Buying a house off plans - What to watch out for ?

Ad says they have a showhouse available for viewing. Go and view that and see if you like it. Double check that the show house is identical for all properties under construction.

We bought our house off plans after seeing the show house, it's basically the only way to buy a new house

Main thing to watch out for is the completion date, whatever the builder tells you is basically fiction

We got told in September the house would be built that December. At this point the site was a hole in the ground. I raised my eyebrows at the estate agent who seemed to sense my skepticism and responded that's what he'd been told

In the end it was March when we moved in, right before our lease ended

Since presumably the house is part of a new estate, try to get an idea of what amenities are available now. There might be shops or creches planned with the estate, but it can take years for a tenant to move in so better to just assume they won't be there when you move in

Get your mortgage offer in principle and deposit sorted before you make an offer on a house. The housing market these days is like a less civilised version of Battle Royale or The Hunger Games, so the buyer who's in the door early with everything ready to go is the winner

With us, there was a booking deposit of something like €3k on the day we made the offer, and then something like a €12k deposit within 3 weeks or out offer got dropped

You'll also want to sort out a solicitor early on as you need to pass their details to the seller with the deposit

Best of luck!

I like the layout and general styling.

Buying off plan is nothing new. Just make sure you thoroughly check the finished product before accepting it as quality can slip when the thing is sold regardless.

Also get detail on the energy spec. Alot of these estates seem to be managing to meet the regs without using heat recovery systems but in my opinion, its not a good idea and there have been a few on here complaining about how cold their A rated house is.

Price wise, I've no idea what's value in Cork.

Doubt many would feel its safe to be up in the master bedroom with their small kids sleeping on the floor below

Doubt many would do any creaky horizontal jogging with teens in the rooms below

Maybe make master bedroom the family room

In terms of what I'd do differently, not much around the buying process

I'll be honest, it's pretty stressful trying to coordinate the bank, solicitors and builder. Getting an actual date pinned down is effectively impossible, and there'll be constant delays right up to the last moment

You can also expect to answer the same question about 100 times from the bank, so make sure you have a good paperwork trail

You'll need everything in place before you can drawdown the mortgage (house insurance, snag list from surveyor, mortgage protection insurance, etc.). This is as well as the house actually being finished

Having a good solicitor helps, they can really move things along. There's certain things that can only be done on the day you drawdown (where the solicitor gets the money from you bank and transfers it to the sellers solicitor) so everything needs to be in place for that to happen

Largely your job is to herd the cats and keep the ball rolling because no-one else is going to, they've all got other customers to deal with

What I would do differently would be to work harder on any extras I'd add to the house during construction. Obviously you can't make significant changes, but things like extra sockets, outdoor lights and maybe wiring for things like that are a lot easier before the plasterboard is on the walls

The builder might also be flexible about things like the style of kitchen or bathroom fittings. Mine wasn't, but my brother basically got an allowance to spend at whatever kitchen installer the builder had contracted

Although extra expenses are probably the last thing you want now, it can be a lot easier to do this stuff now than later

Be satisfied that the people/company taking your money/deposit is in a position to deliver on the final project.

Half a mill for a 130sqm in midleton, my god. Nice house though

Make a list of where you want sockets, and make sure they have them in the correct spots.

For instance, we didn't get a socket inside the door, so we couldn't put a lamp on the hall table.

We put a bed into the main bedroom and realised the sockets that would be either side of the bed were on the opposite wall.

There's a switch downstairs to turn off the upstairs landing, but no switch upstairs to turn off the downstairs hall lights. Annoying when going to bed.

You probably have a heat pump outside. Ask them to run a cable out to the heat pump for an outside socket.

Not exactly answering your question, but if I had 480K to spend I would look for a country pile on at least half an acre, it may not be in Midleton but within a 15 to 20 minute commute. Daft or similar is your friend

When buying off the plans you need to be really careful about where you house will actually be in the estate and that your happy with that and it's orientation. You could end up right beside the proposed shop or creche etc without wanting to be there.

There are a lot of green fields around that estate so you need to check out what all that land around it is zoned and what could be built on it in years to come.

I've seen people being caught out over the years delighted they have lovely green fields beside them only to be shocked when anything can be built beside them.

As a Dub we are always dubious of green fields😉

I bought off plans years ago and the measurements of the show house didn't match the house I bought. It actually ended up being bigger which was great but I needed to redo some of the flooring estimates.