Real Estate

New Homes

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Let’s get moving

Buying a new home is an exciting life event but it can feel overwhelming when you start the process. Our experienced New Homes Team are here to help you navigate the path to exchanging contracts and moving into your new home. With your own dedicated conveyancer from start to finish, accessing easily understood advice has never been easier than with Foot Anstey.

Why choose Foot Anstey?

Our new build expertise, our knowledge of your development and our excellent reputation means:

Lower fees

We can offer reduced fees on developments we already know as we have carried out the required title investigations and are familiar with the site. This allows you to benefit from us not duplicating time and effort and a reduced fee that reflects this. We are able to offer a competitive fee quote because of our extensive knowledge in newbuild and because we handle thousands of transactions each year and not because we compromise on service.

We can proceed quickly on your behalf

As our checks will have been carried out in advance, we are in a good position to help you achieve a quick exchange, meet the developer’s Target Exchange Date and reduce the risk of your plot being re-marketed.

Existing relationships

We have a good relationship with your developer. We are independent of the developer, but we do know them. This can be crucial in keeping a new build transaction on track as we can easily pick up the phone to the right person at the right time to keep your transaction moving and communication flowing. Our priority as a regulated entity is to act for you and in your best interests at all times.

We build successful relationships with everyone involved

We often know your broker and we are familiar with the developer’s solicitors. You want to buy your plot, and the developer wants to sell it to you. If your conveyancer has a good relationship with the other professionals involved, they can all work together to help you achieve a quick exchange.

Finally, and crucially – we are your lawyers

You do not have to use us or any other conveyancer the developer mentions to you, but we hope the benefits we have set out above will encourage you to get in touch for a personalised quote and give you the confidence that we are the right choice for you.

We look forward to helping you move into your exciting new home.

Our process – step by step

What you do:

Instruct Foot Anstey to act for you.

What we do:

Take your initial instructions.

What you do:

Submit your application for mortgage and/or Help to Buy.

What we do:

Call you to discuss the finer details.

What you do:

Send us your ID and evidence of the source of your funds.

What we do:

Receive the draft legal documents from the developer’s solicitor.

What you do:

Send us your signed Help to Buy or Lifetime ISA Buyer Declaration.

What we do:

  • Check the paperwork and raise any necessary questions.
  • Receive your initial Help to Buy paperwork.
  • Report to you on the legal aspects of the property and send you the contract for signature.
  • Receive your mortgage offer and deal with any requirements your lender may have.
  • Send you our advice on your mortgage and the mortgage deed for signature.

What you do:

Carefully read our Report and if you’re happy to proceed, return any documents we’ve asked you to sign as quickly as you can.

What we do:

  • Submit documents required by Help to Buy.
  • Receive ‘clearance’ to proceed from your lender.
  • Receive ‘Authority to Exchange’ from Help to Buy.
  • Request your deposit funds.

What you do:

Send us your deposit funds.

What we do:

Take your final authority to exchange contracts.

What happens:

A date will be set for completion (handing over of your keys) or a timeframe will be agreed for the developer to finish building your property.

Our process – step by step

What you do:

Instruct Foot Anstey to act for you.

What we do:

Take your initial instructions.

What you do:

Submit your application for mortgage and/or Help to Buy.

What we do:

Call you to discuss the finer details.

What you do:

Send us your ID and evidence of the source of your funds.

What we do:

Receive the draft legal documents from the developer’s solicitor.

What you do:

Send us your signed Help to Buy or Lifetime ISA Buyer Declaration.

What we do:

  • Check the paperwork and raise any necessary questions.
  • Receive your initial Help to Buy paperwork.
  • Report to you on the legal aspects of the property and send you the contract for signature.
  • Receive your mortgage offer and deal with any requirements your lender may have.
  • Send you our advice on your mortgage and the mortgage deed for signature.

What you do:

Carefully read our Report and if you’re happy to proceed, return any documents we’ve asked you to sign as quickly as you can.

What we do:

  • Submit documents required by Help to Buy.
  • Receive ‘clearance’ to proceed from your lender.
  • Receive ‘Authority to Exchange’ from Help to Buy.
  • Request your deposit funds.

What you do:

Send us your deposit funds.

What we do:

Take your final authority to exchange contracts.

What happens:

A date will be set for completion (handing over of your keys) or a timeframe will be agreed for the developer to finish building your property.

Simple pricing with no hidden costs

We understand that transparency is paramount when it comes to the legal fees you need to pay and that there should be no surprises! The figures shown below are indicative of a typical purchase, but the final total will depend on your personal circumstances, please call your dedicated conveyancer or 0345 140 0025 if you would like a personalised quote.

Example of costs involved in the purchase of a new home:

Purchase priceBelow £500k £500k – £1mShared ownership
Our fees (+ VAT)£825£950£1,095
Bank fee to transfer funds on completion (+ VAT)£35£35£35
Searches contribution£25£25£25
Stamp duty return filing fee (+ VAT)£75£75£75
Third Party charges:
No Search Indemnity Insurance (subject to lender)£9£9£9
Pre-completion Land Registry search fee (+ VAT)£6£6£6
Land Registry Bankruptcy search fees (+ VAT) (per buyer)£4£4£4
VAT payable where indicated£189£214£243

Other possible purchase costs (all + VAT)

  • Leasehold Property:  £150
  • Our fee for acting on company matters with a mortgage: £500 + VAT
  • Online ID/Electronic Identification Checks 9per buyer/gift donor): £15
  • Affordable Housing:  £250
  • Help to Buy or Lifetime ISA (per account holder):  £50
  • Processing gifted money (per donor):  £100
Other purchase third party charges

Land Registry fee for registration:  £45 – £1,105 dependent on value.

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT)

We will calculate your SDLT when we take your instructions as this can vary depending upon your circumstances for example if you own other property or you are a first-time buyer. If you would like to estimate this for yourself at this stage, we recommend using the Tax Services’ online calculator which can be found at www.tax.service.gov.uk/calculate-stamp-duty-land-tax

Example of costs involved in selling a home

We can also act for you if you are selling a property in order to purchase your new build.  Here are our standard sale costs:

Sale (all + VAT)FreeholdLeasehold
Our fees£1,100£1,250
Bank fee to redeem mortgage (per lender)£35£35
Third Party charges:
Land Registry fees for title documents (est.)£6£15
VAT payable where indicated£228.20£260
Total payable on Completion£1,369.20£1,560

Other possible sale costs (all + VAT)

  • Discharging any additional mortgages (per mortgage/secured loan):  £150
  • Dealing with sale of shared ownership property:  £150
  • Dealing with management company:  £150
  • Selling an unregistered property:  £300
  • Sourcing an indemnity policy (+ cost of policy itself):  £50

Other possible sale third party charges

Management company fees to answer standard buyer enquiries:  Priced by management company (approx. £250)

Our people

There are particular complexities when dealing with newbuild properties, so using a conveyancer who specialises in this area and is familiar with the development you are buying from already can make all the difference in terms of both quality assurance and speed.

Because we are likely to be instructed by numerous plot buyers on a development, we will carry out an extensive title investigation and ask as many questions of the developer’s solicitors as we need to in order to be satisfied that our buyers can safely proceed.

Meet our team

Key contacts

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What do our clients say?

“As first-time buyers we had no clue what we were doing when buying our house! Foot Anstey were brilliant at explaining everything to us, keeping us fully informed throughout. Absolutely brilliant service.”

“The service provided was outstanding. Refreshingly, the service was proactive and I was updated regularly on the progress of my transaction. Furthermore, if I contacted the firm, the response was immediate.”

“Excellent service. No fuss. Very professional.”

“Exceptional in going above and beyond in exceeding expectations. By far the best and the people are very knowledgeable and client focused”

When comparing quotes from different firms we recommend adding up the total amount payable, including any potential extras shown in the ‘small print’ so that you can compare costs ‘like for like’.  We can confirm that we do not charge additional supplements for items such as:

  • An additional fee if you are buying with a mortgage or for “acting for your lender”
  • Archiving fees
  • Postage, photocopying and file storage fees

Please note: If the value of your property you are selling or purchasing exceeds £1m please contact us for a quote.

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