would buying an entire building get you a cheap appartment?

Jan_P

Hello I am Jan from Geneva and housing prices here are almost as bad as in the UK.

I am looking to buy my first appartment since renting it does not seem to make sense anymore (about 1000€ rent for a 2 bedroom flat)

However I have been thinking about an alternate route to becoming a home owner.

My brainwave of today was: why not push collective purchasing to the extreme? Buy an entire appartment building in stead of a single appartment:

Of course this seems a bit ambitous since I can hardly come up with the money for 1 appartment.

So my brainwave was; what about forming a syndicate? Getting enough people together to raise the capital to buy the whole lot and then divide it amongst the participants, of course you would need to find the building, which can be difficult, alternatively the group could commission one and build it from scratch.

I am under no illusions that it would be easy but I am wondering about the feasibility: I guess there would be plenty of takers: lots of people are looking for housing, and getting it at a discount would be interesting for everyone.
however, the financing would be a problem.

Would a bank go for such a deal?
However there is probably an opportunity here as well, what would happen if you go as a group to a bank and ask for 8 to 10 loans in a package, could you get a better rate???

I am interested and most grateful for any information you might have, I am sure I am not the first guy to think about this and some people must have done it already. Feel free to shoot the idea down, I am looking for all the possible problems of such a venture.

But given the possible payoff, would it not be worth trying?

Also, would it be possible to incorporate this group of people in a corporate entity and collect the loans as capital (probably more difficult to raise capital his way), there might be some benifits such as recovering taxes from any renovations and such, just guessing here , I am absolutely uneducated in this field.

Jan.

lindsaygalaxy

does something smell dodgy here...

BobProperty

Jan_P wrote: »

.....Of course this seems a bit ambitous since I can hardly come up with the money for 1 appartment.....

however, the financing would be a problem.

Would a bank go for such a deal?
However there is probably an opportunity here as well, what would happen if you go as a group to a bank and ask for 8 to 10 loans in a package, could you get a better rate???

IMHO, no and no. Come up with 40%-50% as a deposit and you might have a chance. Anything over 4 people would be considered a commercial deal, I think and would be treated as such by a lender.

Biggie

Jan P.

What an excellent idea, i'll come in with you. May be go 50\50.

What's your SC and Account number ? let me know and i'll transfer the money. :beer: