Could someone share their experience with buying off plan?

P

petrucci

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Hi there,

I'm completely new to property's market. I've recently started looking around for some apartments to buy and am thinking about a new one.
However, I'm not really sure how all this works. I searched the internet but I couldn't find much info on this subject.
Could someone answer me a few questions please:
- what's the story with priority lists - does anyone on it have equal chance of getting the apartment? - if so, why is it called the "pririoty list" :)
- the selling agent is telling me that apartments will be sold on first come, first served basis - from the show units on site - how is this going to happen? 100 people queing from early morning?
- is there a way to pay a booking fee prior to this launch/show?

I can't think of anything else at the moment, I'll post other questions shortly.
I'd really appreciate your help.

Thanks in advance.
 
Priority list usually just means they will write to you in advance of a new phase launch.

Unless you are a huge investor a sales agent usually wont give you any other special treatment.

Buying from plans, beware of the property size – they often will be smaller than the show unit and there is not a lot you can do about it. Also watch your contract for the amount of leeway the builder give themselves to complete the build – sometimes they try to get up to two years after the stated completion date.

Usually you cant book in advance – you just have to queue, if you are going to live in this place for a few years and it is the most expensive thing you will ever buy then it is worth a night outdoors.
 
I alledgedly 'bought off the plans' but there were no plans! There were simple drawings allright but down at the bottom there was a disclaimer... basically saying that they could build more or less what they liked! Furthermore, check out the showhouse, but be aware that the showhouse has NO legal bearing - they can build something completely different and you can refer back to the showhouse but legally it just doesnt count.
Once you get to a stage where you get a contract, make sure you dont just hand it over to your solicitor - read it, then read it again -and get others to read it.
 
Regarding buying off plans: the developer gets to sell of plans thereby transferring much of the risk associated with an increasingly skeptical/volatile market onto the buyer.

With regards 'priority lists', tales of '100s of people queueing', 'booking fees' and all the other fancy marketing-speak you have picked up on, think: game theory. Who will be the real winner from buying in 2006 market conditions? You're playing a game of musical chairs.

I'm a definite bear. You've no experience in dealing with snakey estate agents, developers and lawyers (nor do most FTBs), yet you seem (to me) rather carefree about handing over huge sums of money. I would not recommend going near Irish property in 2006.
 
serotoninsid said:
I alledgedly 'bought off the plans' but there were no plans!
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Of course there were plans, how do you think the developer got planning permission?

CelloPoint said:
I would not recommend going near Irish property in 2006.
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Totally Off Topic.
 
Dave_Post said:
Of course there were plans, how do you think the developer got planning permission?
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Your misinterpreting what i'm saying Dave. Yes the builder sought planning with specific plans. However, my contract included something not much better than back of fag packet front/side elevation and plan view - with a disclaimer that they werent to scale and the builder reserved the right to make changes as the development progressed.
When I contacted the autioneer, I told him I was a serious buyer, just wanted a set of plans before I commited to purchasing. He agreed to send them on but never did. There ended my involvement with the auctioneer. I never contacted him or spoke to him since then and proceeded to deal directly with the builder.
 
But werent the full plans - projections, elevations, plans, site, services, parking, boundary and countless revisions to all of these available from your local authority?
 
CiaranC said:
But werent the full plans - projections, elevations, plans, site, services, parking, boundary and countless revisions to all of these available from your local authority?
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How detailed do the plans they get the planning on need to be - i dont mean external or structural - but say the internal layout. Could they change the internal layout without the local authority caring? Furthermore, if they really are bound down by the plans submitted to the local authority, whats the deal with not being able to provide these to the customer then?

I never actually went to the council offices but the plans online - the layout is different to the actual built development by a long way.
 
You sure you are looking at the latest revision. Ive a feeling they arent bound too tightly even to those plans too.

Maybe someone in the know could clear it up for us.
 
I recently bough off the plans.

Went into the Dublin City Council planning office and got the plans off them, they were in a big box and included hundreds of pages of incredibly detailed plans, including right down to how often and to what length the grass should be cut!!!

Interestingly they also included all the objections by the neighbours, etc. interesting reading.
 
We bought off plans - put down our deposits back in 2003 and ended up finally moving into our apartment in October last year - i.e. nearly 2 years later. It suits some people but if I'd known what I know now, I wouldn't have gone near them and would have used our first time buyer status more wisely...

M
 
Off topic I know, but to me buying off plans is akin to paying for your Oxegen (or even Cliff Richard) tickets a year in advance. Takes all the risk off the promoter, and they get to sit on your money. Don't think it happens anywhere else but here, and if it does, certainly not to the same extent. You need a herd mentality, with a little desperation thrown in, to buy off plans, in my opinion.
 
First post for me ...have been enjoying reading some of the old posts today!

i bought off the plans in April for a one-bed apartment! as a lot of you said you have absolutely no way of knowing what you are getting for your money but i felt like i had no option! There was no way that i could buy an apartment that was ready to be moved into immediately so the building time gives me a little time to breath! no unforuntaly i get to stress that i'm going to be living in a shoebox!
 
extopia said:
Off topic I know, but to me buying off plans is akin to paying for your Oxegen (or even Cliff Richard) tickets a year in advance. Takes all the risk off the promoter, and they get to sit on your money. Don't think it happens anywhere else but here, and if it does, certainly not to the same extent. You need a herd mentality, with a little desperation thrown in, to buy off plans, in my opinion.
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I agree to a certain extent but at the same time you need give the developers some incentive to build. Why would they take the risk of spending a year or more building a property if at the end of the day nobody bought it. Same with your concert anology. A promotor isn't go to pay U2 a few million in advance and then hope to sell enough tickets on the night.
 
One thing regarding buying off the plans - we put in about 10k deposit and waited around 1 year. In that year the capital appreciation had added about 15k onto the value of the property without us even paying a mortgage.
 
Sunny said:
... you need give the developers some incentive to build. Why would they take the risk of spending a year or more building a property if at the end of the day nobody bought it.
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Heh, heh. I suppose for the same reason that a buyer would take the risk of paying a developer for a building that has not yet been built. The profit to be made on the development is incentive enough, I think.



Sunny said:
Same with your concert anology. A promotor isn't go to pay U2 a few million in advance and then hope to sell enough tickets on the night.
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Not on the night, no. But how about, say, 12 weeks in advance? And yes, promoters in other countries take precisely these kinds of risks.
 
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