Buying a new build

[Briningitallin]

I’ve seen a three bedroom house I really want. It’s not built yet and not available to reserve. Can anyone give me any advice on how buying a new build works please?

I’m wondering about when to put my property up for sale. Obviously I’d like to sell and then move to my new property. I don’t want to be homeless but do they keep your new build for you, and wait?

You can’t reserve until yours is sold STC. If it’s not even plot released yet you will be looking at going into rental as no normal buyer will wait, especially given new build delays.

We were 3/4 built on our first and took 4 months, our old house was a cash sale with someone desperate to live on the street so waited but that is unusual.

2nd time we part exchanged, but given it’s not plot released yet I would be surprised if this is an option.

My parents moved in with my sister for 6 months while their house was being built.

As above, you generally can’t reserve a plot until your property is sold STC. If the house isn’t built yet, you need to sell yours and rent or prevail on relatives if you can.

If the house is already built, which usually happens towards the end of a development, or a phase, you can sell and complete in the usual way. We’ve done that twice. We’ve also sold a property and moved into rented for six months whilst the house was built.

I bought a new build off plan. Moved in a few months back .I love it, it's a lovely house. One piece of advice that I wish I'd had: Look very carefully at the whole site plans. What buildings will be in close proximity to yours? Any greyed out parts in the plans? Ask what will be built there, and don't be fobbed off.

Thanks so much for the replies.

See if they offer part exchange? We did this when we bought our second new build. They gave us market value for our house and we had a whole weekend to move as there was no one moving straight into our old one.

There is another current "buying a new build" thread running on here, this is my reply to that.

We were completely out of the loop when buying our new build as the last time I moved was 30yrs previously.
Was completely taken back and even contacted the developers regional office to make sure we hadn't misunderstood what the sales team were telling us (we hadn't and it was all true😲).
We were only allowed to reserve when we were SSTC, exchange then had to be within 6-weeks with completion 12-months later.
As it happened the 6-week window extended beyond 10-weeks and although the sales team were making unhappy noises, our solicitor told us not to worry as we were now so close they would not bin us and start again with another buyer.
We exchanged and set a completion date (on our sale) of 5-months later which gave us time to prepare another property we already owned. After completion (on the sale) we moved into our other house until our NB was ready some 7-months later.
Speaking to our new neighbours, all had done something similar (rented, moved in with family etc) apart from a couple who had bought outright with no need to sell their previous houses until after they were in the NB.
If there was a downside it was the double moving fees and having to change address twice in 12-months.
The good thing about buying off-plan was that there was lots of time to sort out extras, many of which would not be available when buying a NB which was ready or v.nearly ready. We also got to see our house being built and photographed the various stages (for posterity and also for reference when carrying out changes in the future).