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.

Don’t worry! I know Warrington (as well as Warrington Crescent), and your post made me smile thinking of high price inflation in the former.

Long live Ikea in Warrington.

It looks like the street from the film Paddington. Maybe there's a high risk of bears

Our flat in Kensington has been on the market for nearly a year so is probably over priced but things are quite slow in central london ☹️
The flat sounds quite small, ours is 2 bed and 820sq ft and is not very big so three beds in this space will be quite tight.

There will be a general price per sq ft calculation done for each floor of the building with the top floor usually the cheapest. You can ask all the estate agents about.

Looks a lovely flat on a beautiful square with your own terrace so as long as the length of lease and service charges etc. Are ok then could be an option. The owners would probably accept something below asking if it's been on that long.

I stay in the city a couple of nights a week for work. I’ve done/still do life in a top floor flat with no lift, low skeilings and compromised headroom, small footprint and no parking, and when compared to life in the sticks with space, pool, enormous garden etc, the quality of life is incomparable. Some people like expensive bijou city living, I’m aware of that, I was really just illustrating the vast price for a huge amount of inconvenience. Getting sofas to a top floor flat with no loft for example.

No condescension intended.

Not selling for a looong time....
26/01/2022 Price changed from £1,300,000 to £1,200,000
09/10/2021 Price changed from £1,400,000 to £1,300,000
26/05/2021 Price changed from £1,500,000 to £1,400,000
25/06/2020 Initial entry found: £1,500,000

NRFT - it might have gone STC and then sale didn’t progress vs being ‘on’ since Jan

def check lease length, if there is an absent freeholder (in which case run), any service fees or upcoming works you might be expected to pay for

How is council tax on that oess than mine in deprived postcode in north-ish city!?

It maybe the living area being small ish

Even with a share of the freehold, most blocks will employ a management company to do the day to day work -ie organising repairs and gardening and most importantly all the legal requirements that go along with a lease. Plus insurance etc

Even as a qualified accountant with a law degree I'd not want to have that level of responsibility for our 28 flat block. I am a director who deals with the management company so have sone involvement.

No idea why it hasn’t been snapped up, what a bargain!

The average house price in Llantwit Major is £284k. Have you considered moving there, OP? I know it’s several hours from where you actually want to live, but just think how much more you’d get for your money!

Yes, pram chair up to the hallway , leave child, back for the frame, pram chair up to the flat door, leave child, frame to hallway, leave frame there, take child off chair if awake or bring whole thing up again if asleep, shopping in a backpack...

deliveries most of the time or when with DH

then a few years later same again with extra toddler...

Well, that all sounds horrendous. I’d be a bit resentful of being so frequently inconvenienced if I’d formed out £1.2m for a property.

I really like it. I've lived in a 3 bed flat with two bathrooms with a kid and it was great. But we lived on the 2nd floor and the building had a lift. I can't imagine carrying stuff up and down the stairs all the time, especially in this heat.

If we'd had more kids and needed a 3 bed, I'd have looked for a house instead, or a building that had a lift.

I'm also looking at the radiators. You wouldn't be able to put furniture against those walls, and you're already limited to where the walls are not sloping. We had underfloor heating in our flat, which meant that you had more flexibility with the furniture.

And storage. Where would you put wardrobes? Maybe you could turn the smallest bedroom into a walk-in closet?

Fair enough... to be honest given the choice of a house further out and a flat where we are, the inconvenience was workable...

maybe as i come from a country where flats are the norm it wasn't too odd for me

As a flat for a professional couple, with a couple of reasonably sized spare rooms (one for an office / snug and one for a guest bedroom) , it would be perfect.

I was going to say exactly the same thing as many other people - the living space is tiny. That would really put me off. Though I guess one bedroom could be turned into a living room. It's been badly divided up and probably feels quite cramped inside. You'd get so much more for your money in Kentish Town, Highbury and Crouch End.

Eaves bedroom will be stifling hot at anything over 22°, I can guarantee.

Probably overpriced.

I personally would never buy anything with sloping ceilings like that. You'd be cracking your head all the time with a slope like that over the bed.

If it's not price, I bet something comes up in a survey or searches that is offputting. That flat would take the brunt if there was an issue with the roof or gutters, for example and I could imagine that ground floor owners would be less willing to share the cost of repair.

If I was in my 20s, this would be my dream (but way out of my budget then and now). Now it seems impractical but fun.

If you look at the video the sofa and dining room chairs and kitchen surfaces are almost touching. I think it would feel very cramped.

Suspect that the property has been refurbished with resale value in mind, rather than liveability.

Could be the maintenance charges. With a share of freehold it probably won't be the lease length (but don't rule it out), perhaps the ground rent though? Could be that there is ongoing work to the building and the owner would need to take on costs. A sale could have fallen through for any number of reasons. The mortgage company could not have agreed the sale value and the vendors dug their heels in. Could simply be that the market has slowed in London, particularly in prime locations. On the face of it seems like a good flat for the area but you won't know until you view and get the particulars I'd say. Nothing to lose by looking.

To me a choice of property is all about personal preferences and the OP has not said that much about this.

To those saying that bedrooms two and three are quite small, I don’t personally think that about 12 x 12 which both are is that small for a bedroom, especially as it may
be a child’s/lodger’s/guest room with a single bed. Also, one would be great as a WFH space which some people might want.

The head space in the loft room might be a problem for some people but I’m barely 5ft so less so for me or it would make a palatial kid’s room with play space where head clearance would not be so
important.

As Saint Kirstie of the location says, there are really only three variables in property sales - location (well in this case a lot of people would be very satisfied), price (depends on what the market will bear and how desperate the vendors are but could be negotiable downwards) and size (I’ve covered some of this already).

Ultimately, OP, I think the way to get a feel for whether it will work for you is to go and see it. Then think about what you need space for (activities and stuff) and you will soon see whether it there is anything wrong with it or not.

Love the tiles in the bathroom.

£1.2m for a 840 sq ft flat looooool

I do hope @Danni677 comes back to tell us what it’s like once they’ve viewed it. My guess is it feels very claustrophobic and tiny, and there maybe some mega issue with the survey. Because it really does look great in the photos and love the gardens.

It does have an ensuite in the attic, although it looks like a wet-room and they're a bit of a mare unless huge.

It really depends on who's living there I think. If you're a single parent with one child it could work really well if teenager takes attic bedroom, you take one of the lowers, and the third bedroom becomes a snug second sitting room with a desk (ie designed to be used as living space away from the open plan bit).

And also, do you live a very city lifestyle - lots of going out in the evening to eat, with everything else consisting of posh ready meals or salads, more or less? If so the kitchen would be fine. If you like to have friends round every weekend for elaborate lunches or dinners, less so.

I mention single parent-ness because I think two big grownups would find any of those bedrooms a squeeze both physically and in terms of storage space.

I think if i've described you above, the joy of living in Little Venice and all its loveliness, and of being so central, and the views across London, and the feeling of being a sophisticated urbanite 😉would outweigh the downsides of the overdeveloped space.