There is an upside to the recession - some house builders and estate agents are falling over themselves to offer sales 'giveaways'. Jessie Hewitson tracks the latest down
New homes developers trying to lure us in and open our chequebooks with freebies is nothing new, but the gifts themselves are getting more interesting.
The last seven buyers at Union Development’s Arthaus development in up-and-coming Hackney, for example, were given money to buy an original Damien Hirst or Andy Warhol for their living rooms. (The development also has a modern art gallery at its centre, GALLERIE8, and curators to help source the artwork.)
This is a far cry from the dartboards that you used to get thrown in with a sale that we’ve seen in recent years: Barratt Homes,a developer that has a section on its website dedicated to offers of this nature, is currently offering to pay a 5 per cent deposit, the stamp duty, legal fees (to the tune of £500), £10,000 cash back and even throw in the carpets for anyone who takes one of their bijou flats, called iPads - found in Cardiff Bay - off their hands.
Help for heroes?
The developer is also helping out members of the armed forces, giving them a £1,000 discount for every £25,000 spent - so a home costing say £126,000 would qualify for a reduction of £5,000. Meanwhile, Shanly Homes is offering a year's free rail travel - worth £1,800 - to buyers at its Wyckham House development in Oxted, a Surrey commuter town 22 miles south of London.
For first-time buyers, Linden Homes has launched a scheme that allows home-buying first timers to achieve property’s holy grail - the 100% mortgage - in its Northfields development in Colchester, north Essex.
Provided a parent or grandparent guarantees 25 per cent of the value of the property, and as long as it is priced under £250,000, then you can avoid saving for a deposit well into your forties.
And Hillreed Homes, keen to sell its development of Kentish style houses near Rainham (picctured), is offering a sliding scale of discounts of up to £10,000 depending no how fast buyers can complete - the full discount if under three weeks, £8,000 if under four weeks and £6,000 if under five weeks.
And it’s not only developers who are throwing in the freebies: Wilfords London, an agency that has recently opened their doors in Kensington, west London, is offering 0% sales commission for the first 50 sales instructions they receive. And with the average property price in the borough currently registering £1.37m, that’s quite a saving.