Home Buying advice Guide to buying a new home

Essential 10 step guide to buying a new home

Buying a new home is exciting, but it can seem a little daunting at the same time. Don’t worry it’s not as complicated as you might think and the steps below will show you exactly what’s involved.

1. Organise your finances

Your bank or mortgage adviser will be able to tell how much you can borrow and how much deposit you’ll need. You can then get a mortgage agreed ‘in principle’ before you start looking for a property.

Don’t forget to budget for additional costs such as legal fees, Stamp Duty, council tax and utilities.

2. Find the home that’s right for you

Now you now what your budget is, you can start looking for your new home. We have properties available to suit every lifestyle and budget and you can search for your new home by region, location or development.

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3. Appoint a solicitor

You’ll need a solicitor who specialises in conveyancing to take care of the legal aspects of the home buying process. We work with a panel of approved solicitors who can help you.

4. ‘Reserving’ your new home

This is similar to the ‘make an offer’ stage in the traditional home buying process. You pay a small fee to reserve your new home, which means that no one else can purchase it in the meantime.

5. Organise your mortgage

If you’ve already spoken to your bank of mortgage adviser, you probably already have a mortgage agreed in principle. If not, we can put you in touch with our panel of mortgage providers who will help you find the type of mortgage that’s best for you.

6. Valuation and survey

Even though you’re buying a brand new house, your mortgage lender will still want to confirm its value and will appoint a specialist to visit the property and carry out a valuation and a survey for you. There are three main types of survey:

A Full Building Survey: sometimes called a Structural Survey, this is a comprehensive report on the current condition of the property. This type of survey isn’t necessary with a new build Dandara property
RICS Homebuyers’ Report: prepared by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, this is a slightly less detailed report than a full survey, but it is slightly cheaper
Basic Valuation Report: this report provides guidance as to whether the price you are paying is reasonable. It doesn’t provide as much detail as the other types of survey but is suitable for a new build property.

7. Legal work

Your solicitor will carry out local searches to ensure there are no legal obstacles such as local plans, which may affect the property and undertake the conveyancing - formally transferring ownership from Dandara to you.

8. Arrange insurance

Buying a home is a big investment, so it’s important to have the appropriate insurance cover in place, such as life assurance, buildings and contents insurance.

9. Exchange contracts

As soon as all legal work is complete your solicitor exchanges contracts with us and you pay your deposit. You’ll be given a ‘completion date’ (when you become the legal owner) and you can organise your move.

10. Completion

On the completion date the full cost of the property is transferred from your mortgage lender to us and you become the legal owner of your new home. We’ll then take you around your new home to show you where everything is and how it all works before you move in.

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Are you a first time buyer?

For information about first buyer schemes in your area contact us