Car-free developments and property re-sale issues

rachelm17

Hi there, 
My friend and myself are looking to buy a 2 bed new build maisonette in Wimbledon, which we have discovered is a car-free development. For us this isn't an issue as it a 2 minute walk to the tube and has great bus routes right outside, however, we fear that when we choose to sell this may become an issue. We are buying through Help to Buy, so for us we are limited to which property we can buy, but when we sell we would have to find a buyer that can afford a £600,000 plus property without any option to have a car. Surely, individuals who can afford a property of this value would want to own a car?
Any help is appreciated!
Thanks.

Comms69

You're right, and it's going to limit the market. 

Also buying with a friend is always filled with issues. I'd avoid at all costs.

davidmcn

They can have a car, they just need to pay for somewhere to put it (buy/rent a garage or parking space somewhere else). Not that uncommon in more city centre locations but I expect it might be more of an issue in Wimbledon.

Vestraun

£600k HTB 2 bed in wimbledon, before you go ahead with this please look at what you can get for £550k-£600k without HTB. I looked into this area and HTB and noticed the HTB flats had a good 10-15% mark up which you will not get back when selling this. Assuming you are buying with a friend this is not a long term home? 

steve866

Lot of flats in London don’t include parking. Does car free mean it’s also not eligible to get a residents parking permit for the street?

Lots of things affect resell value. What is the situation with the lease length and service charge costs?

princeofpounds

davidmcn said:

They can have a car, they just need to pay for somewhere to put it (buy/rent a garage or parking space somewhere else). Not that uncommon in more city centre locations but I expect it might be more of an issue in Wimbledon.

Two minutes from the tube in Wimbledon pretty much is a city-centre location. It's not strawberries and cream country until you get up the hill towards Wimbledon Village. 

Any kind of restriction on a property is going to put off some buyers, but in London with tube access is one of the few places where it would have less effect that most. 46% of households in London (including the more distant suburbs) do not have a car, according to TFL, compared to 33% across the UK, so that may give you an idea. I would imagine that the lowest rates of car ownership are with younger singles/couples who would be in the market for 1-2 bed places.

But I do agree with many of the things that have been said about buying with friends, buying with government schemes etc.

Incidentally, with electric and eventually autonomous cars set to become every more popular, I do think we'll look back at restricted-parking estates (I'm not talking about Wimbledon here) as being yet another epic mistake from the Stalinist school of central planning.

NameUnavailable

Going a little OT here but it does amuse me that governments have been trying to eradicate cars from town and city centres for years, telling us we should use public transport, they drove shops out into retail parks and with the introduction of congestion charging and LEZ's make even just driving through town a costly exercise.

Now Covid has accellerated everything and they're suddenly telling us not to use public transport if possible - drive instead! Now they want us to go into the city and town centre's because coffee shops are suffering!! They're worried about ghost towns as so many retailers/chain restuarants are closing.

Whatever we do today is wrong tomorrow.

steve866

NameUnavailable said:

Going a little OT here but it does amuse me that governments have been trying to eradicate cars from town and city centres for years, telling us we should use public transport, they drove shops out into retail parks and with the introduction of congestion charging and LEZ's make even just driving through town a costly exercise.

Now Covid has accellerated everything and they're suddenly telling us not to use public transport if possible - drive instead! Now they want us to go into the city and town centre's because coffee shops are suffering!! They're worried about ghost towns as so many retailers/chain restuarants are closing.

Whatever we do today is wrong tomorrow.

Reminds me of the Diesel car I was encouraged to purchase!

NameUnavailable

steve866 said:

NameUnavailable said:

Going a little OT here but it does amuse me that governments have been trying to eradicate cars from town and city centres for years, telling us we should use public transport, they drove shops out into retail parks and with the introduction of congestion charging and LEZ's make even just driving through town a costly exercise.

Now Covid has accellerated everything and they're suddenly telling us not to use public transport if possible - drive instead! Now they want us to go into the city and town centre's because coffee shops are suffering!! They're worried about ghost towns as so many retailers/chain restuarants are closing.

Whatever we do today is wrong tomorrow.

Reminds me of the Diesel car I was encouraged to purchase!

Oh yes don't get me started on that!

numbercruncher8

The car-free thing is a red herring IMO if you're close to the station. If one was desperate enough I am sure there is a pay to park.
The sell on presents a bigger problem.

What kind of likely buyer would it be targeting? The flats are not suitable for families and houses are the same price, so that rules out a lot. Young professionals, but without HTB you are looking at a household with earning £100k with a £200k deposit, someone with equity gains from a previous sale and a good salary, or someone with BOMAD and a good salary.

But for someone with the equity gains, it is a bit of a sideways move to go from starter home to 2-bed flat. And that's even before the tightening of lending restrictions on new builds.

The chances are the market will be thin. Worse still if you come to sell, there could be others in the same position and the flats are all identical. How do you differentiate then? Compounding this is that HTB payments kick in after the 5th year, and potentially SVR. 

It's a bit of an elephant in the room, but look at new builds built in London from 2016 onwards. IMO the valuation of a lot of these have gone nowhere, going up to peak in around 2017-2018 before falling back since. Very few changed hands even before EWS1. You would see sellers desperately try to stick a 10% markup (which looks silly as it's more expensive as a flat that does have HTB), then come down to break even, before eventually taking it off. Their choice is either to stay, or to accept a reduced price eating into their deposit.

Said it on another thread, going big on HTB is simply living beyond your means.