"Thousands" of London flats to come to the market

Sapphire

Rich2808 wrote: »

I wouldn't be surprised if in 30 years a lot of these new build luxury flats end up as slum social housing. They are generally of such poor quality build and awful soundproofing.

What is happening in places like Battersea and Vauxhall is truly horrific. The buildings are blocks as ugly as sin, very tall and so badly designed that I always avert my eyes when going past them by car on on a train. It's disgusting that builders were given permission to destroy many parts of London in the way they have – a lot of palms must have been greased, and all done for short-term gain.

Another thing – in many parts of London, especially in East London, flooding is a real risk in the future. Places like the Isle of Dogs were inundated every year at one time, and people sloshed around in half a foot of water or more every year (they were traditional, very poor, by our standards, East Enders, so put up with it). Given the rising seas and the rate at which coastal erosion is happening in the east of Britain, the sea will claim many parts of London in the not-to-distant future – and building ever-more properties on floodplains, especially without leaving anywhere for the water to go, is criminal short-termism in my view. There's only so much that can be done to build barriers against the sea, and covering everywhere with buildings will exacerbate the problem still further – and will also threaten properties further upriver, which are not located on floodplains.

And as you say (and I've always thought), all these 'luxury' new-builds are the slums of the future, no matter how much wishful thinking some people engage in.:cool:

Graham_Devon

I guess it's a rather unique situation these apartments are in.

The potential buyers of your property are likely all trying to sell or avoiding the investment. There seems to be no way of diversifying to another audience.

Theres a programme on the TV at the moment which looks at high end estate agencies where russians come over and get a full package. The estate agent not only sells them a house, but arranges accommodation, dining, chauffeuring. They are looking to spend multiple millions on their 3-4 day trip here, often selling a property they have held for a few months at the same time.

The boasts are that the estate agent sells the same property multiple times in a 2-3 year period, each time adding 10's of thousands to the price and therefore increasing their commision.

She'd have a database of all her buyers but they would also be sellers, cashing in on increases. If that database turns top heavy and becomes a majority of sellers, you are in a bit of a hole.

mwpt

Rich2808 wrote: »

I wouldn't be surprised if in 30 years a lot of these new build luxury flats end up as slum social housing. They are generally of such poor quality build and awful soundproofing.

I keep seeing this statement. Is it really true? Anyone with actual structural knowledge who has seen them? Strikes me as a bit of doom mongering.

cells

Rich2808 wrote: »

I wouldn't be surprised if in 30 years a lot of these new build luxury flats end up as slum social housing. They are generally of such poor quality build and awful soundproofing.

Any evidence for this. Specifically that they are somehow avoiding buildings regulations

cells

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I guess it's a rather unique situation these apartments are in.

The potential buyers of your property are likely all trying to sell or avoiding the investment. There seems to be no way of diversifying to another audience.

Theres a programme on the TV at the moment which looks at high end estate agencies where russians come over and get a full package. The estate agent not only sells them a house, but arranges accommodation, dining, chauffeuring. They are looking to spend multiple millions on their 3-4 day trip here, often selling a property they have held for a few months at the same time.

The boasts are that the estate agent sells the same property multiple times in a 2-3 year period, each time adding 10's of thousands to the price and therefore increasing their commision.

She'd have a database of all her buyers but they would also be sellers, cashing in on increases. If that database turns top heavy and becomes a majority of sellers, you are in a bit of a hole.

That sounds like a lot of negative wishful thinking

Expensive flats are in central and inner London where ex council flats in huge poorly build poor council estates now go for nearly £500,000
Clearly those flats can't sell for a price under the council stock so even worse case isba half mill price tag for them.

Also rents will be in the region of £30k pa sonagain on a yield basis they will be £600k plus

The-Joker

PasturesNew wrote: »

There won't be squatters. Firstly they're residential and squatters can't squat in residential, so they target commercial. Secondly, these flats will have an entire ground floor that is a 24 hour monitored and manned concierge service.

When benefits to rents finally do get cut back on, there will be millions of tenants who cant afford the rents, they will be forced into being squatters. They already live there and have the keys, its just after they default they are now called squatters.

Graham_Devon

cells wrote: »

That sounds like a lot of negative wishful thinking

Expensive flats are in central and inner London where ex council flats in huge poorly build poor council estates now go for nearly £500,000
Clearly those flats can't sell for a price under the council stock so even worse case isba half mill price tag for them.

Also rents will be in the region of £30k pa sonagain on a yield basis they will be £600k plus

Errr, these flats are not 500k flats. They are multi million pound places.

purch

wotsthat wrote: »

Some super-rich foreigners might not get what they paid for their super-prime off-plan apartment?

It does highlight the ludicrous situation where "supposedly" residential property has been reduced to being a mere OTC commodity.

Most of these investors have probably bought Puts on Copperand Iron Ore as well, so their overall book will still show a profit.

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Errr, these flats are not 500k flats. They are multi million pound places.

I've just checked. Most of the flats for sale in Battersea Power Station seem to be priced around the £700k mark.

Graham_Devon

wotsthat wrote: »

I've just checked. Most of the flats for sale in Battersea Power Station seem to be priced around the £700k mark.

Why not have a look at the Cluttons website to see the sort of stuff they are talking about. Or Frank Knight. You don't need to make everything such hard work when it's clear as day plenty of multi millon pound apartments are being marketed at the foreign investor.

There's stuff out there outside of Battersea power station.

http://www.cluttons.com