23 reasons to buy new in 2023
Buying a new home can be one of the biggest and possibly the most daunting purchase you will ever make. Luckily, there are so many benefits of buying a Hopkins Home over an older property, it’s an easy decision to make.
Here are 23 reasons to buy new in ‘23.
1. Countless Choices
There are countless designs and styles to choose from in a range of prices from apartments to homes including terraced, link-attached, semi-detached and detached. With over 100 design variations, our homes are individual and full of character – no plain square box in sight.
2. Dedicated Spaces
A Hopkins home is thoughtfully designed for modern day life. Practical spaces are considered throughout including open-plan kitchens, formal and informal living areas, utility rooms, en-suite bedrooms and extra dedicated rooms such as a study or day room.
3. Designed for Modern Life
With the latest high-speed broadband on all developments, you can benefit from faster downloads to support multiple devices. Our homes are also wired with CAT 5 cabling and on all newly commenced properties, a provision for car charging.
4. Blank Canvas
A new home offers you a blank canvas, ready to add your individual style. You can put your feet up and relax from the start, without having to live with someone else’s disastrous décor.
5. Extras as Standard
We are one of few builders to offer enhanced internal features including kitchen tiled splashbacks as standard, fitted wardrobes in most bedrooms, a separate airing cupboard, solid wood threshold strips, coving and raised ceiling heights.
6. Greener is Cheaper
New homes are more energy efficient, helping to save money on your bills.
At Hopkins Homes, our Fabric First approach to house building means that energy efficiency is weaved into the fabric of each property, rather than added as an afterthought. All our new homes are EPC rated A or B for energy efficiency, with less than 4% of older homes achieving the same grade**.
Whilst energy costs have risen by 80% this year, a recent report by the HBF has shown that owners of new build homes are saving on average £2,600** on energy bills each year, with owners of apartments saving on average £1,200**.
7. Low Maintenance Costs
With no hidden renovation costs and no major DIY, a newly built home will give you more time to yourself and could save you up to £55,000* – a cost quoted by the HBF (Home Builders Federation) to upgrade an older home to new build specifications.
8. Environmentally Friendlier
Residential property in the UK accounts for over 20% of the country’s emissions. New build homes are helping to reduce carbon emissions by more than 500,000 tonnes per year, emitting a third of the carbon of an older property**.
9. The Chance to Personalise
Depending on build stage, you can select your colour choices, optional extras or upgrades to help personalise your new home before you move in. Whether that is your kitchen, bathroom or flooring finishes, everything will be installed and ready for when you move in.
10. No Parking Issues
Every new home is given a dedicated car parking space(s), so you no longer have to fight for a space on your road.
11. Water Rebate
We seek to provide sustainable drainage solutions for surface water rather than standard pipes to prevent flooding. This allows rainwater to seep back into the earth near where it falls, reducing pressure on council drainage and sewerage systems.
If you have a soak-away, you can apply to have the surface water drainage charges removed from your water bills. For further details visit: Surface water drainage (anglianwater.co.uk)
12. Biodiverse
We aim to achieve a biodiversity net gain on all our developments, providing safe havens for birds, beetles and hedgehogs, to name but a few. Our aim is to leave the land in a better place than when we found it.
13. Safety as Standard
All our homes are built to the National House Building Council (NHBC) standards – the technical benchmark for new homes – ensuring that your new home is in line with modern building regulations and meets all regulatory requirements.
14. A Chain Free Move
Buying new means there is no upward chain – often one of the most stressful parts of buying a home. As the home you are purchasing has never been occupied, you can move in as soon as its completed. This reduces the buying chain, as well as the stress and uncertainty associated with moving home.
15. Buying Off Plan
If you buy off-plan in a location where house prices are on the rise, you could benefit from equity growth before you have even moved in.
16. Simpler Ways to Buy
When you buy a new home, you can access additional schemes to help make your move even easier. This could be help selling your current home through Part Exchange and MoveEasy or monetary support such as the Income or Deposit Booster to help get you on the ladder. Green mortgages are also available on newly built homes.
17. Financial Incentives
Look out for the extra offers we may have available, whether that is free fixtures and fittings or a contribution towards your stamp duty, energy bills or mortgage payments.
18. Stay in Control
Stay in control of your income. Buying new means that you will know all your costs at the start of the process. There are no nasty surprises with extra surveys to be carried out or realising that you’ll have to put a new roof on your home within a few months or the boiler packs in!
19. New Community
We don’t just build homes, we build communities – everyone is starting their exciting new chapter at the same time, so you are in a great place to meet people and build friendships.
20. Peace of Mind
Every Hopkins home is supported by a 10-year NHBC Buildmark policy, which covers:
• Deposit protection from exchange of contracts
• A two-year Hopkins Homes warranty from legal completion, so if a defect does occur, we will put it right
• An additional eight-year NHBC insurance cover for longer-term reassurance – 10 years cover in total.
There’s also all the warranties and guarantees that come with your new appliances and fixtures and fittings too!
21. Added Protection
Every Hopkins home is protected by a covenant ensuring that all properties and the environment in which they sit are maintained, protecting the re-sale value of your home.
22. A Helping Hand
Buying a new home can feel like a daunting process, but if you’re buying new, we are here to help you every step of the way. Our Sales Consultants can guide you through the buying process and are on hand to answer any questions you may have, no matter how trivial they may seem, and our Customer Care team is available 24/7, to offer support once you’ve moved in.
23. Consumer Code
Finally, and by no means least, your interests are covered by one of two schemes:
• The Consumer Code, an industry-led scheme that was developed to make the home buying process fairer and more transparent.
• The New Homes Quality Board (NHQB), a replacement body, established for the purposes of overseeing reforms in the build quality of new homes and the customer service provided. As part of this, a New Homes Ombudsman Service will provide a dispute resolution service to redress any new homes that do not meet the NHQB standards.
* new-homes.co.uk, new build factsheet.
** ‘Watt a save’ report (12th October 2022), the Home Builders Federation