Buying a city flat

[ThePoetsWife]

DC is a first time buyer and is looking to purchase a flat in Manchester city centre (or within walking distance). They will be living there for a good few years.

What should we look out for? Any areas to avoid?

What’s his budget? Manchester is a funny lay out, so the city centre itself is nice, the areas immediately around it are pretty grim, and then it gets nice again further out.
Ancoats is nice these days, chapel street area of salford and new Islington are where I’d recommend. The city centre is really compact, so while the northern quarter is cool, it’s really noisy! Not just at night, my friend jokes about still having nightmares about listening to the same busker all day.
A friend had a lovely flat between Oxford road station and canal street which didn’t have the noise problem but at least once a week there would be a huge volume of sick on main entrance door.

Ardwick is “fine” but there is really fuck all there and the building of universal square hasn’t really brought any more amenities to the area. I don’t rate the green quarter at all, I’d avoid new broughton as well personally, the new development has just been break in central for everyone I know who’s lived there!

Hulme is improving but still a bit rough round the edges.

If he’s got a city centre budget I’d also suggest looking at chorlton, not walking distance to the city centre but a really nice area, with a bit more to it than didsbury, and a short tram ride to town.

I don't know Manchester at all so can't help there I'm afraid, but in general for first time buyers looking at flats I'd say look very carefully into how leasehold works and make sure to understand the service charges and any other clauses in the lease regarding maintenance and upkeep of the building. I would try and steer them away from very swanky brand new developments (or at least be very cautious) as the features which 'sell' the block such as concierge, lifts, gyms etc often come with an enormous £££ service charge, if they will use a gym etc they will usually be able to buy even a high end gym or club membership for far less than the service charge in one of these buildings. Also they should be very aware of 'shark' management companies that may seek to charge them huge amounts for maintenance or remedial works to the buildings, get their solicitor to look into this very carefully as part of searches/enquiries, although in theory the structure of the building, roof, cladding etc is the responsibility of the freeholder/management company and should be covered by the service charge, most leases will allow the freeholder to charge the leasers a proportionate cost of any extraordinary repairs and this can get extremely pricey! Obviously of course they need to know how long the lease is and if they will need to extend it at any point factor in the cost of that.

They'll also (usually) get far better value for money in terms of space if they go for a slightly older block, for me the sweet spot in terms of space vs age of building is something built 1970-1990, although these blocks usually are more functional than visually attractive (!), any older the building will be ageing and may have started to develop maintenance issues, and after then builders started to squeeze the floor space of each unit lower and lower until you get the horrible tiny boxy flats of today's brand new developments (often the lack of space is well disguised by clever marketing and staging in brand new flats/show homes but if you compare floor plans you'll see how much more you get in an older flat). Obviously however it's their money and they need to like the flat aesthetically as well as practically so if they fall in love with a beautiful victorian conversion or brand new 'loft style apartment' or whatever that's up to them - but with my young adults I've gently tried to remind them that they only look at the outside of the building once or twice a day when coming in and out, whereas they see the inside all the time, so better a lovely flat in an ugly building than a tiny grotty one in a beautiful one, IFSWIM? They could see if they can find a smaller block where they get a share of freehold as part of the deal which can be more cost effective than leasehold although comes with its own issues...

Thanks both, really appreciate your input.

The UK leasehold scandal is scary ~ without these charges, on paper it seems to be much cheaper to buy than to rent so we are trying to have our eyes as wide open as possible.

Also a lot of the flats we have seen are being labelled investment buys, cash buyers only etc which is making us wary.

The cash buyers only will likely be due to the EWS1 issue.

I'd be incredibly wary with buying a flat in any town/city centre right now. The UK has undergone rapid structural working/lifestyle changes that could have a significant effect on the desirability of such property. Wait until the COVID dust settles IMO.

I wouldn't advise my DC to buy a flat. I don’t know Manchester but the northern cities I do know have swathes of flats on the market with prices heading downward. BTL landlords getting rid.
I also know a friends DC bought a flat which is now subject to the cladding problem. He is faced with bills of many £1000s. Its uninsurable and unsellable. Passed all surveys when he bought it.

Your DC may find that until the cladding issue is resolved they can’t get a mortgage on a flat.

Ditto to everything Maxelly said.

I would avoid newbuilds like the plague. Almost always overpriced, so often poky, with nowhere to put anything, and sky high charges which are only going to go up.
BUT with very seductively and fashionably styled, shiny show flats, to lure the young and/or unwary. Beware!

Manchester has a lot of new/recent build city centre flats, probably more than any UK city that I can think of. The development in the last 10-20 years has been staggering. Given the Covid situation and shift to people working from home I would imagine there are a lot of such flats coming onto the market and they could be harder to sell on in future.
If i was buying in Manchester I would look round the Deansgate locks / Castlefield area. There's some slightly older blocks of flats around there that might not have the cladding problem .

DC will definitely be living and working in central Manchester. Just need to make sure that whatever they end up buying that they can sell or rent it out in 4 years time as by then they will have qualified and be able to move on.

Last queen - What is EWS1?

I used to live in Fallowfield and I really liked it there, close to Platt fields park, all very green around there. But an hour walking to Manchester city centre.

@ThePoetsWife EWS1 is the external wall cladding saga that's come about since Grenfell.

I would not advise a clad building at the moment. I don’t know Manchester but the city centre should give the advantage of walking to work if necessary and everything close at hand. My DD lives in an area of London that hasn’t lost value at all despite doom and gloom everywhere.

If he avoids high rise, buys near a transport hub, buys near a park and shops with local character he should be fine. Watch our for maintenance charges and make sure the lease is long - well over 90 years. Leasehold for flats is normal. Some converted houses might be freehold but freehold can be difficult to find in London but not sure about Manchester. Go through the details of the lease carefully with a solicitor.

In this day and age, having open spaces nearby/garden flats and a safe building are very important.

My son bought a flat close to Salford Quays and lived there for 4 years. Perfect tram commute into town (a 2 minute walk max to Exchange quay form his flat) and the flat was in one of the slughtly older developments which meant he had his own parking secure parking space.(A lot of the new builds which were popping up around him do not have parking).
It was a generous 2 bed 2 bath flat and although it was an ideal first home for him, the big problem was that a lot of the other flats were rented out, so tennants changed all the time, and there were so many noisy parties, with little consideration for others. The design of the building meant all windows opened onto the noise. The flat itself was lovely and generously sized though, and he sold it 7 days after it went on the market, for full asking (although this was 18 months ago now).
I loved going to stay because it was the perfect location - a 5 minute tram ride into town. I even thought about buying it myself as an investment property but was talked out of it (probably a good decision!)