London Property

[stimmers]

Went to the Savills Auction recently. Had a few properties i was interested in. Have to say, the decent ones went for what i consider very good money, especially in the current market. A flat in Kensington i had my eye on at around £350k went for £418k. Two interconnecting, three story houses on the Fulham Rd, that need a complete refurb job, looked a good investment at around £1.5 million. They went for £2.25 Million

Strong money for the current market.

[Plotloss]

Fulham/Ken are always going to be good financial bets though arent they? You can spec 'em up to the gills and charge a premium for the product.

Be interesting to see what else went through in the less 'hot' areas.

[Adam T]

I concur, some of the very top end stuff, or areas i dont think are affected/will be. St Georges hill has its own market along with some of the other surrey areas. Just my 10p worth from up 'ere in't Yorkshire.

[stimmers]

Plotloss said:

You can spec 'em up to the gills and charge a premium for the product.

Margins are a lot smaller than that at the moment. But if you buy something for a decent price, wack in a top end spec and sit on it for 4 years. You'll make very good money.

By 2012, i see Chelsea and Ken about 15% better off than today. Wandsworth about 13.5% up, Camden 12%, Islington 14%, Southwark 10%, Lambeth 11%.

These are my own calculations. I worked out what i think house prices will do for every area of the country year on year till 2012. I see the whole of London going down from 0.5% to 2% in 08 and be back to rising in 2009.

London is a great place to buy IMO at the moment, if you can get a good price.

[stimmers]

Adam T said:

Just my 10p worth from up 'ere in't Yorkshire.

I'm moving back to Yorkshire soon. I have a lot of property in Central Leeds that were bought 8-11 years ago. Was up their recently and although there are a lot of new build flats and sales are slow, if you have a good new build flat, you can rent it at a decent price without any problems at all. In the £1k to £1.5k per month catergory, there is a shortage of property to rent. This type of property can go on the market and usually rented within days.

Its the average 1 bed 2 bed stuff around £600 to £800 per month that is struggling and is over supplied.

There are still some very good deals to be had in Leeds, which is why i'm going to be buying a new apartment there instead of renting one.

[Adam T]

Stimmers, good move, always find the ale nicer up 'ere.

Why not move out t' sticks instead of the hustle and bustle.

[Webber3]

stimmers said:

By 2012, i see Chelsea and Ken about 15% better off than today. Wandsworth about 13.5% up, Camden 12%, Islington 14%, Southwark 10%, Lambeth 11%.

Wouldn't you make more over 4 years keeping your money in a bank? At least there's no stamp duty or fees to pay.

[stimmers]

Adam T said:

Stimmers, good move, always find the ale nicer up 'ere.

Why not move out t' sticks instead of the hustle and bustle.

Im from Huddersfield and already have a cottage out in the middle of nowhere i can escape to, but im starting a couple of new business's and want to be based in the middle of the targe market in the early stages.

Looking forward to pints of Timothy Taylor that hasn't had to travel !!!!

[stimmers]

Webber3 said:

stimmers said:

By 2012, i see Chelsea and Ken about 15% better off than today. Wandsworth about 13.5% up, Camden 12%, Islington 14%, Southwark 10%, Lambeth 11%.

Wouldn't you make more over 4 years keeping your money in a bank? At least there's no stamp duty or fees to pay.

Well yes, but buying at the current market value and looking for 15% increase in value is not how i deal in property. I'd be looking to buy at the very least 15% below the market value and either flip on for a quick 10% or add value to it to sell.

[Webber3]

stimmers said:

Webber3 said:

stimmers said:

By 2012, i see Chelsea and Ken about 15% better off than today. Wandsworth about 13.5% up, Camden 12%, Islington 14%, Southwark 10%, Lambeth 11%.

Wouldn't you make more over 4 years keeping your money in a bank? At least there's no stamp duty or fees to pay.

Well yes, but buying at the current market value and looking for 15% increase in value is not how i deal in property. I'd be looking to buy at the very least 15% below the market value and either flip on for a quick 10% or add value to it to sell.

How's that BMV stuff going in the current market. I was talking to a local estate agent a few weeks ago and he said that regular buyers (as opposed to professionals) were coming in with first offers up to 40% below the offer price now! Could be worth a punt, if I stuck to offers of 30% BMV I'd be looking generous

[stimmers]

Webber3 said:

stimmers said:

Webber3 said:

stimmers said:

By 2012, i see Chelsea and Ken about 15% better off than today. Wandsworth about 13.5% up, Camden 12%, Islington 14%, Southwark 10%, Lambeth 11%.

Wouldn't you make more over 4 years keeping your money in a bank? At least there's no stamp duty or fees to pay.

Well yes, but buying at the current market value and looking for 15% increase in value is not how i deal in property. I'd be looking to buy at the very least 15% below the market value and either flip on for a quick 10% or add value to it to sell.

How's that BMV stuff going in the current market. I was talking to a local estate agent a few weeks ago and he said that regular buyers (as opposed to professionals) were coming in with first offers up to 40% below the offer price now! Could be worth a punt, if I stuck to offers of 30% BMV I'd be looking generous

40% off isn't too realistic to be honest. If someone was willing to let 40% go i'd want to know why and look very very carefully at it. It is happening, but 20% and around is much more common. There are people who have seen sufficien rise in the value of their property to take a 10-20% cut and still get out with porfit. These people just need a sale for whatever reason. I bought a property last week from a couple who sold to me 15% below its market value and still walked away with a serious profit on their initial purchase price. They needed to sell becaus they were moving to New Zealand and had seen a property they wanted to buy.
Then there is the more serious aspect, where people cannot afford the repayments on their property and risk losing everything. Its very harsh environment as you really are dealing with people's lives and their future. They are willing to take a 20% loss on their property, in order to not have it repossessed, and remain in their own home as i rent it back to them. However i must be able to charge them a rent they can afford or there is no point in doing the deal. They also get the chance to buy the property back at any stage in the future for its market value. I simply couldn't live with myself if i started taking 30-40% of these people. I'm very open and honest and show them where i make my money.

Thing you have to remember is, it costs nothing to make an offer on a property, doesn't even matter what that offer is. You never in control of the selling price or a properties value, but you can cantrol your margin by the price you buy at.

I know plenty of people who make 20-30 offers a day on property.

[Horse_Apple]

stimmers said:

Went to the Savills Auction recently. Had a few properties i was interested in. Have to say, the decent ones went for what i consider very good money, especially in the current market. A flat in Kensington i had my eye on at around £350k went for £418k. Two interconnecting, three story houses on the Fulham Rd, that need a complete refurb job, looked a good investment at around £1.5 million. They went for £2.25 Million

Strong money for the current market.

Same is true in NW. At recent auctions tatty properties in Hampstead were still being bid up well over sellers' expectations.

Rental yields seem to be ticking up and investors with good cash flow and a balanced book are very happy to keep buying at fair prices.

Still a few idiots around who are paying over the odds and that surprised me. I thought that by now these people would have walked away and that the rooms would be back to how they were in the early 90's with just the pros running the floor and setting fair value.

Will be interesting to see the results from the next few auctions to guage whether the silly money really has gone yet.

Was talking to a few developers up around Huddersfield the other day and they don't seem terribly chipper at present. Appears very stagnant.

[2something]

Not the highest quality artice, but interesting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7404947.stm

Hampstead is always going to be interesting (that's interesting, not a sure thing), as it's an area people want to live in, not an area people buy in because it's all they can afford.

Edited by 2something on Tuesday 20th May 15:19