What is wrong with this flat?

[Danni677]

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/93970370

This ticks all my boxes. It is a reasonable price for the area but has been on since Jan. just wondered if I’m missing something?

It’s a fairly busy road but that’s ok.

Thinking of booking a viewing but don’t want to waste people’s time if there’s something obvious I have missed.

Looks like an ex council I'd hold off

Imagine how hot it's going to feel in that flat in the summer!
I think the sqft is an issue-really really small for a 3 bed.

Are you buying it to live in it?

NC fail OP?

Yes that’s a nice flat too. But only one bathroom between 3 bedrooms isn’t ideal especially for central London. We recently sold a 2 bed in Marylebone with 1 bathroom and the 3 people who expressed interest including the eventual buyer were all looking at how they could possibly fit a second bathroom or en-suite shower into the flat 🤷🏼‍♀️
The estate agent said that’s normal for the area - I think 3 beds 1 bath would be niche

If you want to be able to let it out, check the lease very carefully. Some leases do not allow you to let, or if they do they can onerous conditions such as one family only (so you can't have house sharers renting).

With a share of freehold you will still have maintenance that needs to be done and also have a legal obligation for safety checks etc..... this all needs to be paid for. Ask if they collect service charges and have a sinking fund. If its as and when you could have a headache as lots of owners don't want to pay up. It's much better to have a programme of maintenance and safety checks on a yearly basis that is paid for with a monthly, quarterly, half yearly service charge than suddenly being asked for 5k to do all the maintenance.

People underestimate the amount of legal responsibility freeholders have. If there was a fire and it was found that the freeholders haven't done smoke alarm checks (communal areas), fire checks etc....... then you as a freeholder will be legally responsible in a court of law.

If you click on "Property details" it takes you to the Foxton's page with further details. It says the service charges were £3,016 per annum in 2019. The "Lease expires" details are left blank, so maybe a short lease is the problem.

Fwiw @Danni677 I know someone who lives on that road and whilst it’s largely always parked with cars I wouldn’t describe it as a traffic heavy road.

I was going to say the same thing. My daughter's experience of loft bedrooms and flats means that I can imagine the heat in summer. It will be unbearable.

Foxtons are known to over value property so if you like it make a low offer.

Way out of my budget, and not an area I'd want to live (I'm not a city bunny). But I quite like it, subject to a few layout changes. I agree with the AirBnB suggestion. It's not practical/liveable as a 3-bed home so it's been deliberately dressed this way for a reason. That's created a balance of 3 bedrooms to a very small living space that's not practical for everyday living - but easily fixed by redesignating one or both lower bedrooms as more practical spaces.

If the market's slow the least desirable properties hang around the longest. It may just be that top-floor and no lift is enough to put people off if the market demand is being met by properties on lower floors with or without a lift. Being marketed as a 3-bed may not be doing it any favours either, it might look better marketed against 2-beds (unless it's priced out of the top-end of the 2-bed market).

There are plenty of different layouts in this block. Many have main and en-suite bathrooms. But at this price, you wouldn’t to faff around installing one.

But have you seen the location?? That explains the price. It is extremely central and pretty as well - people will pay a big premium for that combination.

No it doesn't. What sort of council flats have you been living in?

Really small living space for 3 beds, service charges and a windowless bathroom.

Do you need to use all 3 bedrooms as bedrooms?

If you like the look of it, go and investigate

😂😂😂😂😂

We sold ours at a similar price and the new owner immediately got an architect in to draw up plans and is going to completely refigure the whole apartment, according to the estate agent. They paid a lot for a renovation project 🤷🏼‍♀️

£1.2m is an awkward budget for inner London, to be honest. It is not enough for much house in zone 2, unless a bad location.

More fun to spend it on a a really nice 1.5/2-bed somewhere very central/posh.

It's on with Foxtons so it's probably overpriced!

The service charges are £3k per year, but it's worth getting a copy of the service charge accounts to see what the reserve levels are like. If they're not big, then a potential large cost like roof works would be payable separately. May not be an issue if you can afford a £1.2m flat, but it's worth bearing in mind.

Otherwise, it's just a bad vendor who's either being unrealistic in the price expectations, or is slow to move.

I'd also not expect it to be a short lease. Normally when the leaseholders acquire the freehold they automatically extend the leases to 999 years.

Maybe already has a,2 million country house this is the london pied a terre

The combined, and small, kitchen/sitting room would put me off.

How many name changes on this @Danni677 ? Are you trying to sell this place?

Hurrah, the people with no idea about the London property market are here to tell us why the prices are wrong!

I thought the same. They've only got a small 2-seater sofa and a small dining table in there, and when you factor in the enlarging effects of wide-angle photography, it won't be half as big as it looks.

I live in a small 2-bed semi and my kitchen/diner is 5m x 3m, so not a huge amount less than that whole living space. It's not huge, I have a table in that can seat 6, but if it was 2" shorter it would only seat 4, and the one sitting at the end has to move if you need to get to the freezer. But I have a living room that's (iirc) 5m x 3.5m as well. It still starts to feel crowded if you have 5 people in the house for more than 24 hours.

Hmm I wonder if it’s a post covid thing - people don’t want to live in really small flats anymore if they can afford not to. So nothing wrong apart from size.

Could it also be overpriced? We nearly bought a house just outside London and was very close to putting an offer on just £30k under asking, but then on doing some research we realised it’s overpriced by at least £100k. The covid house price boom has eased and prices are starting to drop (drop from the covid boom).

It looks really small and can you imagine how hot it will be in there today?! -Agree poster may well be the seller-