What will happen to city centre apartments?

BiggaThanBen

Snooze wrote: »

My hallway is bigger than the entire floor space of most of them.

And your house is probably worth 2-3 times more ? My friends ended up looking for flats only because they would get significantly more floor space for the same money ...

Jonbvn

IMHO a lot of NB flats will finally end up in LA ownership.

Anyone for Mandella house? Rodney you plonker!

neverdespairgirl

m00m00 wrote: »

not quite the same as the crappy new builds being thrown up in most city centres though is it


your walls are probably actually made of bricks for a start, and not plaster board and paper.

Neither, in this case! It's an inter-war building, constructed from steel bars and concrete. It's very good at insulating, and the sound-proofing is great as well. All the other buildings close by are brick, though.

dudleyboy

kittie wrote: »

I have heard on the grapevine that many will be bought by councils for dss

Now that wouldn't surprise me at all as that's exactly who inner-city tower - sorry, city-living apartment - blocks were developed for in the first place (before living in the city centre became trendy / fashionable / "desirable" and they were all torn down).

The shiny new apartments next to the shiny new shopping centres, restaurants and wine bars look all lovely and metropolitan now but over the next decade or two they're going to eventually become as run down as the old concrete ones of post-war Britain and the 1970s recession / depression (which is due to make a very unwelcome return in the next couple of years).

The thing is, the ugly, unpleasant concrete ones were built to last (had they not been torn down). These new ones, with their thin walls and dodgy electrics? I'm not so sure... and even if they do, they too will eventually become vandalised, graffiti-ed and have stairwells that reek of p!ss.

With consumer spending down massively, and unemployment up, those shops, restaurants and wine bars won't be sparkling as much as they are now and their derelict premises will provide adequate shelter for gangs, prostitutes, junkies and the homeless (the latter probably being former amateur BTL-ers who've overstretched themselves with their swelling portfolios and lost their own home along with all the others).

Not exactly the environment in which I'd like to raise a family and while some areas, such as the one in which neverdespairgirl lives (unfortunately not everyone is on the same salary as barristers, surgeons and "media types" ), won't see all these effects there will certainly be other areas of London and larger cities throughout the land that will.

Considering where the bulk of the UK's money has been spent in the past during such recessionary times (and with the 2012 Olympics being held in... wait for it... London), I'm concerned that despite massive regeneration throughout all our major cities over the past decade, it will, once again, become grim up north.

Of course, the eyes of the world won't notice the poverty, misery and unemployment of the rest of the nation because they'll be too occupied watching some running and jumping in some shiny new stadiums in London, financed by cutting back on spending elsewhere in the UK during it's recessionary years. Sure, the Olympics will bring in money but where will the majority of it be spent before, during and after?

Ok, I've gone slightly off topic there but the point being is that city-centre apartments anywhere other than central London are going to become as run-down, as impoverished, as undesirable and as forgotten as they always have been, just like the people who dwell in them.

The nation's poor have to live somewhere too and when their 3 bedroom semis in the suburbs are repossessed (bought on 90%-125% mortgages at the top of the nation's biggest housing bubble), which they won't be able to afford due to stricter credit lending and higher interest rates (I'm guessing 10%+ to curb hyperinflation) - or they've been made bankrupt by BrightHouse or Picture Loans for not keeping up with repayments due to much higher food, fuel and utility bills - they'll be turning to the new Conservative government and expecting to be housed somewhere.

And cheap, shoddy, centrally located towers of flats is where they'll probably stick them.

Of course, the Conservatives will say they're cleaning up Blair/Brown's mess... use the words "spin", "dithering" and "prudent" to ridicule them and overtly imply that the Conservatives are the nation's new saviours, while also conveniently forgetting that whole "Right to buy" 'thing' (I can just hear Cameron now, "Look, I'm not going to dwell on the past, I'm going to look ahead and take this great nation of ours... blah, blah, blah...").

jamescredmond

dudleyboy wrote: »

Now that wouldn't surprise me at all as that's exactly who inner-city tower - sorry, city-living apartment - blocks were developed for in the first place (before living in the city centre became trendy / fashionable / "desirable" and they were all torn down).

The shiny new apartments next to the shiny new shopping centres, restaurants and wine bars look all lovely and metropolitan now but over the next decade or two they're going to eventually become as run down as the old concrete ones of post-war Britain and the 1970s recession / depression (which is due to make a very unwelcome return in the next couple of years).

The thing is, the ugly, unpleasant concrete ones were built to last (had they not been torn down). These new ones, with their thin walls and dodgy electrics? I'm not so sure... and even if they do, they too will eventually become vandalised, graffiti-ed and have stairwells that reek of p!ss.

With consumer spending down massively, and unemployment up, those shops, restaurants and wine bars won't be sparkling as much as they are now and their derelict premises will provide adequate shelter for gangs, prostitutes, junkies and the homeless (the latter probably being former amateur BTL-ers who've overstretched themselves with their swelling portfolios and lost their own home along with all the others).

Not exactly the environment in which I'd like to raise a family and while some areas, such as the one in which neverdespairgirl lives (unfortunately not everyone is on the same salary as barristers, surgeons and "media types" ), won't see all these effects there will certainly be other areas of London and larger cities throughout the land that will.

Considering where the bulk of the UK's money has been spent in the past during such recessionary times (and with the 2012 Olympics being held in... wait for it... London), I'm concerned that despite massive regeneration throughout all our major cities over the past decade, it will, once again, become grim up north.

Of course, the eyes of the world won't notice the poverty, misery and unemployment of the rest of the nation because they'll be too occupied watching some running and jumping in some shiny new stadiums in London, financed by cutting back on spending elsewhere in the UK during it's recessionary years. Sure, the Olympics will bring in money but where will the majority of it be spent before, during and after?

Ok, I've gone slightly off topic there but the point being is that city-centre apartments anywhere other than central London are going to become as run-down, as impoverished, as undesirable and as forgotten as they always have been, just like the people who dwell in them.

The nation's poor have to live somewhere too and when their 3 bedroom semis in the suburbs are repossessed (bought on 90%-125% mortgages at the top of the nation's biggest housing bubble), which they won't be able to afford due to stricter credit lending and higher interest rates (I'm guessing 10%+ to curb hyperinflation) - or they've been made bankrupt by BrightHouse or Picture Loans for not keeping up with repayments due to much higher food, fuel and utility bills - they'll be turning to the new Conservative government and expecting to be housed somewhere.

And cheap, shoddy, centrally located towers of flats is where they'll probably stick them.

Of course, the Conservatives will say they're cleaning up Blair/Brown's mess... use the words "spin", "dithering" and "prudent" to ridicule them and overtly imply that the Conservatives are the nation's new saviours, while also conveniently forgetting that whole "Right to buy" 'thing' (I can just hear Cameron now, "Look, I'm not going to dwell on the past, I'm going to look ahead and take this great nation of ours... blah, blah, blah...").

this prediction - dire as it is - is probably accurate IMO.

empty new-build aptmt blocks are quickly becoming a feature of most city-centres, excl. london.

as the screw turns, developers will be falling over themselves to dispose of these properties (assuming the lenders haven't broke the door down).

'modern city living' will then become 'ghettoisation' in some areas.

even here, in my provincial market town, I can see problems.

I've been 'stalking' a new-build of 49 1/2 bed aptmts for the past 2 months.
it's good to stalk, esp. at night, when it becomes clear which aptmts are occupied.

just 3, out of 49.

given the over-supply situation, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that most of these shoe-boxes will remain empty and eventually demolished to make way for another bout of speculative development.

I wouldn't dare venture to speculate on NDgirl's salary, but I think it's a fair bet which way our old hair-changing mate cameron will play this. the electorate is fickle and allready dancing to the cons' mood music.

but I've yet to see any clear evidence that cameron holds policies that amount to a workable rescue package.

he will be confronted with the 'right to buy' thing and will almost certainly spout the usual ' moving forward ' and ' lessons learnt ' garbage. he can run but he can't hide from the fact that his party were instrumental in persuading the nation to shift from being neighbours to investors. even if he was at eton at the time.

broon has accelerated the process, to his discredit, which makes me look at both parties and think: '2 cheeks of the same @rse'.

neverdespairgirl

Central London is a bit different anyway, I'd agree. there have been flats here for a long time (there are loads of really nice red brick mansion blocks which are Victorian and Edwardian) and living in a flat in central London has been normal for almost everyone who lives here for decades. Few of the flats are newbuilds, for a start.

Jvic28

tradetime wrote: »

Personally I think you should buy whatever suits your lifestyle best, I would consider that to be the priority. I have generally always been an aparment kind of person, although my last property was a house My sister and brother both have houses. The one thing I have noticed visiting them, especially in the summer is that it is nice to have your own outside space (garden) This may be even more the case with children, just something to consider.

I agree, I love living in the city (Cardiff) but miss having a garden and love going to visit my parents and take advantage of theirs. I will definately be moving onto buying a house with a garden if I can ever get rid of my apartment withoug making a loss.

x

mizzbiz

There is a much fanfared new build apartment block in sunderland overlooking the wear. At the time of building, everyone was aying they wish they could have one but could never afford it. They were going for around 200k each depending on the flat.

Now check out right move rentals on SR1 1XD (this location only). They have most (not all) been snapped up by BTL investors thinking they can charge the poeple of sunderland between 650 and 1100 per month to live in them (ha ha ha) and about 50 of the 79 'apartments' are up for rent. Two of them up for sale, haven't dropped a penny, have been up for months and months.

The worst thing is, the amount for rent grows each day, so none of them are being let out. If you think of the overall mortgage loss on these apartments, it must be up to £150k a month collectively. How can the owners afford to lose so much a month on an empty flat that will never sell in this area?

mizzbiz

Just to add, the poeple in Sunderland who actually make enough to be able to afford to pay this much in rent would never pay it. They are doctors and solicitors who own mansions that cost little less than this.

Where the average person in this area earns about 14k max in call centres, who on earth do they thing is going to pay them almost a grand in rent a month.

It really boggles my mind.

As an addendum, my friends parents have been BTL'ing for years and years. They bought beautiful, huge properties on private, city centre streets back when they were going for peanuts. They charge a MAX of £400 per month for beautiful 2 bed flats in these streets, which is where all the young teachers and professionals rent. Not in these monstrosities.

BiggaThanBen

mizzbiz wrote: »

sunderland between 650 and 1100 per month

That's London prices and the building itself looks like a council block, what are they thinking !? :eek: