New house delayed

[Snaggedout]

Thanks for confirming what I said was correct.

All the private homebuyers of the major house builders are sent a survey form, not once but twice. Yes, investors are excluded because they are generally absent homeowners, buy on price and are pretty much unconcerned about most customer satisfaction issues. Social housing is also excluded because the tenants don't buy the house, don't get involved in the pre-sale service, have an after sales service delivered by their landlord not the builder so they can't answer most of the questions.

If you know anything about statistics you'll know that a response rate of 55% to a postal survey is highly significant and the results have a high degree of confidence. You may not like the results but they are accurate and reflect the experience of people who buy from the major house builders who produce the lion's share of new homes.

If you are involved in the industry you will also know that the NHBC survey actually delivers a lower score than the private polls conducted for larger builders, partly due to methodology (telephone v postal survey).

Yes, there is another survey run the NHBC at nine months which measures other aspects of the new home experience, some of which are not related to the service provided by the builder.

Finally, if you still believe in conspiracy theories have a look at the customer satisfaction survey that the Office of Fair Trading ran as part of its study into the housebuilding industry. Does it give similar lvels of satisfaction to those in those in the NHBC survey, or are they higher?

[NewHomeExpert]

Can you really be serious that a Buy-to-let investor is only concerned about price not the quality and standard of his investment?

The nine month survey needs to be made public so consumers can compare builders against each other. But as an HBF spkesman said to me and I quote:
“publishing more detailed company results would not have had any more impact on raising customer satisfaction among new home buyers. But it would most certainly have provided food for those who are prejudiced against the industry and simply seek to criticise.”

I am aware that the OFT did an investigation comparing new homes customer satisfaction surveys. This was instigated because it was believed that customer satisfaction had not improved substantially since the Barker Review of Housing Supply in March 2004.
OFT Comparison of Consumer Satisfaction Surveys
It was highly critical of the new homes industry!

Please feel free to reply again if you are inclined to do so.
However, but for my part I believe people can and will judge the facts for for themselves