What do you think of this studio flat?

[Spring025]

We're going to view this flat with DS at the weekend. It's tiny but in a good spot for him due to being close to a nice town centre and easy to get to work - and all he can afford.
He's currently paying £800 pound a month rent for a room in a house with no access to a proper kitchen (only microwave and fridge) and a shared bathroom so is keen to be putting that money into his own place.
I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on it, thanks!

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/159386981#/?channel=RES_BUY

I find people really snobby about studio flats. Times have changed and with the price of housing, this may be all that some people can afford.

I’d prefer to have a smaller space and be able to afford to have a life, than stretch myself financially and live in a bigger prison where I can’t afford to do anything.

That's really interesting thanks, I wasn't aware of some of the points you made there.

Yes I can imagine, it's a bit of an unknown thing for me and seems to vary from place to place. Most share of freehold places have no ground rent, I'm not very clear on the whole thing tbh.

It may not be what he wants but my DS has bought a house with the ability to house share a room to a lodger. His first two years away from home was in a professional house share and he enjoyed his time there.

He won't to start with but this option helps as a hedge against risk should his income change or mortgage rates rise. He also didn't go for top of affordability either because he is doing it on his own - like your son.

I don't know if shared ownerships allow lodgers. And you have to check mortgage and insurance etc too.

Floor plan doesn't match photos, so either the floor plan is lie, the photos are a lie, or both are lies.

@Spring025 there will always be single people or young couples interested in a nicely laid out 2,bedder with parking close to town and station - ( separate kitchen here is I think a good selling factor too) you can gradually buy more and more outright it’s called staircasing and you get any uplift in value sold for too -relative to your percentage owned at that point- I do think it’s worth bearing in mind about being able to claim too for a fair bit of it if anything happens given things as they are is worth thinking about.. a lot of bad press comes mainly from the new builds which are often lovely but overpriced initially - personally I would myself stick with 50% on a resale property , as it gives the security of tenure, the option of help if shit hits the fan and the fact that many many couples , divorcees and singles are able to get on to the ladder that level - either that or get to the level that you own outright- if you start getting to the 75% ownership level it starts i feel limiting your potential market and has the downside of being almost the price of a full ownership- but still legally being shared ownership.
its also much much easier to get a mortgage on- tons of specialist shared ownership mortgages out there at good rates. It’s definitely worth him having a think - far less likely he would need to move at all and end up with costs and stamp duty next time etc. I also think top floor means less risk of an idiot above you creating a hassle or flooding you out etc and a managed block means certain things are taken care of regularly . I don’t think the studio is bad at all- just think it may not be the best investment thinking a bit longer term - my son himself is on the sniff for a good SO resale at least 2 beds in a decent area in London- ideally at 35 to 50% and with service charge under £275 monthly and parking ,,for all these very same reasons-

@Spring025 the one@SlobDylanposted is another decent 50% shared ownership - although depends if that’s as convenient - more money for the share, but the rent aspect is less. It is ‘mint’ condition though . Similar service charge

Unfortunately there can (and will) be service charges. All freehold means really is that you have (along with the other flat owners in the block) control over the building and can obtain your own quotes for buildings insurance for example.

People that later acquire the freehold use the opportunity to extend the leases of the flats to 999 years to become a "virtual" freehold, but you still have to pay towards shared costs for the building.

I'm just about to go to a meeting of a block of 200 flats that has a share of a freehold, but they still have to pay the communal services like lift maintenance and concierge staff.

My old flat didn't have service charges, but that was because we didn't have any common parts at all.

We also didn't have a sinking fund for any major repairs that might need doing to the roof, so we'd have just had to pay for our 1/4th share if that ever happened (which it never did, thankfully!)

I suspect the £1,100 is made up of buildings insurance and reserves for future long term maintenance costs like the roof. Depending on how the property is set up, it might also include water rates and probably electricity for any shared parts (maybe a light in the front hallway?!).

Well I think it looks great! How much is on leasehold and are they any maintenance charges?
It's better to buy than rent imo, of course studios aren't ideal but if that's all you can afford then that's OK, I think for a studio the bathroom and kitchen are generous tbh.

I think it's pretty decent as studio flats go. The space looks workable and I've seen a lot
worse.

As you go into the main room it looks like you could get a desk to the right of the door (or bistro table and chairs but I'm guessing gaming rig would be more of a priority 😁). Single or possibly even small double bed down the left wall with some Kallax storage at the foot and a small two seater sofa or large armchair in the window bay.

The only thing I would be wary of is looking really thoroughly into the freehold/leasehold aspect of it.

I had a look and it says the pictures are for illustration only so that's why they don't match. This one is too far from the town centre where he needs to catch the bus for him to walk in the morning though.

It's £50 a year ground rent and around £90 a month service charge.

Not RTFT so sorry if anyone else has said this.

Would it be possible to take the bit of wall out between the kitchen and the living/sleeping room? He'd still have his entrance space and the separate shower room. Would that make the place feel any bigger and better to heat as the kitchen doesn't have a heat source.

I can't see any other way for your DS to improve the property for selling. I know nothing about studio flats so I don't know how easy they are to sell.

Edit sorry I'm looking at selling before he's even looked at the property😂 but I always want to improve somehow

It's because the photos are an example flat. Like a show home. They will all be very slightly different. They're brand new so they're selling a lot of them. You would have to look at each individual flat available to see which one would suit you best. That price is also for just 50% ownership.

If it was me I'd prefer to keep the kitchen as a separate room, which you don't always get in a studio. I would rather avoid cooking smells going through the whole property.

You'll have great difficulty renting it out if you want to do that in the future due to the E rating of the EPC. Come 2028, as it stands currently, you won't legally be able to rent it out with a rating less than C.
Studio living is notorious for causing damp from condensation- breathing, drying washing, and cooking all within a very small space. You'd need to ensure that it was well ventilated, have a bathroom extractor fan, and also an over hob extractor.

Also, check how long the lease is- as they haven't said in the advert, it may be quite short.
Also check what percentage of the service charges are due from the flat- service charges can suddenly end up much higher than described if there's bigger repair and maintenance costs due.

The service charge should be a lot of money probably held in trust - so a nice saving pot should anything go wrong - ask what’s in the pot.

The block in St John's Rd is not the best maintained block in town and actually looks rather shabby. Plus the traffic is heavier there than in Craven Rd which is a side street.

I'd take the Craven Rd one if I had to make a choice.

Yes, the traffic in St John’s is horrendous. Agree re that block. Flats there seem to be on and off the market so often you wonder what’s happening there.

OP, just up the road in Rockingham Rd there are some lovely, newish blocks (Rockingham Gate, Mayflower House), though prob out of your son’s price range.

I had a stroll down past your flat yesterday (nosey, aren’t I?!) . Honestly and taking all the pros and cons mentioned here into account, I’d have a good look round and go with your gut feeling. Your son could do a lot worse. That flats so central, close to shops, station, canal walks etc. Good luck and happy viewing.

Looks a nice flat to me. Lovely light. Could easily do some minor work in the future. Looking at the history of google street view those flats are up for sale probably yearly so dig into when it was last up for sale and sold o see if there might be any issues sell in in the future.

The communal car park at the back and noisy metal staircases would stop me from swapping the kitchen to a bedroom though. Not sure what or where the communal garden is but if there is space for sitting in the front would that just be for the ground floor flat? Some people have no sense of personal space and privacy and I’d hate for upstairs to be permanently be hanging around on the phone smoking just outside my window.

Location. It's between the racecourse and an industrial estate and on a major rat-run that is virtually solid every rush hour.

@SirDanielBrackley

besides the location, it's another shared ownership property.

Update everyone! Thanks for all your input, we went to see it today and it turns out @Sdpbody was actually correct in the end.

The heating was on when we went in and there was a dehumidifier but unfortunately neither were doing anything for the stink of what I guess was damp. DS 'didn't really notice' but it was so bad that I could still smell it on me after we'd walked down the road to the car, we drove to the Lidl and it was like I could still taste it. TBF I am quite sensitive to smells, Lush gives me a headache, but unfortunately it was bad. The flat also looked worse in person than in the pictures sadly, artexed ceilings and just very tatty.

Thanks for all your your views and advice, I really appreciated it all and gave us lots to think about.

It was a good starter for ten though. Starts the conversations flowing and the thought process.

My DS moved into his first place yesterday and I'm sat waiting for him and his Dad to.come back from B and Q with stuff to keep him busy over the next week.

Your flat visit today reminds me of a day last May when we accompanied DS to his first viewings. Actually it was the only one day we did as we live a long way away. But he learned so much from those and the conversations after, and from then on he felt more confident to view himself.

Good luck to your DS!