Can somebody please talk to me about part-exchange?

[Pendulum]

We were not thinking about moving this year but a great house has come up in a perfect location. It's new build.

I would love to go and see it but cannot bear the thought of trying to sell my house, in the current market, with the mess associated with two DCs under 5. Also, I am not really interested in moving in general, but this new place is a fantastic opportunity. My dream solution would be for the developer to buy our house.

The estate agents have said the developer is "not ruling anything out". I am keen to get a feel for what the developer looks for in a part-exchange. Are they mainly interested in nearly-new developments (i.e. swapping like for like but a bit smaller), or are they potentially interested in all kinds of housing stock? My house is a largish semi, ex HA but privately owned (like the whole area) for over 20 years now.

Any advice that could help me open discussions would be much appreciated!

I think that it is definately a buyers market at the moment. You may not get the price you hope for your property, but whats the harm in looking?

The developer will be keen to sell - I suggest you say openly that you will only consider moving if they will do part exchange. It sounds like you do not want to get sucked into buying this otherwise. Most developers will not expect to get nearly new in part exchange.

Normally you get a certain time to sell your current house at what you consider market value to be. If you don't manage the developer will buy it from you at a price stated in the contract. This is usually less than you think market value will be. Say 85 - 90% market. If your place would rent out quite easily, or needs some work done to it which would be easy for a builder and have a good impact on price, that might make it more attractive for the developer.

thanks, very interesting. fridayschild, is the time to sell on the open market optional or would you expect it to be a pre-condition to the part-exchange? I might accept a lower valuation for the reduction in hassle value tbh.

They usually offer 30% below the market value of yours and make you pay full price for theirs.
I would sell yours first or make it very clear what your bottom line figures are early on.

We part'x'd with Barrats 4 years ago. Got full market value for our house, removals paid plus packing, discounted mortgage for a year, 2/3 stamp duty paid by them as well.

From seeing the new build to moving in was 3 weeks. That's their conditions...you had to complete within 3 weeks!

We were discussing part ex with a developer at the weekend. They said there has to be a 25-30% difference between the price of their house and what they'll give you. Any less and they aren't interested.

(they did all say that aside from PX they are "open to offers" on the price)

our next door neighbour recently part-exed his house for some new-builds. They gave him 70% of market value.

thanks for all comments. The price difference would be quite big (big enough to make me feel a bit faint!) so that should be OK.

We have a ceiling figure in mind for the margin between our current house value and the new one, so would not accept a v low valuation of ours unless they also dropped their asking price.

DH saw something on moneyexpert.com saying that opening gambits on new builds should be around 30-40% off list price in this climate- seems unbelievable to me! Will go to view at the weekend and take it from there.

thanks again