Buying Leasehold Ground floor maisonette vs considering a house

lukej42

I'm currently going through the process of buying a Ground Floor Leasehold 61sqm maisonette in the Wimbledon area of London for £515,000 (was originally up for £550,000 and then reduced to £525,000). The property has no service charge and the lease is 170 years, plus has half the front garden and a rear garden.

The property was previously rented out and is generally in good condition, the only major work that my survey highlighted was the crittal bay window that would need replacing quite urgently. The property also seems to have 5 different types of windows installed (all uPVC but different quality, handles etc). The bathroom will eventually also need replacement tiles + a new 3 piece eventually but isn't too bad at the moment.

- Desktop Mortgage valuation was at £483,000 (6%~ under agreed price)
- Survey valuation was £515,000 (there are other properties of a similar style in excellent condition that are under offer for around £550k - none of them have ever sold for that price before so I have a few doubts about that number being the completion value
- I am concerned about the noise from above living in a ground floor maisonette - a bit of noise is fine but concerned about hearing footsteps and voices
- The size of the property, at 61sqm, is fine for me but would people consider it too small when buying?
- Would replacing the crittal bay windows be extortionate? - I am wondering why this is the only window that hasn't been replaced (also wondering what the lease says about replacing windows and if that could have been the issue, although others have replaced all windows)

One concern somebody raised is that, should I want to sell the property in the future, it could also be valued at 6% less 

From looking at properties in the area I can see a huge number of leaseholds (a mix of flats and maisonettes) that do eventually sell are selling with huge reductions. This after many of them have been on the market for months on end. One example I viewed was originally up for £525k and was consistently reduced until it eventually sold for £415k, after previously being sold for £480k in 2016.

Is now a good time to buy a leasehold maisonette in the area or is a house one zone out likely to hold its value more?

eddddy

lukej42 said:

- Would replacing the crittal bay windows be extortionate? - I am wondering why this is the only window that hasn't been replaced (also wondering what the lease says about replacing windows and if that could have been the issue, although others have replaced all windows)

You can try googling something like 'online upvc window price calculator' - many firms have them. Although I'm not sure if they can do bay windows.

And/or send a photo of the bay window and approx dimensions by email to a few local upvc window fitting firms. They'll generally reply very quickly with a quote.  (But bear in mind that there are different qualities of window.)


Just a thought - being Wimbledon, has the area become a conservation area since the neighbours replaced their bay windows? If so, that will add complications.

The current owner might have only replaced windows as necessary - when they became rusted, warped and unserviceable. And the bay windows hadn't reached that stage yet.

DullGreyGuy

lukej42 said:

- I am concerned about the noise from above living in a ground floor maisonette - a bit of noise is fine but concerned about hearing footsteps and voices
- The size of the property, at 61sqm, is fine for me but would people consider it too small when buying?
- Would replacing the crittal bay windows be extortionate? - I am wondering why this is the only window that hasn't been replaced (also wondering what the lease says about replacing windows and if that could have been the issue, although others have replaced all windows)

One concern somebody raised is that, should I want to sell the property in the future, it could also be valued at 6% less 

From looking at properties in the area I can see a huge number of leaseholds (a mix of flats and maisonettes) that do eventually sell are selling with huge reductions. This after many of them have been on the market for months on end. One example I viewed was originally up for £525k and was consistently reduced until it eventually sold for £415k, after previously being sold for £480k in 2016.

Is now a good time to buy a leasehold maisonette in the area or is a house one zone out likely to hold its value more?

Is it purpose built or a conversion? How old is the property?

61sqm is small but it depends on the layout and how many bedrooms there are. A clever layout can make a smaller flat feel bigger than a poorly laid out larger flat. There are new builds around our way that are 50sqm and smaller still if you include studios

Clearly you are considering buying it and you are not unique, sure a family of 8 arent going to be interested but not everyone is a family of 8 and not everyone can afford a 200sqm flat. 

You can get quotes for replacing windows online easy enough, at least a ball park. 

The flat we were renting before we bought was put up for £650k and eventually sold for £525k in 2020. 6 years later a neighbouring flat was listed for £750k and just reduced to £725k. A second neighbour sold for £650k in 2022. In principle the flats are the same layout other than ours didnt have a balcony but ours was a long term rental whereas the others were recently renovated and owner occupied. 

Housebuying, unless you are going to invest a lot of time in research ultimately is a gamble. For years we put off buying forever convinced prices would crash. Then finally bought then Covid happened. In the 6 years ours has gone from the circa £575k we paid up to £650k then back down to £625k whilst our neighbour failed to sell theirs advertising at £615k despite our mortgage provider saying £625l

lukej42

eddddy said:

lukej42 said:

- Would replacing the crittal bay windows be extortionate? - I am wondering why this is the only window that hasn't been replaced (also wondering what the lease says about replacing windows and if that could have been the issue, although others have replaced all windows)

You can try googling something like 'online upvc window price calculator' - many firms have them. Although I'm not sure if they can do bay windows.

And/or send a photo of the bay window and approx dimensions by email to a few local upvc window fitting firms. They'll generally reply very quickly with a quote.  (But bear in mind that there are different qualities of window.)


Just a thought - being Wimbledon, has the area become a conservation area since the neighbours replaced their bay windows? If so, that will add complications.

The current owner might have only replaced windows as necessary - when they became rusted, warped and unserviceable. And the bay windows hadn't reached that stage yet.

I don't believe it is a convervation area - I'm more just concerned about the steps I have to take (written in the lease or something) to replace the windows or if crittal windows cost an additional amount to remove because they're steel or something (might sound ridiculous)

DullGreyGuy said:

lukej42 said:

- I am concerned about the noise from above living in a ground floor maisonette - a bit of noise is fine but concerned about hearing footsteps and voices
- The size of the property, at 61sqm, is fine for me but would people consider it too small when buying?
- Would replacing the crittal bay windows be extortionate? - I am wondering why this is the only window that hasn't been replaced (also wondering what the lease says about replacing windows and if that could have been the issue, although others have replaced all windows)

One concern somebody raised is that, should I want to sell the property in the future, it could also be valued at 6% less 

From looking at properties in the area I can see a huge number of leaseholds (a mix of flats and maisonettes) that do eventually sell are selling with huge reductions. This after many of them have been on the market for months on end. One example I viewed was originally up for £525k and was consistently reduced until it eventually sold for £415k, after previously being sold for £480k in 2016.

Is now a good time to buy a leasehold maisonette in the area or is a house one zone out likely to hold its value more?

Is it purpose built or a conversion? How old is the property?

61sqm is small but it depends on the layout and how many bedrooms there are. A clever layout can make a smaller flat feel bigger than a poorly laid out larger flat. There are new builds around our way that are 50sqm and smaller still if you include studios

Clearly you are considering buying it and you are not unique, sure a family of 8 arent going to be interested but not everyone is a family of 8 and not everyone can afford a 200sqm flat. 

You can get quotes for replacing windows online easy enough, at least a ball park. 

The flat we were renting before we bought was put up for £650k and eventually sold for £525k in 2020. 6 years later a neighbouring flat was listed for £750k and just reduced to £725k. A second neighbour sold for £650k in 2022. In principle the flats are the same layout other than ours didnt have a balcony but ours was a long term rental whereas the others were recently renovated and owner occupied. 

Housebuying, unless you are going to invest a lot of time in research ultimately is a gamble. For years we put off buying forever convinced prices would crash. Then finally bought then Covid happened. In the 6 years ours has gone from the circa £575k we paid up to £650k then back down to £625k whilst our neighbour failed to sell theirs advertising at £615k despite our mortgage provider saying £625l

It's a purpose built maisonette, built around 1949.

This is my real concern about buying right now when prices seem to fluctuate to much - I'm seeing estate agents price properties at exactly the same price as in 2020/2021/2022 and the market is completely different now with the increase in rates. The property I've had an offer accepted on didn't attract a single other offer and was never going to sell at £545,000, so initially I was happy with £514,000. Now starting to have second thoughts when looking at the rest of the market in the area and the idea of only having half a house (downstairs), while also weighing up the fact that it has no service charge and a long lease.

I'm not at the stage of pulling out yet, i'm waiting for the result of the searches and for my surveyor to come back with a few things regarding local sale prices and sound proofing between the Ground floor and upstairs

Floor plan below

NameUnavailable

Who is the freeholder? What's the ground rent?

Size is fine, no issues there I'd say.

Albermarle

The property also seems to have 5 different types of windows installed (all uPVC but different quality, handles etc).
Many properties are like this, it is not really an issue. More likely they are all just different designs from different companies installed at different times, rather than necessarily different qualities. 

 to replace the windows or if crittal windows cost an additional amount to remove because they're steel or something (might sound ridiculous)
Not an issue removing old steel windows.

The bathroom will eventually also need replacement tiles + a new 3 piece eventually but isn't too bad at the moment. Also normal.

Is now a good time to buy a leasehold maisonette in the area or is a house one zone out likely to hold its value more?
I would think at the price you are talking about, you are going to be looking at a very small house.
Although personally I would normally prefer a freehold house to a leasehold flat, I would probably prefer a flat if you are looking in the 60 M2 range. Normally you would expect the smallish floor space to be more efficiently arranged in a flat/maisonette.
Plus at least with this one you have garden access.

zagubov

Albermarle said:

I would think at the price you are talking about, you are going to be looking at a very small house.
Although personally I would normally prefer a freehold house to a leasehold flat, I would probably prefer a flat if you are looking in the 60 M2 range. Normally you would expect the smallish floor space to be more efficiently arranged in a flat/maisonette.
Plus at least with this one you have garden access.

This ^^^^^^.
I know the area and I'm surprised you've found a two-bed property with a garden there for that price. I'd also be surprised if you could find an affordable house in the next zone that would be as good value.
The nearest area with freehold houses are likely to be in New Malden, a lovely area, but affordable houses there would be one-bedroom cluster houses with no genuine garden, no second bedroom for children/lodgers, and a house dominated by a stairwell.