individual home owner might - they'll either say yes or no and just see it as business.

You make some excellent points, I hadn't considered the developers overall timescales for the remaining plots nor rake off from mortgage brokers.

Planning on going back with:

£15k cash discount plus

Tiles/Flooring/carpets of my choosing throughout
Wall tiling of my choosing in bathrooms/kitchen
Work surface of my choice in kitchen
Integrated white goods - dishwasher, fridge, freezer, microwave
spec of my choosing for doors/wardrobes etc
Heated towel rails in bathrooms
Landscaped and fully turfed garden
Additional exterior lighting
Patio paving of my choosing
Outside taps

Can hear them laughing from here but hey ho!