Buying a flat in central Edinburgh...help and advise please!?

gerryoh

We're looking to buy a 3-5 bedroomed flat in Edinburgh, as central as poss to the Uni. Any tips, advise or contacts would be gratefully received.

All the best for 2008
Gerry

caileag

Forgive me if I am stating the obvious - not sure how far into your research you are!
Anyway, www.espc.co.uk will have most of the properties for sale.

Marchmont, Newington and Bruntsfield are well-established uni areas, but consequently prices are above average, to say the least!

If you are looking at 3+ rooms, remember it will need a HMO licence (assuming you intend to rent it out?). Depending on the flat, this will need alterations to the structure. Also, near the uni, some areas are reaching saturation point, and it is getting harder to get an HMO from the council.

hearts

Be prepared to pay a LOT of money for such a property in central Edinburgh. As mentioned ESPC is the best then look at REMAX.
With the price of properties in the areas you are looking, if you are buying to Let I would be very surprised if the figures stacked up.

Fergie73

I agree. If you're buying to let out rooms, I'd suggest taking a look at Gumtree and Easyroommate.com to get a feel for how much competition there is already out there and what price rooms are going for.

Given that prices are through the roof, and rents have been stagnant for years, I'd be very surprised if the figures stacked up too, but if you've got a kid coming up to uni, maybe they do.

epz_2

quick search shows the absolute cheapest 3 bed in central endinburgh is on for 1/4 of a million and most are a lot more, rent looks to be £600-900 oh and house prices in edinburgh have droped 5% already.

cant think of anything that would make me do that "investment" short of a guy holding a shotgun.