Any thoughts on co-working spaces, German property?

CarterUSM wrote: »

Hi

Quite often on my Facebook feed, I have advertisements from the Move Channel, offering the chance to invest in co-working spaces from as little as £20k, and offering yields of 8% upwards. Whilst sounding very promising, there’s a ring of ‘too good to be true’ about it.

Whoa there. There's a basic rule about advertising for financial products. If it comes to you, it's a con. It's not universally true, but works most times

I am looking to invest about £70k in property of some kind,

Presumably you have reviewed all the sorts of things that you could do with £70k, and have come up with the answer that property matches your risk profile, time you have for investing (property tends to be a long game) or is this based on the Facebook ad or what some guy down the pub said?

Investing in something means you don't invest in something else. Pays at least asking yourself the question of what else you could do with the money.

and at the moment my first choice would be an apartment in Berlin.

Why Berlin? Why not London, Tokyo, Hull, or Leeds? Do you have extensive knowledge about Berlin, or why choose that? Nothing necessarily wrong with Belrin, but what edge do you have?

My intention is for long-term (10 years) capital gain; any net rental income would be seen as a bonus.

Does the term total return mean anything to you, is there a reason why you favour capital gain over income? There are good reasons to do that for some people, though it's a git with property which tends to be lumpy and therefore your capgain may be over your £11k-ish limit and you can't sell part of the property this year and another bit next year like you could with shares.

Do you understand diversification across asset classes (cash, shares, property) and within asset classes (propert yin Berlin, property in London, flats in Berlin, student housing in Berlin, that sort of thing)

Why property, and why niche property, rather than, say stocks?

If I did wish to invest in co-working spaces, would I be better off simply buying shares in companies which offered them instead, rather than making a direct large investment into individual products?

If you only have 70k, then yes, use companies to diversify across the market.

Finally – sorry, I know I’m asking a lot, but does anyone have any suggestions as to whether I should be investing my £70k in other investments which offer more scope for capital growth – be they individual funds/shares, particular market sectors, etc.?

Yes. Read Monevator. Books - Tim Hale, Smarter Investing. Benjamin Graham - the Intelligent Investor.

Watch this and ask yourself why you have greater expertise that Lars Krojer who has clearly missed Berlin property and co-working spaces.