In the last few years, 43-year-old Jason Bream and his family have been able able to move from a one-bed flat to a three-bedroom detached new-build house – but he says he wouldn’t have been able to do it without the inheritance he got from his father. Jason, an office manager at a plumbing and heating firm, lives in North Mundham, West Sussex, with his wife, Sarah, 41, a teaching assistant, and their daughter, Isabella, 13. In 2010, Jason, who was single, purchased a one-bed flat for £100,000, paying £560 a month for his mortgage. He then met Sarah, who moved into the flat in 2012, before their daughter was born in 2013. if( window?.adverts?.addToArray ) { window.adverts.addToArray( { "pos": "mpu_mobile_l1" } ); } if( window?.adverts?.addToArray ) { window.adverts.addToArray( { "pos": "mpu_tablet_l1" } ); } Soon after starting a family, the couple realised the property wasn’t big enough for them. “Isabella had the bedroom, but my wife and I slept in the living room. It was not ideal and there was zero privacy. One of us would be watching TV while the other wanted to sleep.” Jason says that his father, Clifford, had always wanted Jason and his family to be able to move to a larger home. After Clifford died in 2021 aged 68, Jason inherited half of his late father’s two-bed bungalow in Selsey, also in West Sussex, with his sister inheriting the other half. if( window?.adverts?.addToArray ) { window.adverts.addToArray( { "pos": "mpu_mobile_l2" } ); } if( window?.adverts?.addToArray ) { window.adverts.addToArray( { "pos": "mpu_tablet_l2" } ); } He then sold his flat for £135,000, and used the proceeds to buy out his sister, meaning he and his wife had full ownership of the bungalow. “Dad had been desperate for us to move out of the flat and move into his bungalow,” Jason said. He and his family were grateful to be able to live in the bungalow, but as their needs changed, its lack of space became problematic. Jason said: “Isabella got older and we had to go through her bedroom to get to our bedroom, which wasn’t ideal. We didn’t have a dining room or office space and the garden was small. Late last year, Jason and Sarah started viewing different homes to move to. The couple looked at a new-build site in Selsey but did not like the layout, and existing properties didn’t fit the bill. Jason said: “We’d gone for dinner at my sister’s, who’d moved into a new-build, and realised we wanted a new-build with a dining room. “I drove past Dandara’s Hawthorn Grove site in North Mundham every day to get to work and thought it’d be worth a look. We ended up falling in love with and buying a three-bed detached house on the site for £475,000, having built up a savings pot of around £60,000 towards the end of 2025. I’d also had around £12,000 from my late father as an inheritance.” if( window?.adverts?.addToArray ) { window.adverts.addToArray( { "pos": "mpu_mobile_l3" } ); } if( window?.adverts?.addToArray ) { window.adverts.addToArray( { "pos": "mpu_tablet_l3" } ); } The couple were concerned they would not be able to afford the property, but eventually used a part-exchange scheme to do so. A part-exchange transaction in the context of a new-build purchase is where a buyer buys a brand-new property from a housebuilder and, in exchange, the housebuilder buys their customer’s property. So, the developer purchased Jason’s two-bed bungalow for £171,000 in 2025. The family waited nine months to move into their new-build as it had to be completed. Jason said: “I know we could have got more money for the bungalow on the open market, but there was no certainty as to how long it would take to sell. “The part-exchange scheme had pros and cons, but, for us, the benefits outweighed the drawbacks. It took a lot of stress out of the process as we knew we’d sell the bungalow. “We love our new house. It has much more space, a large garden, dining room and a garage. My father would have been so proud of what we’ve achieved and I’m thankful to him.” Richard Wisnia, head of new build development at Switalskis Solicitors, said: “In a quieter second-hand market, housebuilders will have a healthier appetite for part-exchange to help them generate sales and cashflow, and removing the risks of delays to them securing an exchange of contracts with their customer at the earliest possible opportunity.” if( window?.adverts?.addToArray ) { window.adverts.addToArray( { "pos": "mpu_mobile_l4" } ); } if( window?.adverts?.addToArray ) { window.adverts.addToArray( { "pos": "mpu_tablet_l4" } ); } He added: “For new home buyers part-exchange can be a very attractive option – the housebuilder will be about as secure a purchaser you can get and so one of the biggest anxieties for a home mover, the collapse of a chain, is mitigated to a significant extent. “But developers will want to resell your property as quickly as possible as all housebuilders have a limit on the number of part-exchange properties they can hold on their books at any one time, so the price offered for your house is likely to be based on a specific formula operated by the housebuilder and may well not be as much as you think you could get yourself on the open market. “They will conduct valuations, but these are likely to be generated based on achieving a quick sale.”

Source: The i Paper | Read the original article