How to buy a houseBuying a new build property

Your new home shouldn't require any major repairs for the first few years

You can find advertisements for new estates in magazines such as What House? and The Property Magazine. These will give you the names of large developers and the areas in which they operate.

Getting a mortgage

Mortgage lenders, such as building societies, normally lend only on new houses built under the supervision of an architect or surveyor employed solely by the buyer, or which are built by an NHBC-registered builder or under the Zurich Insurance scheme.

Both these schemes provide a form of warranty against defects in the building. Find out more on the NHBC website.

New build advantages

• Major repairs and redecoration should be unnecessary for the first few years.
• If the property is registered with the NHBC, it’ll come with a ten-year warranty and protection scheme.
• The deposit required may be small.
• If the house is not yet built or not yet completed, you may be able to get some features changed to suit your requirements, such as the position of a door, sockets or cupboards. However, you will have to pay extra for this and the builder may not agree to undertake any variations until after contracts are exchanged.
• It may be easier to get a mortgage. Many builders arrange mortgage facilities for a whole estate in advance. There is often a link between the property developer and a particular building society, which makes it possible to get a loan of a high percentage of the purchase price.

New build disadvantages

• The house might not be finished for some time. You can try to get the builder to agree a ‘long stop’ completion date which means he'll be liable to pay you compensation if he doesn't finish the work by that date.
• There might be nothing more than the site and the plan to show to solicitors and mortgage lenders.
• Most mortgage lenders won’t release the final loan until all the work is completed.
• There are often teething troubles, such cracks produced by dried out plaster.
• The roads on an estate might not be finished which may cause problems with a building society’s loan.
• The garden might have to be laid and planted. There may be restrictions on what you can do to the front garden.
• Even in a rising property market you may not get your money back if you have to sell within a year or two.
• You may be required to pay for the new home by stage payments and therefore find yourself borrowing to pay for two houses at once.