Five flats for sale in same building - red flag?

itchyfeet123

I saw a listing on Rightmove for a flat that met all of my criteria. And then I saw another four, all in the same building. There seem to be about 30 flats in the building in total. 5/30 on the market at once seems like a lot, but maybe I'm wrong about that?

walwyn1978

Could all be owned by the same landlord/company? We sold our London flat to a company who let flats to key workers. A few years down the line they own half the block. If that company/person decides to sell some of their stock, for whatever reason, that could be it?

itchyfeet123

walwyn1978 wrote: »

Could all be owned by the same landlord/company? We sold our London flat to a company who let flats to key workers. A few years down the line they own half the block. If that company/person decides to sell some of their stock, for whatever reason, that could be it?

I don't think so because there are three different real estate agencies.

walwyn1978

itchyfeet123 wrote: »

I don't think so because there are three different real estate agencies.

Okay, then that's more of an issue, so I'd be wondering about bad neighbours, impending big bills to service the building, etc etc.
It's 12.5% of the flats on the market at the same time. Have any been sold recently? If that's happened too then I'd def be running away

pramsay13

Five sounds like a lot but out of 30 isn't that much.
I would definitely want to check it out first rather than dismissing it.

ProDave

View all 5 then start the Dutch auction to see who will accept the lowest price.

Crashy_Time

walwyn1978 wrote: »

Okay, then that's more of an issue, so I'd be wondering about bad neighbours, impending big bills to service the building, etc etc.
It's 12.5% of the flats on the market at the same time. Have any been sold recently? If that's happened too then I'd def be running away

Maybe just people trying to offload BTL flats, should be good for dropping the price of the whole block, OP should hang on and see IMO.

RiversTam

How old are the flats?
If they are new build they may have equity loans up for payment all at the same time - ie 10 years. So will be trying to sell rather than find the chunk of money they owe.

Mutton_Geoff

RiversTam wrote: »

How old are the flats?
If they are new build they may have equity loans up for payment all at the same time - ie 10 years. So will be trying to sell rather than find the chunk of money they owe.

A good question but nothing to do with equity loans, just life. People often start out in a 1/2 bed flat. They meet someone, also with their own 1/2 bed flat, hook up, decide to have a family, sell two 1/2 bed flats and buy a 2/3/4 bed house. It's a natural life cycle and in a new build block of flats, the initial sales appear to be linked. After time, it balances out, so I'd say if the block is less than 3 years old, this is normal statistical behaviour.

kerri_gt

Could also be a bit of a domino effect, you often see several houses for sale in the same road at once, or in a short space of time. House #1 goes up for sale, piques interest of other home owners in that street who may have been thinking of selling and up go theirs.

The year we bought our house approx 10% if the houses in the road went up for sale / sold.

Tom99

Check out sales in the block over the past say 5 year, is that sort of turnover normal?