About six months
On a normal purchase, a mortgage offer often lasts about six months from the day it is issued. That is long enough for most chains. It is often not long enough for a home that is still being built. A few new-build products are set up for a longer completion, sometimes about nine months. That is the exception, not the usual position.
When the plot slips
Some lenders will extend an offer, sometimes more than once, and often only after a fresh valuation and a check that nothing has changed in your circumstances. The rate you were first offered is not always kept. It can be replaced with whatever that lender is offering on the day of the extension. If the extension is refused, the application starts again. The price, the valuation and the monthly cost can all be different. Your reservation with the developer is still there.
What we do
We look at the expected completion date before you reserve, and we say if a six-month offer is not long enough for that plot. If the developer then moves the date, we deal with the extension, or a new application, while there is still time. The point of coming to us is that the offer and the build stay in step. It is not something to leave until the week the keys were due.
These are typical lending positions, not a mortgage offer and not a promise of what a lender will do. Rules change, and the result depends on the plot, the price and your circumstances. We check the detail and tell you what can actually be done.
Talk to us before you reserve