Investing in student pods via Aspen Woolf

teekay_tk

Hi all.

My dad has some retirement money he wants to invest in UK. He has seen some student pods being sold with guaranteed rental income for two years via company called Aspen Wolf. As he does not live in UK he has asked me to look them up. Seems like a proper company but I can't find any record of someone's personal experience with them. Does any one recommend them? Are these student pod investment worth it. He is looking for a steady return of 5% on this.
Cheers

Wi88le

2 years guarenteed rental income if the company doesn't go bust or take service charges/management fee etc from that, but then what happens after 2 years when the market price discovery happens and it is much lower than you have been getting. Pods are also likely to be impossible/very very difficult to mortgage, so impossible to sell on.

rosie383

If you do a quick Google OP, you will find articles advertising them as an investment opportunity, along with articles advising you run away, far, far away in the opposite direction.

I know what I would be doing!

PlutoinCapricorn

There have been several threads about investing in student accommodation, and this sums it up very well:

"unregulated and not suitable to be retailed to inexperienced investors. 100% loss potential"

thanks to financial adviser Dunstonh for this.

PlutoinCapricorn

"Developers are selling investors “pods” or studios that offer en suite rooms in luxurious city centre buildings complete with gyms and caf!s. For their money, which can be as little as £40,000, investors are being promised a “rental guarantee” for a set number of years, with management of the property and finding tenants taken care of...There have been a number of student pod schemes that have stopped paying out the guaranteed rents soon after completion and investors have then discovered that the real market rate for the rents is much lower, reducing their yield and turning their investment from hands-off to hands-on..."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/buy-to-let/10852153/Student-digs-offer-a-harsh-lesson-for-investors.html

rosie383

OP just go on to Aspen Wolf's Ts &Cs page and read every word. I do not think I have ever seen so many disclaimers in my life!

jimbog

teekay_tk wrote: »

Hi all.

but I can't find any record of someone's personal experience with them..
Cheers

Took me 14 seconds on Google to find the first

teekay_tk

Thanks all I will ask my dad to stay well clear of these. What would be a nice "hands off" sort of investment?

eddddy

Unless you or your dad are sophisticated investors, and prepared to do a lot of due diligence - go for a regulated investment, rather than an unregulated one.

Regulated investments sound uninspiring compared to unregulated ones - but that's because the firms aren't allowed to make misleading or exaggerated claims.

You'll see that it's only unregulated firms that make claims like "10% return assured for 5 years", because they don't have to justify it to a regulator, or demonstrate that the scheme is safe and viable.

And if regulated firms do mislead, the regulators may make them pay compensation (as in PPI mis-selling).

Running_Horse

teekay_tk wrote: »

Thanks all I will ask my dad to stay well clear of these. What would be a nice "hands off" sort of investment?

Give your money to me. I'll take care of it in a "hands off" fashion.

westv

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole either.