A recent shopping exercise carried out by the Financial Times raises the question of whether anyone actually pays the asking price for a new-build scheme these days.

In the exercise, researchers from the FT spoke to a wide range of property developers throughout the UK posing as potential buyers.  They found that most of the developments contacted by telephone offered discounts of about 10 per cent within a few minutes of conversation.

At a serviced apartment block in Leeds, constructed by the Morris Properties Group, a potential buyer was offered a 15 per cent discount before he even start haggling.  The FT states that this sort of deal, offering a studio flat for £99,995, was not untypical.

The FT reports that Morris offered to pay the entire 15 per cent deposit, effectively allowing the buyer to raise a 100 per cent mortgage on an £85,000 property.  "YOu won't have to pay for a dsposit at all, "said salesman Lee Jones.

Property developers have been criticsed for offering indirect discounts in forms which are unlikley to show up on the buyer's contract.  Such indirect discounts have allowed many buy-to-let investors to get around the rules which demand that they put down a deposit of at least 15 per cent in order to secure a mortgage.

However, the latest spate of discounts does not necessarily mean the buyer is getting a bargain.  As the FT points out, it could merely suggest that housebuilders are deliberately putting their prices high in order to make spurious cuts later.