Thinking of buying a flat - any opinions welcome

[BeNeedyRubyMoose]

Hi,
I have found a one bed flat in London, zone 3 for sale and am interested. Would appreciate people’s advice

• has fitted kitchen along back wall including oven, fridge, and washing machine in open kitchen diner style living space ( small table, sofa, bookshelves
• has separate bedroom looking out onto a green - decent size
• has bath, toilet, etc
• skylight in small landing from front door
• all very cleanly designed, ready to move into
• is a top floor flat on a flat roof building with narrow stairs ( one flight from street level)
• exterior needs tidying up but typically zone 3 London flat like territory
• is a Victorian pebble dashed house
• regs all seem in order as estate agent has provided some good additional info
• ground rent (£200 a year)
• charges for maintenance (‘as and when’ - need to nail this down!)

I would like to put an extension on at some point subject to planning which would mean buying the freehold. It’s not in a conservation area, other flats on road are similar with flat roofs but none have extensions which makes me wonder if they are prohibited for some reason. Ten minute walk to very good train line I know well. Ten minutes to shop. Area to be regenerated but tbh, has been said for years and is one of those parts of London that needs it. I know the area well. Think it is as good as it is going to get in London fortunately but would appreciate any opinions on this Thanks

dont Buy this relying on extending it.
service charge on blocks of flats are awful it’s like a blank cheque, mine has nearly tripled since the pandemic and they just write to me demanding another £500.

If leasehold, don’t do it.

How would you be planning on doing an extension on a top floor flat even if you could buy the freehold, how's that going to work with the lower floor flats, struggling to visualise here? Or are you meaning a loft conversion? In general I would say flats can be great, I don't get the MN hate for flats and usually the service charge on a small older block or house conversion flat is manageable, it's the huge modern blocks that are £££. But one of the things with a flat is it's harder to add value/space, unless there's an obvious layout improvement it's usually only cosmetic. So if it's not currently big enough for your needs I might be skeptical, you might need to look further out, zone 3 is quite central, you might get more space in zones 4/5...

Be very careful buying a property with a flat roof as they are notorious for leaking if they aren’t properly maintained. You need to see detailed service charge accounts to see what repairs have been done to the roof in the last 10/20 years or so and what the annual service charges have been for each flat. When you get a survey done, get a reputable roofing company to inspect it too.

ETA Also don’t assume you can build upwards just because the neighbours have loft extensions. You may not get planning permission.

Oh and flat roofs can be an issue.

for context I have a 1 bed flat Victorian conversion with 140 years left on lease and £50 pa ground rent for the whole term (no increases). Where freeholder makes money is extortionate bookings insurance and and service charges. If with a large freeholder you have zero control over maintenance quality and costs.

leasehold is basically a long assured tenancy where you own nothing but have financial responsibility for everything.

be wary. Govt trying to change things but I doubt it will be for years.

re buying freehold you’d need to get others to agree. Also even with freehold your lease runs along side it so if you want to extend you may find you didn’t solely ‘own’ the rest of the flat roof to extend on.

if, on other hand it’s a house conversion with two flats and the neighbour owns the freehold, that can be easier.

Thank you, all of you this is exactly what I know I am not seeing. It seems a good deal but I think that is just because everything else is so ludicrously expensive. It sold in 2009 for £150,000 then again in 2021 for £200,000 so owner wants to recoup their cost and although advertised at 175,000 has rejected offer of £195,000 according to estate agents.

The plan was to buy freehold soon would have right to build another room on top ( nit sure whether that’s an extension?) using part of the bathroom for stairs.

I can see other for sale signs on road and know lots of landlords are looking to exit the market. I would be living there but it’s in the back of my mind that I would want to add value through extension so I could sell and move/ rent out.

I'd be very careful here. If you only want it based on being able to build an extra room you could be very disappointed.

Any extension or major alterations will require freeholder consent AND local authorityapproval and builging control sign off. You'd have to look into all that and likelihood of getting approval BEFORE you buy or it vould be a no and you're stuck with the flat as is.

Building another room out over an existing flat roof will also need a structural survey to ensure foundations are strong enough to take extra weight and if not, strengthening could be expensive/not worth it for the capital gain.

Also:
How long is the lease and have you got a rough idea of cost buying share of freehold?
Who are the current freeholder/s and how many are there? If its a big company or just one peson, there are different issues than it being some of current flat owners (all can be are tricky in own ways)
Who manages the property - is it freeholder or an outsourced property management company?

What is current annual service charge and how is it calculated, who sets the budget and what's included (for example ours is higher but includes heating).
Is there a reserve fund for major capital works? If not, then that means ad hoc charges, potentially large ones, when big repairs and required. .
Are there plans for any significant capital works such as roof reapirs, fire regualations or replacement, windows etc. If not is there a preventative maintenance plan?
As nothers have said, be wary of a flat roof on any part of the property, they have a terrible reputation for leaking and being hard to fix (and expensive) said leaks. Ask for any history of leakage and repairs.

Lastly, putting aside all of the above, in terms of reselling in future, not having a sepeate kitchen is a dealbreaker for lots of people (it is me) when there is no other separate lounge space. I jsut do not want to sit looking at dirty dishes and smelling the salmon I cooked 3 days ago. I know some people like open plan but in a flat it really isn't great.

Have you looked on the council website to see if any other flats on the road have put in planning similar to what you were thinking. If they have put in a request, you could see if any were accepted refused.

@Keysfound great idea - will do that next

@Gerwurtztraminer thank you - all great points to consider. It 120s year left on lease, is a top floor flat of a house ( downstairs plus basement).

I planned the full structural survey and roof inspection but I think planning permission may be the biggest hurdle before it even could get started so will investigate that further.

Any other thoughts welcome 🙏

Have you looked into building costs yet? You will probably find that it is more cost effective to buy a stretch your budget and buy a 2 bed instead of spending on building costs, which have shot up in the last few years.

Well, it had a higher offer on it today so I couldn’t buy it now anyway! Thanks for the advice guys. I did contact a surveyor who also thought it was unlikely it would get planning permission.

So they have got back to me - other offer fell through. He will accept my offer of £196500 to take it off market if I want. I’m thinking…

That sounds very cheap at £196,500 for a 1 bedroom flat. What is the square footage? Why is it so cheap, that would concern me.

Most important question OP. How long is the lease?

IME leasehold in a small conversion is not an issue at all. It’s not like being in a big block, and they have to sell you the shared freehold in a majority of leaseholders agree.

Few of us would ever have got on the property ladder in London unless we bought a flat as our first home.

But I completely agree about potential issues with the extension idea. The fire regs are very strict over a certain number of storeys - it may not be allowed unless you build a fire escape. Which would come down in to land which is presumably not yours? And there will be structural issues which affect the whole house.

But if the flat suits you and you can afford it, go for it!

Think the extension idea has to be ruled out - am Ok with this. Lease is 130 yrs

It’s 40sq metres, zone 3 near a station. Area doesn’t look great tbh (I know it quite well and it’s ok) Ground rent says £200 a year and no monthly communal costs which I need to check as there must be some.