How do people manage the six week deadline for new build bungalows?

[Whataflippincircus]

Since DH died, I’ve been thinking about downsizing to a bungalow. I love a new build and there are some lovely bungalows being built near me. However, if you reserve one they give you six weeks to sell your property and be ready to complete. If you can’t proceed, you lose your deposit. This is madness. How does anyone manage to buy a new build?

Thank you @C8H10N4O2 , very useful advice. It’s 18 months since DH died.

You are still early in the process. The rest of the world moves on long before we do.

Give yourself the time to take stock and work out what you want for your new life. Not just in housing but looking for new interests and new people alongside the old can help.

I had an offer accepted on my flat when I reserved my new build. They pressured me in to a 6 week window, even though mine was bought off plan.

there were a few delays with my sale. Thankful I had somewhere to live once my sake had completed. The developers were very pushy. But I did say I was progressing and if I pulled out they would have to start the process with someone again.

they relented. I think it took 10 weeks in the end. However my build was 6 weeks late and I couldn’t move in on day I got tye keys as on holiday. They wouldn’t delay handover.

no idea how you do it if needing to rent.

So sorry about your husband. The others are right that it loosens up once you've a buyer agreed, and your reservation fee is the only thing at risk until you actually exchange, so it's less of a cliff-edge than the sales office makes it sound. One thing worth checking while the plot's still being built is the accessibility spec, because it's easy to assume a new bungalow is automatically future-proof and lots aren't. Most are only built to the baseline Part M standard, so it's worth asking the developer directly whether the bathroom is wet-room-ready, the doorways are the wider size, and thresholds are level. If they're still fitting out, some of that can be tweaked now rather than as an expensive retrofit in ten years. Full disclosure, I help build a free tool called Senso at www.wearesenso.com that reads a listing and photos and flags this stuff early, but honestly for a new-build a plain list of questions to the site manager does most of the job. Are you buying mainly for the single level now, or thinking ahead to what you'd want later on too?

@DownsizingResearch

Do you have Mumnset’s permission to spam this thread with your surveys? From the PoV of posters you could be absolutely anyone scamming for data.

If you know the issues involved in collecting data you should also be familiar with the ethics involved in spamming anonymously for information (not least for the quality of info if you actually happen to be genuine).