Advice on buying a flat in Glasgow?

JessS

Thanks everyone- this is really helpful. Obviously there aren't masses of properties in this bracket, but I had been looking at 5 or 6 in the last fortnight that looked ok.
A friend has also recommended Dennistoun and Govan- so I think I will start looking there.
Yes- I currently live in an ex-council flat in London, so understand the potential issues with other flat owners in the same block re. repairs...but will definitely keep all of this in mind.
Thanks again!

Lifeforms

Have you lived in these areas previously, and just out of interest, has your friend recommended those areas based on price, or from long term buying/selling and living there? Some of the areas aren't great and that is represented in the prices quite a bit. I'd suggest getting B&B and experience a couple of the areas over a weekend or two to try them out.

Fire_Fox

JessS wrote: »

Yes- I currently live in an ex-council flat in London, so understand the potential issues with other flat owners in the same block re. repairs...but will definitely keep all of this in mind.
Thanks again!

What do you mean about other flat owners? The major risk is the council deciding to do major improvements and only using approved contractors at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds per leaseholder.

19lottie82

I live in Glasgow and although there are plenty of lovely parts, there is no chance in h€ll that you will get even a studio flat in anywhere even 10% decent for that budget, sorry!

To give you a mental picture imagine gang fights, junkies and about 50% unemployment rates!

Some parts of Rutherglen and Dennistoun are improving, but the parts where 30k would buy you a flat, most certainly are not!

I think you'd be looking at about £50k minimum to get somewhere semi decent but then you'd be about 10 miles away from the city centre.

If you want to see the nicer side of Glasgow and enjoy your stay - rent, in the West End or South Side.

19lottie82

JessS wrote: »

A friend has also recommended Dennistoun and Govan- so I think I will start looking there.
Yes- I currently live in an ex-council flat in London, so understand the potential issues with other flat owners in the same block re. repairs...but will definitely keep all of this in mind.
Thanks again!

The decent part of Dennistoun (Alexandra Parade) is well out of your price range. The other end (Hagshill) is scary!

Govan is not a place you would like to walk through after dark, trust me. I used to work there and some of the stories I could tell you......

The thing with London is that a lot of ex council properties are now owned, in the areas that you have talked bout in Glasgow, this isn't the case. The majority of them are social housing and a great deal of these are inhabited by people that you wouldn't want as your neighbour

BigAunty

That sum is fine for a deposit on a small flat in a semi-popular, semi-decent area - you'll only get a slum in a scary area if you want to buy outright and you'll struggle to sell.

You can probably rent an okay studio or in a decent-ish southside area for about £400 pcm onwards or have a flat share in the city centre or west end for that money.

jennifernil

JessS wrote: »

Hi,
I'm a post-grad and am hoping to move to Glasgow to study for my Phd. I'm a first time buyer, and I'm looking at flats around the 25 000/ 30 000 as I would like to buy a flat straight out. Has anyone bought a flat in this price range? Were there many hidden costs?
Could anyone recommend areas that are relatively inexpensive but safe, and not too far out of the city?
Many thanks,
Jess

The other thought that comes to mind is how long do you plan to be in Glasgow? If just for 3 or 4 years, is buying sensible? Will you need a mortgage?

The popular student areas do have a certain "buzz", and are generally decent places to live, they are therefore expensive, but of course you save on travel costs.

Buying in, for example, the West End, within sensible walking distance of the Uni, you will need at least £70k for a 1 bed that is ready to live in.

Renting may be more sensible unless this is a long term move and you can afford to buy something decent.

rpc

Rent first while you suss out the area. Buying without knowing the area you live in could be an expensive mistake.

I agree that all of the places in Glasgow (and most outside it) that you could afford would not be places that you want to live.

Working on a PhD, you need to know that you could end up moving at the end and only owning a house for 3-4 years is a very short period. It might be easier to rent throughout unless you have a good plan for the end of it that keeps you in Glasgow.

gazebo

as a small aside, to those who class Govan as scary - like all parts of the city (and every other village/town/city across the UK), there are good areas and bad areas within Govan, not all of it is scary.

Saying that, properties falling within the price range suggested by the original poster are in slightly less desirable parts of Govan

jamja

My wee flat is in a 'scary' part of Glasgow but it is in a quiet street, and the close is quiet and well maintained. We are the only owner occupiers and the rest are housing association tenants - no issues with the neighbours and the HA factor the building which is a big bonus. I would not live in an unfactored building or one with lots of private landlord owner flats. The OPs budget might buy a small tenement flat where I live, but it would be unfactored and probably run down with overcrowded lets for neighbours. A factored flat in better condition would be £60k ish.