What will happen to city centre apartments?

dad-of-4

i dont think their was ever a demand for these city centre apartments, their are literaly hundreds empty in manchester, where does the demand come from unless all these city centre professionals are already homeless and living on the streets of manchester. whats going on in manchester that would bring people into the city to live in these pads? the only thing happening is a downward spiral in prices, and as that happens thoes who buy cheaper and cheaper, will be able to rent out for less & less, sparking a big fall in rents all around manchester, it will be like a bizzare game of musical chairs, with a constant surplus of flats constantly rotating and landlords busting their balls to make sure their not the ones with the voids. tenants skipping from flat to flat inorder to take advantage of falling rents, it will take way to long for enough top renters to appear on the scene to fill the surpluss, so the best option for the landlords especialy thoes who pick up the cheap repos is to go for the DsS, and not your down on their luck trying to get back on their feet type who you know will bail as soon as they're on their feet, but the long term workshy, single mums who are gona have their hands full fwith kids for a few years, long term sick druggies etc. are the uni's gona pull in hundreds of extra students? i doubt it, infact numbers could fall as the recession kicks in & money gets tighter. once the caliber of the tentant slips it would never recover.

i know this just what i think could possably happen, but im sure most of you can see the logic in what im saying.

if you had the money, it would be so easy to instigate this senario, cherry pick the repos, and make a fat portfolio & profit some time in the not to distant futue.

SouthCoast

The recent base rate cuts will have a significant impact on some BTL landlords.
They will be able to undercut their competitors who are on fixed rates and this will help ensure that they get full occupancy from the limited demand for city centre flats.

neverdespairgirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

Idiots.

The most basic of research (2 hours + google by somebody with 2 GCSEs) could have found this out easily enough.

Didn't even need that. Just needed someone to think about his widowed Granny and great-aunt Elsie.

ixwood

Rabiddog wrote: »

IN opposition to all this doom and gloom over the city centres.. an article in the (forgot) was relating how in USA all the ne-er-do-wells are being housed in the places on the outskirts of town, as that was where prices had dropped the most. They dropped the most because the cost of commuting was now a real item in most yanks budget. Our petrol prices have always been higher, but the cost of petrol, the time and possibly congestion charges will have the same effect over here. Ex=urbia (suburbia) will become the new ghetto for the homeless, impoverished and workless.
n.b. Most social renters are not neighbours from Hell, they(nFh) can be both owners or renters and sometimes Landlords. Cut the owners good, renters bad, nonsense ok?.:mad:

America's different. It's vast and the suburbs are huge. Completely different here.

Inner city slums will be the worst hit.

Pssst

Ike1 wrote: »

Hi - the credit crunch has already affected the price of the new-ish city centre apartments in Manchester.

The cheapest new(ish) city centre apartments in Manchester (M4) at the moment on Rightmove are around £100,000 (http://www.rightmove.co.uk/search.rsp?lo_u=1593&lo_t=2&lo_n=M4&se_c=1&poi_e=0&poi_n=0&nh_st=1&stc_s=false&mi_b=2&tr_t=buy&pa_n=1&re_s=price&eventsubmit_dosearch=1&initial_search_time=1213376457287&s_tat=false#prop-17929285) and I'm guessing that their prices will drop a lot further in the coming months.

What do you think will happen to these type of apartments once their prices have bottomed out? Will there be a massive rush to purchase them or will buyers stay well clear?

My partner and I are currently working and living (renting) in the city centre and we find city centre living to be very convenient. We've been quite spoilt by the city centre living lifestyle and we have no plans to move to the suburbs anytime soon! There are 3 nursery/daycare centres that we know of in the city centre so having children probably won't affect our city living plans too much in the future!

Would buying a city centre apartment (once the prices have bottomed out - of course!) be a good move or would it be a total no no?

Ta in advance for any opinions,

Ike

They will become social housing projects and secret brothels. No one is going to buy them at anything like their current rates.

In addition,you have to factor in the monthly service charges,some of which are quite iniquitous.

If you are in Manchester go take a stroll around the Green Quarter.

See here
http://www.crosbyhomes.co.uk/index.php?u=48_greenquarter_home_page

The best time to go is at night. You will be able to see great expanses of new build apartments and hardly a light on in many windows save for the lights on communal stairways.

Would you buy one at the current price? They were overpriced when they built them and they are overpriced now. High volume building,easily erected in panel format for quick returns.

BTLs and others already own them or will speculate and then rent them out.

I have heard rumours that in some cases,they already are being used as social housing ,short term homeless etc..

Not saying there is anything wrong with that.

I just prefer the clear demarcation between those who earn and pay a mortgage and those who dont earn and have their rent paid for them. There is a grey area in the middle of decent people who choose to rent but it can be fluid.

I wouldnt touch any of them. I might be tempted if they dropped to maybe 60k

Wolzow

I can't help feeling that ,like most purchases, houses, and perhaps significantly, city centre apartments, really are a case of buyer beware, especially in this market.

However thats not to say that there is not still a case for buying one if it suits your lifestyle, but its important to make sure that its one that will retain its value. There will always be some demand for city centre apartments, its just making sure that yours is one which will be in demand. Therefore issues like build quality, development popularity and issues like dedicated parking spaces become more significant, as these are the things which will indicate whether or not the apartment will remain a good buy or be condemned to become a city centre ghetto.

My advice, for what its worth, and based on our experiences of buying in Birmingham city Centre recently is

Buy in an established and popular development - not stuff thats just been built and is still half empty (and theres lots of those)

Look for the extras which mean its a good long term buy - 24hr concierge, dedicated parking spaces (even for studio flats), good build quality and maximum floor space

Check out the rental market and see what your chosen property will fetch and what the demand is - if its high in demand then thats a good sign

See how many apartments are empty/for sale in the development - more than a few is not good

Buy at auction but do loads of homework beforehand

All of this is obvious I know, but there really are some good bargains out there if you do your homework - judging when the market bottoms out may be more difficult !

Fire_Fox

I live in a northern city centre apartment, and the best piece of advice I can add is to do your homework on your managing agents. A good managing agent will keep the communal areas in good order for a fair price, will be happy to deal with anyone who is breaking the terms of their lease (rubbish/ noise/ smelly pets/ drug dealing).

A well administered service charge will help keep your investment in top condition, encouraging good quality tenants to stay rather than lots of short term lets and moonlight flits (as we have). Ask lots of questions via your solicitor about how many non-payers of service charges they have and how many disputes between tenants and management company. Also visit your neighbours to ask if they are happy with the managing agents. Note that I am in dispute with my agents and they deny there is a dispute, saying I am just a bad payer. This is despite numerous letters which they don't reply to or take many months to acknowledge!

Also find out from local estate agents and lettings agents as much as you can about each block - they know where is popular with foreign students, young professionals, buy to lets, DSS, has lots of empty units, etc. etc. My block used to be popular with foreign students, who took long term lets and studied rather than partied. It now has several empty units, due to the poor communal areas and lack of parking according to local agents.