London flat property market

Ybe

Is it just me or has there not been many good properties on the london flat property market in the past year?  A lot of ex buy to lets on the market. Or am I just looking in the wrong areas? 

AlexMac

Which areas?  There are 200 flats on the market in my lovely Blackheath SE3 neighbourhood under £600k with 70 of these under £350k. In the immediately adjacent but still attractive area (Charlton SE7) there are dozens under £350k… about normal? 

Or if you want posh, there are 200 under £1mil in Knightsbridge…? 

Where are you thinking of and what budget?

Wherever, I prefer low rise blocks of traditional construction ( brick and pitched slate or tile roofs) rather than higher ones with cladding and flat roofs ( the posh riverside blocks near me on Greenwich Riverside with flat, sedum-topped roofs have only been up 5-10 years, but some are on their 4th or 5th round of major repairs!) 

I also prefer blocks without lifts, concierge services, gyms, etc to keep maintenance and Service charges down. I pay only a grand a year each on Service charges on a couple of 2 bed ex Council BTLs on my side of the river, but mates in one just across into Thames in the 4r53 end of Docklands saw theirs rise to £5-6k a year! 

arthurdick

Ybe said:

Is it just me or has there not been many good properties on the london flat property market in the past year?  A lot of ex buy to lets on the market. Or am I just looking in the wrong areas? 

If we knew which areas you are looking in and for what price we could agree or disagree,   I have been looking for around 14 months around mostly south London and also up to Pimlico, Battersea and Wandsworth, there have been plenty I have wanted,  they are all around the £300k mark.

I agree with AlexMac, I am also living in the SE3 postcode, I think the other side of the heath though, but there are some lovely flats going, but what price are you looking up to?.

annetheman

Just dropping in to extol the virtues of the ex-BTL. This is great especially if you’re buying a period property eg a Victorian or Edwardian conversion. Conversions generally are more likely to have a share of freehold, which is the best current likely tenure scenario in England and wales for most flats. 

With an ex-BTL, you will know for sure (well, ask for the certificates to be sure!) it meets modern gas safety and electric standards. Likely to have been kept in liveable decent condition so no need to do anything immediate. Also sellers are usually selling an investment so no chain. 

Don't dismiss them!

Ybe

arthurdick said:

Ybe said:

Is it just me or has there not been many good properties on the london flat property market in the past year?  A lot of ex buy to lets on the market. Or am I just looking in the wrong areas? 

If we knew which areas you are looking in and for what price we could agree or disagree,   I have been looking for around 14 months around mostly south London and also up to Pimlico, Battersea and Wandsworth, there have been plenty I have wanted,  they are all around the £300k mark.

I agree with AlexMac, I am also living in the SE3 postcode, I think the other side of the heath though, but there are some lovely flats going, but what price are you looking up to?.

Everywhere but mainly north london up to about 350k. I’ve been looking near rail and tube stations though. And im finding the ones around that price are not in great condition. 

LL_USS

Hi everyone, we are looking to buy a flat in the inner city for two children to live in.

Is there any easy way to filter out flats that have commonhold/ shared freehold or Victorian/ Edwardian conversions? Thank you in advance.

eddddy

LL_USS said:

Hi everyone, we are looking to buy a flat in the inner city for two children to live in.

Is there any easy way to filter out flats that have commonhold/ shared freehold or Victorian/ Edwardian conversions? Thank you in advance.

When you say "filter out", do you mean exclude them from your search results?

Or do you mean that they're the only types you want to see in your search results?

FWIW, Zoopla's filters include:

• Property features: Period Property
• Ownership: Share of Freehold

But I'm not sure that all estate agents use Zoopla. Plus you're relying on the estate agent to tick all the relevant / correct boxes when they list the property on Zoopla. I suspect that some estate agents will be a bit slack with that.

LL_USS

@eddddy thank you very much. Yes I'd like to only buy a flat without the standard complications of leaseholds and have seen on this forum a discussion that V/E conversions can have a better chance for commonhold.

I see, I'll look at Zoopla and compare with Rightmove. Indeed people tend to go to Rightmove more when searching to buy.

I have just checked to see that the number of those ones remaining after I put in "shared freehold" has reduced so much, so they are either rare or as you said, agents don't put tags on for all cases, or both.

If we still want to buy in the city, we can only afford a flat but I am really put off from horror leasehold and service charge stories.

ReadySteadyPop

LL_USS said:

@eddddy thank you very much. Yes I'd like to only buy a flat without the standard complications of leaseholds and have seen on this forum a discussion that V/E conversions can have a better chance for commonhold.

I see, I'll look at Zoopla and compare with Rightmove. Indeed people tend to go to Rightmove more when searching to buy.

I have just checked to see that the number of those ones remaining after I put in "shared freehold" has reduced so much, so they are either rare or as you said, agents don't put tags on for all cases, or both.

If we still want to buy in the city, we can only afford a flat but I am really put off from horror leasehold and service charge stories.

 More and more people are definitely being put of by this "money pit" aspect to buying certain types of property.

LL_USS

@ReadySteadyPop indeed. I've been advised to hold on till we know more about the leasehold reform act and when it's in effect, yet the wait may see flats A LOT more expensive.

It's hard to time the market - I suppose we have the flexibility of having a longer time period to decide to buy, and when we need to buy to live in then we just have to buy.