New Home Owners And Snagging Forum
Advice on buying a brand new home => House Builders => Topic started by: CLI98 on April 02, 2026, 09:08:23 pm
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Priced Beyond the Stratosphere, Deluded Beyond Belief
White Stork Vale Downsview Avenue
Storrington, West Sussex RH20 4PS
In my opinion, Croudace have priced basic 3-bed semis with laminate worktops and pocket-sized gardens as though they’re Berkeley Homes. They are not.
Don’t bother with part-exchange. In my experience they’ll string you through the whole process and pull out anyway. We went to market instead and had our full asking price within a week. Funny that.
No flooring included as standard. If it’s not on the spec sheet, forget it. At this rate you’d have to haggle for a door hinge. Good luck getting a straight answer about what is included anyway.
Don’t expect incentives either. Most developers offer around 5% to soften what is, in my opinion, the almost inevitable year-one depreciation on a new build. Not here — not on a slow-selling site anyway. You either pay full price or qualify for a specially selected plot. Out of the kindness of their hearts they may cover your stamp duty — but stone worktops? Laminate for you, I’m afraid. In my opinion, there is an imaginary queue of buyers in Croudace world that doesn’t appear to exist in the real one.
We negotiated a deal through the on-site office staff — apparently the regional manager was too important to speak to the public directly, yet had no problem signing off the deal and then taking it away the next day. When we asked for a call to explain, that was refused too. The same deal had been offered on a different plot two weeks prior. In my opinion this wasn’t a mistake — it was arrogance. What frustrates me most is the complete lack of basic decency to pick up the phone and explain, or simply honour what was agreed. I suspect head office never heard about this one.
The significant social housing element — much of it local authority — is in my view deliberately buried under greyed-out plots on their site plan. Not exactly front and centre in the brochure.
Interestingly, Plot 4 — a larger house than the ones being sold at £525k — is listed separately by Saxon Weald as a shared ownership property at a full market value of £450k. So in my opinion, you can get a bigger house on the same development for less. Make of that what you will.
Local estate agents will privately tell you the pricing is completely detached from the local market. After six months, barely anything has sold. That’s not the economy — that’s a developer who, in my opinion, has confused perception with value. For context you can buy a semi with a garage in the local area for around £400k (based on my research)
In my opinion, Croudace don’t want to sell houses — they want to find someone who doesn’t know any better. Don’t be that person.
For context, this is a condensed version of a three month journey with this development. We were mortgage approved, chain-free, and simply asked for a 4% incentive package in what is, by any measure, one of the worst housing markets in recent years. In return we were, in my opinion, lied to, gaslit, and made to feel like idiots for simply trying to buy a house. It was almost as if they thought they were doing us a favour. They were not.
Steer clear. But if you ignore this and go anyway — we warned you. We wasted three months so you don’t have to.
And if anyone from the Croudace board happens to read this — I would be more than happy to discuss our experience directly.
As a buyer, you will always be wrong. Their view will always be right, even when, in my opinion, they are making it up as they go along. I would not consider buying a home from this company again.