[urfankhaliq]

In process of buying a new build in Leeds from Redrow and just wondered if anyone here has been through anything similar?

[imy]

New builds from certain developers routinely get negative press due to the quality of finish. Completion dates are usually a good indicator as most developers want to get everything done before their financial yr end meaning they will rush and cut corners to complete on the sale. I'm not saying you're developer will fall into this but more of a heads up to be extra vigilante.

[urfankhaliq]

Thanks Imy

So far its been OK. The expected date we have been given is July and their end of financial year is June so hopefully wont be an issue for us..

[BMW Steve]

Mine was a new build, the wife worked for the company Gleeson) and was Sales Woman of the year 5 years on the trot so I did get a very good deal as well as them purchasing my old house as a pert exchange. The after care was good, and I abused the fact that the wife was in sales and had the foot path extended, my rear patio made 6 times larger, extra socket and extra cupboards in the kitchen and utility room..... and all for a couple of cases of beer.

Redrow are meant to be fairly decent houses, and for as long as they are still building around you the after care should be very good, do your own snagging and report any thing asap and let them sort it....

[urfankhaliq]

Originally Posted by BMW Steve

Mine was a new build, the wife worked for the company Gleeson) and was Sales Woman of the year 5 years on the trot so I did get a very good deal as well as them purchasing my old house as a pert exchange. The after care was good, and I abused the fact that the wife was in sales and had the foot path extended, my rear patio made 6 times larger, extra socket and extra cupboards in the kitchen and utility room..... and all for a couple of cases of beer.

Redrow are meant to be fairly decent houses, and for as long as they are still building around you the after care should be very good, do your own snagging and report any thing asap and let them sort it....

Thanks, I was going to get professional snagging done but since the house builders dont allow the snagging to be done pre completion, we decided to just do it ourselves post completion and as we are the first few houses to complete in the development, the trades will still be around and hopefully will be able to resolve any issues we might have!

All quite exciting and cant wait to get the keys!!

[imy]

Originally Posted by urfankhaliq

Thanks Imy

So far its been OK. The expected date we have been given is July and their end of financial year is June so hopefully wont be an issue for us..

Is the property leasehold or freehold?

Read the below. I completely appreciate that people largely only post negative reviews and I guarantee there are a lot of completely satisfied customers. The only reason I suggest reading the below is just to get some experience of what other people have gone through so that you are more educated during the purchase and building process yourself. The lease side of things is not great so I'm hoping yours is freehold, if it's not I think they give you the option to buy the leasehold first before they sell it to a stranger. If this is the case i strongly advise you to take them up on this.

I work in Banking, although I work in Treasury I have a good relationship with all departments in the bank who in turn have good knowledge of developers and new builds as we lend mortgages on the government's HTB scheme and the lease side is one of the things they pointed out to me.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/uk.tr...w.redrow.co.uk

Good luck with this and hopefully it will work out just as you want.

Edit: also do no allow them to push your completion date forward. Usually when someone is due to complete a month after their fincial yr end they rush to finish the job and to complete in that month so that the completion can be put into their results. I know this as fact because my team funds the mortgage originations. We call it builders 1/4 end or builders yr end because for those last 3 days before the end the completions for new build mortgages surges to 10x to 15x the monthly average. They complete more in the 3days than they did the previous 6-8weeks combined.

[urfankhaliq]

Thanks Imy.

That is quite scary and like you say i can only hope that there many others who have had good experiences and haven't reviewed them!

As for leasehold.or freehold this is deffo a freehold and wouldn't have gone with them otherwise. We were looking at a development by persimmon but that was leasehold so we left that one!

So far the process has been Ok. Not great but not bad. There have been times where the sales woman hasn't got back to us etc and we have had to chase her but i can only pray that overall we don't suffer.

[Thermobaric]

Something I've read about in the past few weeks is people having issues not buying the freehold right away. The developer will say if you want to buy it now it's £5K for example. People don't bother to save a bit of cash right at the beginning figuring they'll buy it in a couple of years or so when they have a bit of extra money. Then they go and find the developer has sold it to an investment company who now want £40K for it.

I think this practice might be on it's way out as it's pretty fucking greasy but something to be wary of.

As for snag lists. I've been wondering about settlement cracking. I see pretty bad settlement cracks in new builds appear really quickly. Anyone know how long a developer will deal with them?

[imy]

Originally Posted by urfankhaliq

Thanks Imy.

That is quite scary and like you say i can only hope that there many others who have had good experiences and haven't reviewed them!

As for leasehold.or freehold this is deffo a freehold and wouldn't have gone with them otherwise. We were looking at a development by persimmon but that was leasehold so we left that one!

So far the process has been Ok. Not great but not bad. There have been times where the sales woman hasn't got back to us etc and we have had to chase her but i can only pray that overall we don't suffer.

Mate you sound like you have a good brain and have everything under control. Just watch out for them pushing the completion date forward.

[urfankhaliq]

Thanks Imy. yeah so far they are ok and hopefully won't be pushy with completion date. let's wait and see I guess

[misterS3]

I think home builders really got their act together when the property prices crashed a few years back and are building much better quality and designed homes - they had to, to tempt people to move - so hopefully you will have a really positive experience.

Compare with my 2000 house (i bought as 2nd owner). It's go so many designed in faults / cost cutting measures that actually ruins the experience and would put me off buying it in hindsight (was my first house purchase so missed some very obvious flaws). eg everybody in my street has had a flood due to to way the hot water tank and toilets were 'plumbed' in.

[imy]

Originally Posted by misterS3

I think home builders really got their act together when the property prices crashed a few years back and are building much better quality and designed homes - they had to, to tempt people to move - so hopefully you will have a really positive experience.

Compare with my 2000 house (i bought as 2nd owner). It's go so many designed in faults / cost cutting measures that actually ruins the experience and would put me off buying it in hindsight (was my first house purchase so missed some very obvious flaws). eg everybody in my street has had a flood due to to way the hot water tank and toilets were 'plumbed' in.

I don't think so. They are building homes quickly, not a good thing, to meet demand and to get them into the yr end accounts.

[djgandy]

Originally Posted by misterS3

I think home builders really got their act together when the property prices crashed a few years back and are building much better quality and designed homes - they had to, to tempt people to move - so hopefully you will have a really positive experience.

Compare with my 2000 house (i bought as 2nd owner). It's go so many designed in faults / cost cutting measures that actually ruins the experience and would put me off buying it in hindsight (was my first house purchase so missed some very obvious flaws). eg everybody in my street has had a flood due to to way the hot water tank and toilets were 'plumbed' in.

There are a lot of cases where I agree with this. There are still some crap builders, however compared to the crap everyone was throwing up in 2000-2007 period a lot of modern homes are pretty decent. Even the cheaper ones have ok spec kitchens, vs 2007 builds which were the cheapest nastiest stuff you could find and probably not even worthy as a budget range at B&Q.

[urfankhaliq]

well I hope mine is a good one..