Flat Buying Advice

[volvos70t5]

Hi!

I'm thinking of buying a new build flat in a nice-ish area of London. Brochure price is just over £220k. What, realisitcally, should I be expecting to haggle them down to?

I expect to be in a position to make a final yes/no buying decision probably by the end of next week.

All advice gratefully appreciated.

[axeman30]

Mark it to market using nethouseprices.com to find out what similar sized properties have actually sold for recently in the area.

[kerfuffle]

Depends on your buying position. Do you have a large deposit? Are you in a chain?

[anonymous-user]

Are you buying from an owner or developer? If developer I would allways go in at about 20% discount as my opening offer and see where you go - especially at year end. Give £180K a try...they might tell you to piss off, but they might say yes!!

[chilli]

volvos70t5 said:

Hi! I'm thinking of buying a new build flat in a nice-ish area of London. Brochure price is just over £220k. What, realisitcally, should I be expecting to haggle them down to? I expect to be in a position to make a final yes/no buying decision probably by the end of next week. All advice gratefully appreciated.

Depends how the flats are selling... If they're going like hot cakes, expect to pay full price, and be quick about it.. If not, "um" and "ahh" a bit then hit them with both barrells at £185K.

[rich1231]

A cheeky offer is worthwhile, especially if its....

A) early off plan (lots of developers can only get finance relased to them on the exchange on a percentage of the units sold...

B) The last flat on site... We always want our last bit of cash out of the build and a 20% hit on a single unit isnt critical...

Cheeky doesnt mean daylight robbery though, else you will not be taken seriously.

[volvos70t5]

Thanks, folks.

To answer some questions:

No chain.
15% deposit.
Completion around April 2006.
Gonna be a buy to let mortgage except that I am going to use one of the rooms.
Am doing a site visit tomorrow.

Anything else?

edited to say that I would be buying from a developer.

Is this time of year good/bad for home buyers? Or woudl ie be better to wait until last January when the reality of credit card bills hit home and people perhaps shelve the idea of a new home for a little while.

>> Edited by volvos70t5 on Wednesday 7th December 15:06

[rich1231]

Winter months tend to be times when the ratio of viewings to sales goes down, tending to indicate more serious buyers... but there are less of them.. good luck.

[volvos70t5]

Sorry - just noticed typo - Purchase price is just over £200k not £220k.

What should I be going in at?

[craigw]

£187,750 is a good starting point, high enough to be serious. If they wont give anything off, haggle for them paying stamp duty or better fittings etc etc

[mutt k]

Think you will find they are very keen to deal with you even if you are a bit cheeky now that Gordy has decreed that you can't put a buy to let flat into a SIPP. Lots of the big resi developers are apparently sweating on this today, having spent mucho moolah setting up the mechanics of such schemes.

[axeman30]

I'm just wondering if their is a tax implication to you renting the place out but also using it as your residence. Not really my field, but it might be worth you checking this out.

I know that as a landlord you can get tax relief on certain expenditure, and as a homeowner you can get a certain amount from a lodger tax free. But you seem to be in between the two.

[axeman30]

Oh one final thought. You can only negotiate upwards from your intial offer.

The old addage is "if your first offer doesn't make you feel embarressed it's too high"

[volvos70t5]

Thanks, folks, very useful. Looking forward to having a nosey tomorrow.

[TeamD]

No, don't buy a fiat.

[volvos70t5]

TeamD said:

No, don't buy a fiat.

There are 2 L's in illiterate ;-)

[silversun]

I think January and July are builders' end of year and they want to get as many completions in before then as possible usually. At least this was the case for me.

[anonymous-user]

craigw said:

£187,750 is a good starting point, high enough to be serious. If they wont give anything off, haggle for them paying stamp duty or better fittings etc etc

Screw that. I'd go in at around £165K on an asking price of £200K.

[oi_oi_savaloy]

I work for a very large national builder/developer. Now is a very good time to be a buyer. It's half year at end of this month for us and it's all about hitting half year figures in terms of cash received and units sold.

If the flat is on for 200k I'd be offering no more than 177k rather than 187 (as some one above wrote). It's a very tough market out there and people need your business.

You've got a deposit, you're in a position to move and your motivated to do a deal. All big pluses.

You could exchange now (so technically they have 'sold' the flat in Dec 05 and then complete in April '06 as per your timetable.

Or ask them to match your deposit and pay 'full' price (ie your 15% plus their 15%) off the 200. You never know.. get them to pay your legal fees too.

[boiler]

garyhun said:

Screw that. I'd go in at around £165K on an asking price of £200K.

I'd go in around that price - you can only go up from your first offer, and at this time of year it has to be worth a go. And if they accept your first offer - you have gone in too high!