Cheeky offer on Clapham flat?

MandyMcG

seven-day-weekend said:

Don't know London at all, so can't offer advice on price....but what a lovely flat, twice as big as my bungalow!  

But with a > £1m price tag!!

Crashy_Time

The price is laughable, you will be financially hit hard if interest rates rise.

greensalad

Crashy_Time said:

The price is laughable, you will be financially hit hard if interest rates rise.

But we don't know the situation of the OP, perhaps they're cash buyer.

BlondBoy

It's a nice property, for sure. (I lived around Clapham Junction/Common for 18 years, so familiar with the building). But...

You could buy a freehold house for that budget on the other side of the Common, closer to Clapham Junction train station which sounds a better bet for you to visit family. Easy enough to get to most parts of Central London too. 

I'd say it's worth having a look at places on Lavender Sweep, Eccles Road, Parma Crescent etc. You'd get a decent property there for a similar price, but freehold and closer to the train.

NQManchester

Absolutely nothing useful to add but is it normal to include the square footage of a shed in london floor plans?! Made me laugh.
lovely flat though. 

GDB2222

MaryNB said:

Be careful with buying from a divorcing couple. Could be a messy process. My colleague was buying from a divorcing couple and if fell through just before exchange because the husband changed his mind and decided to buy the wife's share. Vaguely recall a poster here having difficulty because one half of the couple didnt really want to sell the property.

What do similar properties go for in the area? 

Offer what you think is reasonable. Don't worry about insulting them. If they would be willing sell at £1.2m they'd be very petty to reject it just because you offered £1m first. 

I agree that it is unlikely to work out well with a divorcing couple. 

 “fell through just before exchange because the husband changed his mind and decided to buy the wife's share” - It’s possible that the husband never intended to sell, and he just needed the buyer to set the price he would buy his wife’s share for. 

nkarma

Hi Mandy - I know the area well.  I have lived in Clapham or Brixton since 2013. I bought locally 2 years ago, but a 2 bed garden flat so I don't know the comps for this type of property.  

Clapham has already had it's housing heyday especially in early 2010s.  It is definitely a well-establisehd middle class area currently.  There may have been some very small reduction in prices for family homes since the pandemic if there was an exodus, but IMO London families choose London for a reason so have in general stayed.

This is a highly popular and competitive area but I do hope you get it for a deal.

Cool that it is actually in the common itself.  Make sure you are okay with that type of environment especially at night - walking home through the common and also that it's easy to access for to people that are hanging in the common.  Also there are 3-day music festivals, fun fairs, and a lot of sporting events / charity walks with loud speaker systems in the common quite regularly.

I myself live on a South London Park and love it, but am aware that someone could access my flat from the park.

MandyMcG

Thanks all for the tips on location - its lovely to see some locals on here.

I plan to put in an offer of £1m this week - the EA seems to think they wont get their asking but sucked his teeth a bit when I mentioned the million area as my potential target price. 

I shall ponder more 

Doozergirl

If you get it for that, then you've bought a bargain, but if I had £1.2 million to spend, my main priority would absolutely be to buy freehold, in which case I'd drop down a tube station or two and look into the SW12 postcode, accessing Balham or Clapham South stations.  Balham has the benefit of overground too.  

It's the same vibe and some of it is spitting distance from the windmill.  

user1977

Doozergirl said:

It's the same vibe and some of it is spitting distance from the windmill.  

Local signage suggests it's not spitting which is the problem...