Buying a New Build House- Dolls House Furniture

Well this post is a bit hypothetical really- since we did try and buy a new build house last year but pulled out at the last minute.

I always wanted to buy a new build- no fuss- just move in with your furniture no weeks on end of stripping woodchip wallpaper off every bloody surface it could possibly be attached to....

So we searched the Internet and found a few developments in and around Manchester. Being naive and a bit curious we decided to visit them both without properly researching the area (we have since learned that new build estates can be neighbours to some less desirable areas or are more out of town than you would like to be). The first development was in North Manchester, luckily for us we got lost and went too far past the site. Far enough past to realise we didn't really want to be next door neighbours to a  gypsy traveller "funfair people" (the Sales representative's description...) permanent gated site. 

Next we went to the same developers plot but south of Manchester. Lovely site, didn't seem to have any dodgy neighbours and the show house was amazing:

 So after going home and mulling it over we decided to go for it! Next thing we knew we were back in the sales office and handing over our £500 reservation fee. The developers have their own in house mortgage advisers and she found us a mortgage with Nationwide and it was all accepted; our red dot was on the site plan on the wall marking the house as taken! We had chosen a corner plot which was to be built a few months later 3 bedrooms- 2 bathrooms and a downstairs loo and we chose to pay an extra £5000 for a bigger garden.

This was the same house signed up to buy when it was built!

Lovely shiny new road of houses

 So a few weeks later we went back to the site to sign some more papers- that's when we noticed the big plan of the site had changed. Our next door neighbours were no longer going to be two 4 bedroom detached houses- but 3 smaller terraced houses of which the end one had taken all of the extra garden we had paid £5000 for! 



When I questioned where our extra garden had gone- the sales woman said she would refund the £5000 as the garden would now be taken by the next door house. At this point I was starting to have some reservations about the sale anyway- like living so far away from our family and friends well actually anyone that we knew, and we started to get worried that in the months leading to the house being built they would change something else and only tell us when we noticed! And you pay a premium for a new build house- something we were worried we would not recoup if we ever sold. In the end we ended up buying a house which was £70,000 less; albeit in completely the opposite decorative state! So we asked to pull out- at first she said no, but luckily the area sales manager was in the office at the time and agreed to refund our money. 

I still look back at the house and think how lovely it would have been- all shiny and new, but I am glad we live where we do now as we are so close to family and friends (even if it's 30 miles to work...)!

There are some really good incentives for 1st time buyers created by the Government to help young people to get onto the property ladder and boost the building industry. 

1. These include 95% mortgages which are practically impossible to get on  a normal house: http://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/special+offers/newbuy/
2. And Firstbuy scheme which is government backed equity loan which basically means you have to put down a 5% deposit, the government and housing developer give you a joint loan of 20% so you only need a 75% mortgage and therefore get a better interest rate. However you do need to start paying the loan back after 5 years- and it can equate to quite a lot of money depending on the value of the house: http://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/special+offers/firstbuy

Final point- something i read on the Internet is that in showhomes they use 3/4 size furniture and even children's furniture to make the rooms look bigger, and if you look closely at the dimensions of any garages they are often not big enough to fit an actual car in them. Come to mention it those sofa's do look a bit hobbit-esque...