Why is Manchester City Centre on Rightmove FULL of investor only flats OR unmortgageable/cash only.

IAMIAM

Where are all the owner occupier flats with parking or buyers who actually work and live in the city?

Its now either...

Cash Only/Poor Cladding Rating/Cant shift the apartment/Short Lease/Massive Service Charge
OR
Investor Only. Rental Income Guaranteed for 5/10 years. Cant sublet. Cant owner occupier live in. Service Charge £4k minimum. 

So I presume everyone just rents now, paying £1.5k (it seems) per month for a 1 bed that you cant view or with no parking and a shower over a toilet practically!!!

Rant Over

theartfullodger

Why?  Capitalism and 13 years of Tory misrule.

Best wishes to all.

user1977

I presume it's full of them because they're difficult to sell.

eddddy

IAMIAM said:

Investor Only. Rental Income Guaranteed for 5/10 years. Cant sublet. Cant owner occupier live in. Service Charge £4k minimum. 

FWIW, typically those aren't actual flats for sale (in the normal sense), instead they're trying to get you to participate in an investment scheme.

In simple terms, the investment often works like this...

• Somebody has got an option to buy an old warehouse, which could be converted into 50 flats.

• But they have no money - and no 'proper' bank or 'proper' investment company will lend them any money

• So they are advertising to find 50 amateur 'investors' who will make an initial investment of maybe £60k each 

• Once they've got the money from the 50 'investors', they'll buy the old warehouse and start work 

• The 50 'investors' will often have to pay more installments to cover further costs as the conversion progresses

These schemes are heavily advertised on property portals and elsewhere, as the sales commissions can be huge.

The person calling you on the phone trying to persuade you to hand over £60k might get £10k or £15k or £20k out of your £60K as a commission payment, if you say "yes". (So they're sometimes tempted to tell a few fibs.)

Overall, the schemes are super-high risk.

The examples I looked at a few years back looked very impressive, but when I looked beneath the surface, I literally found they were run by people like...

• an ex-double glazing salesman
• somebody who had been a director of a string of bankrupt companies
• a builder who seemed to drive round in a dented, rusty transit van
• a surveyor who fibbed about their previous projects

SavingPennies_2

Why not look beyond the city centre? Lots of nice places within short walk of train or trams to city centre. You can get from South Manchester or Trafford to city centre on a train in 10 mins! 

mark1959

As above. Chorlton/Sale/Stretford/Stockport springs to mind, the first 3 on the tram system.

TripleH

There have been big delays on completion of some developments, 1 I am aware of was 4 years late. With a nervous market and cash flow concerns, it's safer to get the money now to finish than hope the bank lends when needed (at higher rates that cut into the profit margins).

Some of the build quality on some projects looked good, some looked very poor.

Development needs to happen because Just for Men isn't cheap.

user1977

eddddy said:

IAMIAM said:

Investor Only. Rental Income Guaranteed for 5/10 years. Cant sublet. Cant owner occupier live in. Service Charge £4k minimum. 

• Once they've got the money from the 50 'investors', they'll buy the old warehouse and start work

Well, they might do that...chances are the contracts will merely say that the investors will need to complete their purchase (if and) when their flat is finished. With no opportunity for them to walk away if the developer takes their time, or never progresses it at all.

[Deleted User]

Some of them are themselves victims of these scams, now desperately trying to get out of them. Their only hope is that someone else falls got the same thing.

p00hsticks

Residences in city centres generally tend to come with high service charges and no parking - I can;t see why you;d expect Manchester to be an exception. If you want parking, go further out.

IAMIAM

p00hsticks said:

Residences in city centres generally tend to come with high service charges and no parking - I can;t see why you;d expect Manchester to be an exception. If you want parking, go further out.

Correct. This never used to be the case though. You now find a 1 bed costing 250k and a 2 bed costing 350k+
Parking additional 25k (which is always used by someone else!!) and service charges now hitting £300 a month.
Oh Well.