Buying a Home on a New Housing Development - our 6 step guide
29 June 2017The new housing developments themselves allow you to form a new and exciting community with other buyers, forming a dynamic and inclusive environment within the comforts of established local villages and towns. For those considering buying a home in a new housing development, we have put together a 6-step guide to show you just how easy the buying process is.
1. First, research the area
This includes looking at local amenities such as schools, job opportunities and supermarkets. You might want to think about your future a little here. Depending on your employment status and your age, you might be looking for some very different local amenities and services. For example, those with children, or hoping to have children, might focus more on the local schools or universities. On the other hand, if your children have grown up and moved away, you might want good transport links.
2. Find a development that suits you
Look at the size, building proximity and properties available in the new housing developments. There are developments to suit all, whether you would love a 5 bedroom detached house with an idyllic rural view, or an accessible 2 bedroom semi-detached property close to the motorway. Looking at the site plans and photo gallery of the new housing developments will really help, as you will be able to visualise the development.
3. Look into the developer's track record
Whilst this may sound like a boring research task, it is so important to find out as much as you can about the reputation of the developer. Investigate whether the developers have built according to agreed timeframes and budgets. Try typing the developers name into a search engine like Google and set the tools to the past year or so to see if the developer’s name is flagged up. You can also set the category to ‘News’ to see what - if any - kind of coverage they have received.
4. Seek the help of a mortgage adviser
To get a rough idea, you can always use an online tool such as the Mortgage Advice Bureau. However, while this might give you an initial idea, it is then best to seek the professional help of a mortgage adviser as they can assess and recommend a mortgage based upon your financial situation.
5. Research government schemes for new-build homes
One example of this is the Government’s Help to Buy Scheme, which is only available for new build houses. Make sure you’ve done plenty of research and looked into their terms and conditions. One common misconception is that Help to Buy is only for first-time buyers, but this simply isn’t true. Those people who are already on the property ladder can also be eligible for the Help to Buy scheme. However, the Help to Buy Scheme is only applicable for houses under a purchase price of £600,000 and with a capital repayment, rather than interest repayment mortgage scheme. By providing a 5% deposit on the new build property you can borrow 20% of the purchase price interest-free for 5 years. For more information on Help to Buy, you can read our blog. To research whether your favourite new housing development is applicable, go to https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/
6. Find out about the reservation fee before visiting the showroom
No one likes a costly surprise, that’s why it’s better to know about any fees in advance. These fees can range in cost, depending on the purchase value of the property. You might expect anything between £100 and £5000 in order to reserve your plot on a new housing development. The fee tends to be refunded on completion, normally after the 28 day legal period, once the contract has been exchanged and all legal matters confirmed. The fee is usually given alongside a reservation agreement, which states what will happen to this reservation fee if you withdraw your application. You can find information about reservation fees for each of our developments on our dedicated development pages. The reservation fee for our new build houses for sale in Cullompton at the popular Rivel’s Green, for instance, is £1,000 or just £500 for Help to Buy sales.
To discover your next home, browse our beautiful range of new homes for sale in Devon here.