I do NOT believe it... £50,000 drop in Cambridge!

PasturesNew

pickles110564 wrote: »

How come none of you have bought your own houses and started BTL empires yet?

I looked into it 2 years ago when I put my house up for sale. I quickly decided it wasn't for me and it would end in tears.

Too many variables out of my control. Maintenance, voids, tricky tenants. I couldn't have managed it properly.

I had a few choices:
- convert mine to official HMO and rent it
- split mine into a flat, a 2-storey maisonette and a separate house and rent them separately
- sell and use the money to put down 10-20% and be an overnight multi-miwyonaire pwoperdee owner.

None of the models made me feel comfortable.
None of them felt right.
There was too much risk for me. I'm a right pansy.

No BTL for me.

owitemisermusa

harryhound wrote: »

This is the cheapest in the block at present.
Back in 1990 you could have bought it on your credit card.
If the building looks a bit "industrial" it is because the Bata Shoe company built the small town in the 1930's. But the Authorities would not allow it to be called "Bataville"
(or Batavia its twin town in Canada).
This building used to be the Hotel/directors suite etc.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-17440754.rsp?pa_n=3&tr_t=buy.

It aint no Ovaltine! Shoulda just knocked it down. Methinks it's rubbish!

EDIT: Bata don't trade anymore do they? Subsaharan Africa I think. Shame, they were rather durable.

harryhound

Its a conservation area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bata_Shoes

harryhound

PasturesNew wrote: »

Houses in the roads off Mill Road have always been extortionate for what they look like. I could never work it out. They were tatty, 2-up, 2-down places mostly. Unmodernised back in my day too. Damp, mainly rented as bedsits. So I could never work out why the high prices (unless it was the fact they were being rented as bedsits that made them worth more). And Mill Road itself was always a rough area. All grime and takeaways. Houses in the side roads between Parkside and Mill Road bridge did tend to be larger/posher, but once over that bridge it was really quite odd. I could never see why they'd go for so much. I could certainly never afford one.

.

Haven't most of them got posh rear 2 story extensions these days?
No thru traffic?
Long gardens?
The old workers' corner grocer turned into a bistro bar?
Planning permission for your garage conversion opening onto a rear/side entry worth 75K?
Powerful local residents association that does no like Tesco? That reminds me of Hampstead locking horns with Mac Donald.
Harry,
Drat why did we not buy two (garages that is?)

Nenen

Hi all... just when I was starting to feel more optimistic about house prices becoming more realistic in the Cambridge area, the Cambridge Evening News has this article taking up the whole of the front page tonight:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn%5Fnews%5Fhome/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=319804

Now, I know that the only people being interviewed 'happened' to be EAs and, as we all know, they have no vested interest in this whatsoever :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: and I'm quite sure as well that the newspaper was not influenced in any way by said EAs (who happen to pay massive fees for them to produce a weekly colour brochure 'Property News') to produce anything other than unbiased reporting :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: but even so I'm gutted that they might be successful in shoring up the market in this area. As most people here seem to agree, property prices are driven by sentiment and, if these [strike]paid lackeys[/strike] 'reporters' manage to convince people that Cambridge is the 'exception to the rule' and 'bucking the trend' then, I for one am going to be bucking mad! :mad::mad::mad:


Home on market for record £3.5 million ESTATE agents believe "a rare gem" of a Victorian house will fetch a record price for a Cambridge home - it is on the market for a massive £3.5 million.

And despite much doom and gloom in the property market nationally, Bidwells say they have had a lot of interest in the house named Willowbrook, on leafy Chaucer Road in Trumpington.

It dates from the late 19th century and is on three levels. It has seven double bedrooms, three bath/shower rooms, a kitchen and an elegant dining room, a study, a games room, a cellar, a tennis court, a possible office space, an acre of mature gardens and it backs onto Vicar's Brook.

Chris Carey, residential managing partner at Bidwells, said that asking price - in excess of £3.5 million - is a record for Cambridge. He said: "I've been doing this job since 1981 and specialise in properties in excess of £1 million. ""We can have buyers on our books for years who will only move for something special like this.
"Houses of this size and quality only tend to come to the market every five or six years and we are already receiving lots of interest in it. I would be very disappointed if it made less than £3.5 million and I would expect it to reach more."

Looking at the wider property market in the city, he said: "We do a lot of business in Cambridge and it is resilient to the downturn in the market." And he said buyers who are intent on trading up the property ladder recognise that it is a good time to do so.

Chris Summers, regional manager at Januarys, agreed that the property market in Cambridge is bucking the national trend. He said: "We have had a record start to the year - we have had our best first five months for seven years. "Any house within two miles of the city centre is making its price and selling within six to eight weeks. And the Halifax said that prices went up by 1.1 per cent in April for the city centre. "We have sold homes for more than the asking price in the city centre."

Andrew Bradshaw said the merger of Bradshaws and Encore (New Homes) to form Bradshaw Residential Ltd, and the opening of a new office in Newmarket Road, showed confidence in the market. He said Bradshaws was taking "a huge leap forward" with its expansion. He said: "There has always been a lot to underpin the market in Cambridge - the university, the hospital and science-based industry. It is a vibrant city close to London with good rail links and that will not alter."

Simon Gardner, managing director of Tucker Gardner, said: "Its not all doom and gloom. People are watching to see if they can pick up a bargain and now is a good time to hunt around."

m00m00

if you check threads on here, you'll see this kind of story turning up more and more in local papers. Not in anyway connected to the fact that estate agents are their main advertisers at all, pure coincidence.

as for their claims about booming markets

property bee says No.

pickles110564

m00m00 wrote: »

if you check threads on here, you'll see this kind of story turning up more and more in local papers. Not in anyway connected to the fact that estate agents are their main advertisers at all, pure coincidence.

as for their claims about booming markets

property bee says No.

But property wasp says yes!
Surely with all that intelligence around Cambridge they will see straight through the hype:rolleyes:

baby_boomer

m00m00 wrote: »

if you check threads on here, you'll see this kind of story turning up more and more in local papers. Not in anyway connected to the fact that estate agents are their main advertisers at all, pure coincidence.

To read the Wednesday Property section in the London Evening Standard is like stepping into a time-warp. 40 pages without a negative thought about the market except for the "Diary of an Estate Agent" on page 11 which lets the side down:-

"It's the middle of the week and all I have done is lose my no-claims bonus. I decided to go back to basics and call my most loyal investment buyers, who to a (wo)man, recited "credit crunch...."

pickles110564

baby_boomer wrote: »

To read the Wednesday Property section in the London Evening Standard is like stepping into a time-warp. 40 pages without a negative thought about the market.

Have you not started to realise yet? Perhaps that is because there is nothing to worry about. Once the hype dies down it will be all systems go once more.
Rock on GB

harryhound

That was a "must read" for me a dozen years ago. A huge pile used to be dumped outside where I worked so I used to help myself to a freemans at lunchtime.

As the market gathered force, the articles went further and further afield; when it got to "Live in St Ives and commute on the new low cost airline" I gave up.
Never have really liked fairy stories, even as a kid.
Harry.
PS That is NOT the St Ives near Cambridge to get back on thread.