Right time to lock builder when title is 8 months away.

Hi,

We have recently booked a plot of land on an estate Alira Berwick but the titlement date is around September 2022. We shopped the homes and builders and have finalized on a floor plan and the builder. The builder has provided us a quote and pushing to sign a contract citing increase in building costs would potentally be impacting the price.

On the flip side, have heard horror stories that due to Covid delays the titling also has been delayed in the past. Estate agents are non commital on a definite dates so far ahead.

My questio is should I bite the bullet and sign up the contract with the builder taking advantage of pricing or should I wait till the lot is titled?


What do you think?

If the prices do go up, do you think the builder will build your house at a loss to himself?

I think if you are happy then pay the deposit and lock it in. Prices will continue to rise! I know quite a few people who have locked in their builder before titles.

You run the risk of locking in now and getting price increases (they usually only have in the contract a 90 day hold on prices).
We locked in a bit earlier than we should have, even though titles were on time but we still got an increase, fortunately it wasn’t an issue as we hadn’t even started finance yet so it was added on and our site works came in a lot lower than estimated too.
I’d personally hold out finding a builder until much closer to expected title time, then go speak to your developer with how they’re tracking with approvals.

No titles until Sep 2022?
There's going to be multiple price rises between now and then and you'll wear them no matter if you've got a contract or not.
There'll be multiple new house designs available between then and now. You may find one you like better.
The deposit is better off in your bank account than your builder's
With Titles may come a previously unknown easement issue.
My advice would be to hold off for a while

Thank you. I appreciate your responses. We have decided to hold off till May next year as we near the title phase.

I'd honestly leave it until later again.

We signed start of June, our land titled mid September, we were still hit with a price increase with the builder. Maybe around end of July at the very earliest incase titles are delayed.. usually something happens and they're delayed. We were fortunate ours only delayed by 2wks, my first house was delayed 6mths and I have 2 friends that were delayed 2yrs