Which property type (particularly maisonettes) tends to hold their value

redbabe

Bit of advice needed please.
I am a first time buyer looking to buy (at 40 I don’t have the luxury of waiting to see what the market will do). I, like most people it seems like terrace houses but have also been looking at flats as they tend to be cheaper. I saw a maisonette on Saturday and although it wasn’t quite my thing – décor was like walking into Habitat - I did actually like it. One problem was a combined living room and kitchen but as every property I’ve looked at up to now has at least one major thing wrong with it (in my opinion that is) I would be willing to live with it.
My ideal would be a terrace but none of the ones I’ve put offers in for seem prepared to accept a lower offer – all wanting close to the asking price (which would really stretch me) and combined with competing with the buy to let and builder markets is starting to really get me down

I would however like your opinion on whether you think property like this tends to keep its price. Its not a new build and is close to the city centre (Leicester) but in a nice area.
I'm dreading making a mistake and buying something that will lose me money
Thanks

saunaboy

we're in the same boat. we bought a place that was advertised as 4 bed maisonette but is really 3 bed. Upstairs on a terraced row of 100 year-old houses. Just outside of Newcastle, good transport links etc.

I could be being a complete fool but we see it as a house that just doesn't have a ground floor ! Its easily 100+ sq metres so far bigger than every flat I've lived in. Obv the market may see it differently but we think that buying a reasonably priced (125k) two floor older place that we can do some cosmetic work on will be a reasonably safe investment.

redbabe

Its interesting what actually constitutes a maisonette. The one I viewed was just like an upstairs flat (with own entrance) but also had a garden at the back - well in this case a plot of land as the vendor isn't a gardener.
Anyone know what the difference is between a maisonette and a flat?

m00m00

I was under the impression that a maisonette generally has 2 floors, and a flat one.

cattie

A maisonette can either have 2 levels to the actual accomodation, or as in the case of a Victorian purpose built maisonette I once owned, being the entire ground floor of a 2 floor building with own garden. The upper maisonette also had it's own seperate garden, running alongside mine, which was reached by a staircase leading down from their kitchen.

Fulham_Mark

a combined kitchen-living area is often a sign that the person who had it before you moved the kitchen into the living room to gain an extra bedroom. In this case be careful not to compare the price with places that have a separate kitchen and the same number of bedrooms

Comparing cost per square foot for different places is an american thing to do but can highlight expensive places.

There's open-plan living and there's the front-room that looks like someone left a kitchen on one wall. I've always found that if there is a worktop area between the kitchen units and the living room it looks and feels fine.

In terms of value you worry about an oversupply of maisonettes - because too people need to sell or not enough people want to buy. In this case the ones that lose their value will be the ones you weren't too keen on - noisy location, above shop, ex-council, strange layout, unattractive from the outside, poor links or shopping etc.

People buying in a bad market may stick to established areas rather than "up and coming" areas that everyone moves to in v good markets. If there's a large number of maisonettes in an area the the price may fall.

When i was buying i was told-off by a friend for "stereotyping" myself and thinking i had to buy a particular type of place in particular areas. I'd just seen a place in Shepherds Bush - not the nice bit where martin lives - after this advice i found a similar sized place in St James Park about 200m from Buck House. I wasn't decisive enough to grab this when i could but you can guess which one holds it's value more!

saunaboy

this one has a completely separate kitchen, living room, dining room, large bathroom, and three equal sized not-huge-but-pretty-ok bedrooms. And a reasonable back yard. It's right on the edge of a dead expensive place (similar property there would be 75k more expensive at least) but officially postcoded in another area. It's also got all the orginal fittings such as stained glass interior doors etc.

Maisonettes are a funny one. I guess you can't solidly classify them because they vary so much. Believe me, we thought long & hard about the economic benefits of buying a 'real' house but that would have meant serious compromise on area.

We're placing our hopes that new build flats will plummet & old classic sorts of places will keep their value better.

Jonbvn

I remember living in a rented flat and the couple above were excessive screamers (or perhaps they were in the adult film industry?). Never again!

Given the above, I would stretch myself for the terrraced house, or not buy at all.

thesaint

Back on topic

redbabe wrote: »

<snip>I'm dreading making a mistake and buying something that will lose me money
Thanks

May I ask why you would lose money, is it an investment or a home you are buying?

Feanor

Hello,

We just bought a maisonette in Surrey. They do seem to vary as to what constitutes a maisonette but all the ones we saw down here look like a semi detached house from the front. There are then two doors at the side, one goes upstairs and one to the ground floor. The ground floor usually has access straight onto their back garden, where as the upstairs has to walk down the side to get to their garden which is directly behind the garden of the downstairs maisonette.

We looked at terrace houses, and most were a good 20k more and actually some had much less space than the maisonette, it just had some stairs!

Of course houses are freehold which is better, but these types of maisonettes are the closest thing to buying a house really. Our lease has 940 years remaining and we pay £50 a year ground rent.

One thing to mention is that i am pretty sure ground floor maisonettes are much more desirable thn upstairs because of the access to the garden, its like having another room really and the opportunity to extend.

I am sure our maisonette has gone up in value already, just by us putting in new kitchen etc. i think at a time when new build flats are becoming less desirable, older well built maisonettes with no service charges/management companies etc are becoming more popular.

Good Luck!

redbabe

Thanks for replies.
Re:adv of ground floor maisonette - I hadn't thought about the adv of the garden. This one is upstairs but the point about noisy neighbours is also a good one ansd if I was going to choose I'd probably go for one on the top - only because the thought of living below someone noisy is awful.
Re: investment - not sure how long I am going to be in Leicester as originally from Manchester and would like to move back eventually. But sick of renting and long to live on my own again.