City Centre Apartments

Kennyboy66

There are no new build apartments at the Albert Dock, Liverpool.
The flats there are 25 years old.


Jackanory from OP.

John1993_2

EGGP1878 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm a FTB looking to buy an apartment in the Albert Dock in Liverpool. Pretty much everyone who I've spoken to about it has advised me against it. There not cheap, circa £200k to get something decent.

Has anybody had any experience of buying an apartment in Liverpool city centre? Or even any other city centre for that matter.

Yes, I own a warehouse conversion in Docklands in London. Round here there are plenty of people who'd be a bit amused at your "not cheap, circa £200k", as a nice flat in my building (three bedroom, dock view) is going to cost a decent chunk over £1m, wit ha service charge North of £10,000 per year.

Given the prevalence of apartments available for rent on dockfronts, I'd agree with the advice above to rent there for six months first whiile you decide if it's right for you.

Excited13

My friend was looking for somewhere for a group of us to go for a weekend and found a lot of apartments at Albert Docks available for a weekend. I'm not sure about your block but what if there ends up being several apartments used for short term lets? Whilst I know they tend to stipulate no hen/stag dos there are ways around this and how would you feel about large drunken groups running round at the weekend?

Secondly both Leeds and Manchester have a large surplus of city centre apartments and therefore I assume a lot of people have lost money on them. I'm not sure what the Liverpool market is like but I would be very worried about negative equity with a new apartment and such a small budget.

Finally have you and your OH lived together before? You'll be surprised how quickly you outgrow properties and therefore you may be worth going for a larger out of town property to give you more space.

Paully232000

Kennyboy66 wrote: »

There are no new build apartments at the Albert Dock, Liverpool.
The flats there are 25 years old.


Jackanory from OP.

Why do you think he is making it up:

http://www.primelocation.com/new-homes/property/liverpool/albert-dock/the-colonnades/l3-4aa/?q=l34aa&results_sort=highest_price&search_source=new-homes

Kennyboy66

Paully232000 wrote: »

Why do you think he is making it up:

http://www.primelocation.com/new-homes/property/liverpool/albert-dock/the-colonnades/l3-4aa/?q=l34aa&results_sort=highest_price&search_source=new-homes

Because those apartments you link are at Mann island, not the Albert Dock.

The nearest dock to these would be Canning Dock or Canning half tide dock, even then you would have to pass over 2 graving docks to get to Canning half tide.

It's not Albert Dock.

Paully232000

Kennyboy66 wrote: »

Because those apartments you link are at Mann island, not the Albert Dock.

The nearest dock to these would be Canning Dock or Canning half tide dock, even then you would have to pass over 2 graving docks to get to Canning half tide.

It's not Albert Dock.

If that's your basis for thinking that the story is made up then you have a very cynical outlook on life.

John1993_2

Paully232000 wrote: »

If that's your basis for thinking that the story is made up then you have a very cynical outlook on life.

If someone said that they were buying a new-build on my dock, I'd say that this is not true. There are two residential buildings on it, one built in 1802, the other built around the year 2,000. Whay makes you think that Kennyboy66 doesn't have equally valid information about the dock in question that lets him make a similar statement?

Kennyboy66

John1993 wrote: »

If someone said that they were buying a new-build on my dock, I'd say that this is not true. There are two residential buildings on it, one built in 1802, the other built around the year 2,000. Whay makes you think that Kennyboy66 doesn't have equally valid information about the dock in question that lets him make a similar statement?

Indeed, the original Albert Dock warehouses dates from 1846 - the apartments in the original buildings date from 1988. They are Grade 1 listed.

There are plenty of new build in Liverpool and on the mersey - however no one would describe them as "in the Albert Dock"

Conrad

I'm an investor and wouldn't touch this. There are many reasons but in summary there are too many examples of these places becoming hard to let or sell because the market tends to get flooded with these over a period of years whilst the area is being developed and furthermore the yields are usually carp.

I might make an exception for London but even here you find many tales of woe, for example I came across one recently - The Arsenal in Woolwich, a luxury river side development started about 10 years ago, and still even now the prices have not really risen.

Remember if you come to re-let or sell in 5 years time you could be up against brand new / never lived in places.

The rent yield I look for is about 8-10%, anything less is a nonsense business really unless you are very sure of high capital growth.

EGGP1878

Kennyboy66 wrote: »

Indeed, the original Albert Dock warehouses dates from 1846 - the apartments in the original buildings date from 1988. They are Grade 1 listed.

There are plenty of new build in Liverpool and on the mersey - however no one would describe them as "in the Albert Dock"

I must apologise to Kenny Boy, it's actually the Mann Island development, where I'm from we call that the Albert dock. I suppose if your going to be a pedantic pain in the !!!!, your right. We'll done you. Hurrah.

Anyway, thanks for all the helpful, productive responses.

Oh and John, I'm sure they would in London, but if you haven't noticed London is a completely separate entity to the rest of the UK now. It's on another property price planet. To me and my partner living in Liverpool, not London, 200k isn't cheap. That was my point, you know big investment hence why I'm asking questions about it on an Internet forum.

People have mentioned 'party apartments' etc. The minimum lease is 6 months so that shouldn't be a problem.