Buying my council flat - a good idea?

louiseacat

Need advice on whether to buy my council flat - it is a first floor, one bedroom flat in a low rise block and I would get the full discount available.

1 - Cannot afford to buy a property any other way in my area.
2 - worried about selling it as I will certainly need a bigger place in a few years.

Does anyone have any advice as I have been in a pickle about this for a while now?

cattie

The only advice I can offer is to consider if you were an ordinary buyer looking for a flat, would it be something you'd want to lay out money on? Do you view it as a nice flat in a fairly decent location? If so then buying it would be a wise choice.
Have any of the other flats been bought & then sold on, as this this may give you an indication of the saleability of the flats?


Something you should consider also before buying is whether there are likely to be any major works to the block/estate in the next few years, as if so there is likely to be a large additional financial outlay as a result. Would you be able to cope with this financially? And if you were selling before works completed this could seriously affect the sale/price of the flat.

If you've got doubts about it's potential to be sold on after a few years, then maybe it's not wise to be thinking about buying it.

skylight

How long do you have to keep it before you can sell it too! I have to keep mine for 3 years before I re-sell, or I have to pay back the discount.

Getting a discount is fantastic - locked in equity - but only if your flat is saleable in the first place. The first thread in this section is about free house price info - look your postcode up in there and see what sort of prices similar ones have gone for. Location is important - looking over the bins is not great, looking over the park would be better.

And before you buy it, check out your flat and get all those little bits fixed by the council first!!!!

elisebutt65

As above and also see if the council have any major works in the offing, you wouldn't want to miss out on a new kitchen etc.

In the last 2 years, I've had a new roof, new kitchen & bathroom and the front of my house repainted.

Perhaps you could do a transfer to a more desirable area first??