Sounds like common sense! However, the new homes market is not without its fair share of troubles right now.
We appear to have travelled a complicated road with many and varied troubles, all of which have conspired to make building and selling new houses about as difficult as it can be.
Wholly interrupted building programme (2019/COVID)
Insufficient numbers of trades (2020/Brexit)
Soaring interest rates (2021/Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-Budget)
Rising material costs and shortages (2022/Ukraine war)
UK inflation rate hits 10.4% (2023/February)
UK tax increase/loss of business confidence (2024/Autumn budget)
Threat of increased defence expenditure (2025/NATO commitment)
It’s hard and sometimes difficult to see how we might ever return to a few years of economic stability (but we will).
But for now, it’s easy to see why so many businesses have pulled their horns in and cut overheads; even those not directly affected have taken precautionary steps to make sure they survive these difficult months.
What business owner worth their salt wouldn’t understand that. But sometimes we must look beyond that which is staring us in the face to consider the consequences of such monetary actions.
There are things that simply must remain a part of the house building equation – obvious things …
Land
Materials
Contractors
Customers
I know, it’s insultingly obvious, I feel embarrassed to be saying it! But there are aspects that get completely chopped out – pruned back, as a measure to cut ‘unnecessary costs’, and one of those things is ‘service’.
When I say service, I am talking about how a developer looks after a customer once they have purchased a new home; not in the lead up to making the buying commitment, but beyond that stage. Do we even need to think about that? How is that really a factor in how a developer runs a business in such troubled times?
Well, step back just a moment and let’s look at this from the consumer’s perspective.
It has become significantly harder to get a mortgage than it was a decade ago. Many lenders have tightened up their affordability criteria to reduce the chances of accepting borrowers who may struggle to make mortgage repayments going forward, with steep energy bills and food costs continuing to eat up a significant proportion of our monthly incomes.
When a mortgage application is successful, the new homeowner is already feeling the pressure. And this feeds down through their experience of owning a new home. So it is of small surprise that when something goes awry their response is ‘pre-charged’ with the sense that they have just jumped through flaming hoops of mortgage application, along with often years of deposit saving, only to find that now, there are problems with their new home.
This heightened sentiment is palpable. And as an organisation who provide After Care, we’re very aware that what may have barely registered on the scale of dissatisfaction a decade ago, is now peaking as a source of considerable unhappiness.
In short, the extent to which a homeowner needs supporting today following the purchase of their new home, is way above that which more than sufficed before.
What does it matter? They’ve made their purchase and paid over their money. Well, it matters a great deal, and this is why increasingly, we’re signing up new clients.
When a consumer has a problem that they perceive a developer is failing to sufficiently acknowledge, let alone resolve, their propensity to change up several gears from the initial reported problem to a full-on complaint, is significant.
Those businesses who ignore the signs (let alone the complaint), can quickly become the object of a personal vendetta to seek disproportionate recompense. By now it’s ugly and the consequences of mishandling what comes next can be very costly.
The consumer has a powerful digital friend in the guise of social media. It is the most effective tool at levelling the playing field to secure satisfaction.
The fall-out is most often reputational damage for the developer coupled with an adverse impact on future sales. A single unhappy homeowner can quickly enlist support among their neighbours and this with modest organisation will fuel a campaign to hurt you. We have seen this so many times.
So, is the ‘cost-saving’ of no After Care worth it? To answer that may first require you to understand what the cost of reliable, professional After Care looks like.
After Build provide fixed price After Care from as little as 30 pence per plot per day. As a potential saving, it’s removal from your budget wouldn’t even buy you a cup of coffee at the end of the week.
So, when you next review your development budget, keep in mind that not all cost savings make for a better business.
Want to know more? Contact Mark Fawcitt (Director of Sales and Marketing) After Build: markf@afterbuild.com or mobile: 07342 037810.
Kommentare