Buying Liverpool Flat - pull out now?!?

clark.ar

TheWaltons wrote: »

I agree with the Wirral. Much nicer place.

If you are prepared to live in Kenny, Oxton would suit you! Too close to Birkenhead for me personally.... but seriously, why buy NOW?

Wallasey - they have restored the old Spillers factory on the Dockside which is another regeneration area, and they are pretty much like the ones opposite in Liverpool.

To get to Uni would take you 15 minutes easily.

the new factory restoration has a website - www.eastfloat.com - remaining 2 beds are around the 160K mark but they are very nice flats with a contemporary finish

its also worth having a look at the wirral waters website - peel holdings have bought up all the land around eastfloat and have big big plans for the area - www.wirralwaters.co.uk/main.html

floyd

clark.ar wrote: »

if your dead set on liverpool, i'd say theres far better options in allerton/mossley hill/aigburth areas.. its not too far from the city at all, decent links, bars and resterants and some nice parks/open spaces

Definately agree with this one, live there myself Had a quick look on Rightmove and there are only a handful of properties available for that price but they will be much more sellable than somewhere in kenny

tucbiscuit

sorry to rain on your parade mate, but as a resident of the lovely mossley hill and having just bought a nice, big 2 bed terrace on a nice quiet street for only slightly more than your flat....then I would be having secong thoughts


like has been said, you would be better off in areas like aigburth, allerton, mossley hill, wavertree and gartson, all of which are desirable, whereas kenny is not

in liverpool people often use postcodes to refer to areas, so look for L15, L17, L18 and L19

oxymore

Hi, thanks for the advice.. just want to say though that the flat is not actually in Kensington itself, it's on the main road just outside (basically the top of the road of the Royal) so I wouldn't have to go into Kensington at all to get in. I would definitely not touch Kensington at all, and definitely no time for refurbs!

As far as the interest, I figured that if I was renting a one bed flat, that'd be atleast £4,000 for the year and if I would be able to rent out the other room that might almost make up the other £4,000. I can accept I might not sell the flat for much higher that I bought it in 2 or 3 years time but if I am able to rent, atleast I will not lose (much) of the £8,000 interest?

The only reason I wanted to buy in the city centre is just purely for convenience so I wouldn't have to travel at all. I mean otherwise I could just stay at home in Cheshire and commute on the train. And it's not just uni I need to get to, I'm travelling around the Merseyside hospitals throughout the year, Alder Hey, Aintree, Women's, Royal, Whiston. It does sound much more appealing to look outside of the centre though, I never knew the Wirral was such a good place to live now, ppl there keep telling me to stay in Liverpool! However I can see that the majority of prospective buyers to buy this flat in the future would probably be buy-to-let investors.

Have the flats on London Road really be empty for that long? I've lived there for the past 2 years, can't say it was the greatest area but been satisfied so far. I guess you never know til something happens though..also Garston, Toxteth, Mossley Hill? Are they really that much better? I've always heard bad rep about them, unless they've improved recently?

Thanks a lot for the advice. Seems I have a LOT of thinking to do!

floyd

Are they the flats on Low Hill you are looking at? Its not a nice place to be on a Saturday night being next to the biggest A&E, wouldn't fancy it myself.

I live on the boundary of Garston/Allerton and there are only 1 or 2 streets that have problems and unless you live in them, you don't see it. Alot of friends live in Toxteth and its the same as Garston in the sense that a few bad streets mean they keep their bad rep. Mossley Hill has scallies, you can't escape that but they are harmless kids for the most part and it is a really pretty area to live.

I have been keeping an eye on the Move Magazine for years now (just nosey I guess) and there are always lots of those blue London Road flats above Brunellis and the View development in Everton Valley. They just don't seem to shift, mainly because they are too expensive for your average joe and not swanky enough for the city workers.

I would spend a bit of money either buying a car/learning to drive then buy somewhere in South Liverpool or Wirral

clark.ar

rather than looking around the london road side of the university, have you considered the canning / catherine street area to the right of the university?

i rented around there for a couple of years when i was at uni and i found it quite safe and 2 mins walk into the city centre. its all old georgian houses converted into flats

a quick look on rightmove finds this

floyd

I really love Canning Street and Catherine Street, its a beautiful part of town

PasturesNew

oxymore wrote: »

I can accept I might not sell the flat for much higher that I bought it in 2 or 3 years time but if I am able to rent, atleast I will not lose (much) of the £8,000 interest?

If we said the buying costs of the flat (no stamp duty) were a conservative £500. And the selling costs on £128k were 1.5% through an agent (£1800) + solicitors £300... it would cost you £2600 to buy/sell.

You've said the service charge is £60/month, 60x24=£1440 (I'll round this down):
2600-1400-300=£4300
£8000-£4300=£3,700 .... not THAT much difference between buying/renting over this period of time.

What if the flat fell in price by £4k in that time?
Or £14k?

Or fell by £4k, but took 1 year to sell so you were paying mortgage on it for another 12 months while you had moved out/on?

You've already admitted the current owner hasn't made much over what he paid.

? Your thoughts ?

oxymore

floyd - Yes, Low Hill. I've seen the flats on London Road, I can definitely confirm that they are the grottiest looking flats in town (but cheap,usually around £80-90K) yet they still seem to sell quite quickly, like Liffey Court. They are also mostly one bedroom, no parking and slightly cheaper rent I think. I've also seen the View down in Everton and it's atleast a 20mins walk from London Road itself, impossible to walk to town, and also right in the heart of Everton, which isn't a great area.

floyd,Clark.ar - I've seen that flat in Canning Street, it's part of a block of flats that belong to a housing association. Heard it's quite noisy because of that. To be honest, i've lived in London Road for 2 years now and although I wouldn't say it was anywhere near safe, I've had no trouble although there are a lot of weird people wandering around they seem to stick to their own business. It's more on my side of uni than Catherine and Canning Street, with the Royal and Lime St train station on that side.

PasturesNew - it's fairly possible that I could stay for atleast 3 years and possibly a 4th but I guess I was relying on renting it out when i'm not there for as long as it'll take to re-sell or when prices are decent to sell. I can't see prices dropping but they certainly aren't on the way up and who knows what will happen after Capital Of Culture. Sounds like i'm playing on luck, maybe at the wrong time..

itsakidsworld

You say you are only going to live there for 2 or 3 years and then try to sell, even if you only get back what you paid? Where do you propose to live after this period?

The reason I ask is that why not buy somewhere now in the place you want to live in 2 or 3 years time, rent it out and use the rental income to rent in a nice spot in Liverpool?

Short term property investing has long gone and you should only buy now if you intend on staying in that area for around 10 years or more.

Whatever you choose, please avoid flats (or apartments as they like to be known). Terrace property provide a more stable investment and give you a wider circle of potential buyers if/when you decide to sell.

Good luck with your choice