Flat in Canary Wharf

El_Capitano_3

Hi all,
I have been using this forum for a while now and find it very helpful but this is my first post.

I have been looking around for a couple of months and have found a flat in Canary Wharf (5 minutes walk from the tube station) which has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and is relatively newly built. The flat is a repossession which has been on the market for the last two weeks and the asking price is £310K. The flat has a long lease (900 years), gym, swimming pool and the service charge is £1500 per year. The estate agent keeps saying that they might accept an offer around £290K and I will be paying mostly by cash but will need a mortgage of about £50K.

Anyone live around the Canary Wharf / South Quay area? If so, does the property represent good value? I had a look at nethouseprices.com and it looks like the flat was sold for £380K in 2005. I am still not sure whether to make an offer or to wait for a few months for the prices to drop even lower.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

fiscalfreckles

My sister lives there and loves it - and that seems very good value to me. (The price of the flat I mean, sorry I have no idea what they pay in service charges, but that's non-negotiable!)

One thing I would check out though is whether there are many other repo/empty flats in the same building; sometimes this can be a domino effect and the whole block can plummet in value if there are a lot of empty or unmaintained properties.

The area is lovely, so many bars & restaurants and good shops.

AMILLIONDOLLARS

I would check what the future increases of service charges will be, as initial charges are kept artifically low to attract buyers, then they shot up after a couple of years. I would also check what the rate of repos and rentals in the building, as this will also have an effect on the price.

Good luck

AMD

Jorgan_2

What have other properties sold for in the last couple of months, thats whats important in the current market. Two weeks is probably too soon to get a decent drop on the asking price. Many lenders will want the property to be advertised two or three times before accepting an offer.

PasturesNew

Find out also how many are owner occupiers and how many are BTL/rented out.

hethmar

If you really like it - offer the agent a full cash purchase at £240k and then sit back and wait. They are desperate for buyers, not only can you offer no chain but they wont have the worry that the mortgage offer/valuation wont come through.

Just ring them saying you can give them literally cash at that price otherwise you will be waiting to see what happens to the market in the next year.

My son has just exchanged on a repo flat 2 beds, 2 baths on the south bank - the service charge is £1600 pa - (that includes water charges hefound that out yesterday). So yours sounds much the same.

Smi1er

PasturesNew wrote: »

Find out also how many are owner occupiers and how many are BTL/rented out.

How on earth can you do that?

berec1

I wrote a huge reply and the forum deleted it as it too so long to write it!

I'm renting near South Quay right now.

• Hundreds of flats are on the market for renting at the moment in the area. An idea of how many flats are available for rent in the area at present - a search on Nestoria shows 825 flats to rent in a 0.21 square mile radius near South Quay, of which 496 are 2+ bedrooms: click here for Nestoria Search
• At the same time thousands of job losses in Canary Wharf means far fewer rental tenants. Renters such as myself are getting huge discounts on flats as a result simply to get people into the flats.
• Thus lots of BTL owners are clearly having to cover their BTL mortgage payments. They aren't earning as much (or anything) or getting the big bonus that would cover the mortgage payments and thus may have to sell in the next few months or be repossesed.

So just be aware that you could be looking at many more repossessions in the next few months, making the current price of your flat a standard price and not a bargain? (in which case you might want to wait and see if there is something better for the money..)

Also lots of new developments - Millharbour, Pan Peninsula, Landmark East/ West, (likely to be approved soon) City Pride 60-odd storey tower - so many hundreds of new flats also coming onto the market in the next few years. No idea what will happen in this situation if the job cuts remain at the Wharf and there aren't enough buyers for flats.

At the same time it does look a pretty good price (2 beds in The Landmark claim to start from £570,000) and frankly if I could get a 2 bed 2 bath place for £240,000 as an earlier poster suggested you try offering, it's probably worth it given the location, if you intend to live there for a while. However a couple more practical words of warning:

• The City Pride tower will be 60 storeys or so high, next to the Landmark East / West. Basically, if you live in the South Quay area, your view to the West - London City, the Thames - may be blocked by those plus existing towers. Not quite as pleasant - make sure your solicitors check out all proposed future developments in the area.
• Due to all the developments, there is construction in the South Quay area daily Monday - Friday, 8am - 5pm ish. This will continue for several years. Not a problem if you work standard hours but if you do shift work or spend a lot of time at home, please visit the potential flat at several times during the day to assess the impact of local construction work on your partcular flat. I don't worry about oversleeping during the week as I wake up at 8am from the machines daily!

Hope this helps - I'm definitely not an expert, but I know I had the pick of several hundred apartments in mid October when I moved here. Agents were falling over backwards to show me things that were up to £100pwk over my budget, saying that many landlords were desperate to rent out at reduced rates due to the oversupply of property and constant job threats in Canary Wharf.

If you're serious about buying in Canary Wharf, you should definitely do a lot more research into what's happening locally and at the very least research what has been happening with local prices on 2 bed flats over the last 6-9 months. Also keep an eye on the business news, know what's happening with local businesses in the Wharf - if massive jobs cuts are continuing, if new businesses are moving to the area etc so you have an idea of the likely supply / demand situation.

pinkshoes

Doing a quick rightmove.co.uk search for 2 bed flats within 1/2 a mile of Canary Wharf tube, and there are 35 2 beds for sale under £300k.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=STATION%5E1724&minBedrooms=2&maxBedrooms=2&maxPrice=300000&radius=0.5

A few of those are under £250k, although probably won't have the same facilities!

Repeating the same search for properties to RENT in that area (but for a 1/4 mile from CW station), there are 1000+ 2 bedroom properties!!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E85362&minBedrooms=2&maxBedrooms=2&radius=0.25

From this data, it would seem a wise idea to RENT one of these many many apartments for 6 months to see if you like living there. I'm sure you can even find one to rent in the same building.

fiscalfreckles

Quote:
Originally Posted by PasturesNew
Find out also how many are owner occupiers and how many are BTL/rented out.

How on earth can you do that?

Ask the management company of the building (who you would be paying maintenance charges to).

SouthCoast

Maintenance charge appears very low. Have all the residents paid up to date?

A search at Companies House on the management company will give more info.