Whoo, bought a credit crunch flat with a difference

Had you not thought about splitting it into two fair sized apartments, and selling one.
I would have thought for resale value this would have been best, as I can see there being very little demand for 4 bedroomed apartments.
 
Jez said:
Not really sure where the problem here lies wrt the finance. There are a plethora of self build arrears stage payment mortgage products which would suit this project, as well as standard development loan funding from a bank.

I am assuming that you have leverage somewhere else, Paras, secure a development loan on that while construction is completed.
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Yep there are lots of self build mortgages around however they will not touch an unfinished FLAT with a barge pole. Trust me I have tried. It would not have been a problem 18 months ago. However there are other finance options available but they are very very expensive. To be honest I am not too worried as I can buy and hold it for a few months until the lending market opens up. I also have a few fall back plans so it should all come together it may just take a little longer then expected.

MarkDavis said:
Huge flat.

If its in a good location, it could be worth megabucks after its been renovated / completed.
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No not really, I will not loose money on it however it not going to make huge amounts as there is not much of a market for a flat that size in the north of England, if it was in London that would be a different story.

sven256 said:
Had you not thought about splitting it into two fair sized apartments, and selling one.
I would have thought for resale value this would have been best, as I can see there being very little demand for 4 bedroomed apartments.
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I did think of this, 1 I would not get planning, 2 This is going to be our home for a VERY long time so I am not looking at it as an investment but more as a place to live.

Lucero said:
That alone would not get sign off. Also, Paras may not know this but if its flats, the whole block must be signed off (not just the individual flat) before any mortgage lender or valuer will touch it. This is in the interests of building insurance, which in this case, will be interesting, and NHBC, again, which will be interesting.

Have you looked in to these?
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Correct, I cant borrow the money until its finished. However I did not know about the whole block having to be finished, however it must be finished because I think there are people living in it now.

I am not too well informed when it comes to building regs and stuff so I have hired a building consultant to do the due diligence before everything is finalized.

Lucero said:
All that space and you're wasting it with 4 en suites. Sorry, but that is fail for me. Two bedrooms can be served quite happily by one main bathroom leaving uber space for more home cinema gadgets and other awesome stuff.

EDIT: Looking at the pics, it's very nice. It may well be 6000 sq ft but actual useable space is much less given the retarded ceiling angles :(

I'm moving in to my flat shortly. I'm tempteed to put HAL 2000 in there. You should check it out.
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Lucero, yes its huge on paper but in real life the usable space is much less, it I would say around 2000 sq ft is wasted however it will make the flat feel really nice and the roof is a cool feature if you do the lighting well.

Thanks for the info on the HAL 2000, I will look it up tomorrow. I was looking at going with a Control 4 system but I am still open to suggestions.
 
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Paras said:
I am not too well informed when it comes to building regs and stuff so I have hired a building consultant to do the due diligence before everything is finalized.
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Very wise decision, be cold and calculating until all is certain, then start moving in your stuff mentally.
 
speedyj said:
Very wise decision, be cold and calculating until all is certain, then start moving in your stuff mentally.
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hi, They guy is charging me 300 quid a day but to be honest I think I will save money in the long run.

BTW, do you remember me? we met around 10 years ago. :D
 
Paras said:
I am not too well informed when it comes to building regs and stuff so I have hired a building consultant to do the due diligence before everything is finalized.

Lucero, yes its huge on paper but in real life the usable space is much less, it I would say around 2000 sq ft is wasted however it will make the flat feel really nice and the roof is a cool feature if you do the lighting well.

Thanks for the info on the HAL 2000, I will look it up tomorrow. I was looking at going with a Control 4 system but I am still open to suggestions.
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Cool, I think the voids behind furniture to the roof will work ok the more I think about it.

HAL 2000 can scare the crap out of people but its very very good and used the x10 protocol. Other awesome control systems include Living Control (imo, one of the best), Crestron. Also, check out Niveus for media streaming stuff.
 
it is in a VERY nice location, it's on the west edge of Chesterfield heading out towards the peak district near arguably the poshest bit of Chesterfield (Brookside). There's a few houses on the approach that would probably fetch a few mill. I actually owned a house on Westbrook Drive there but had to sell as I couldn't afford to do it up at the time.
 
ah nice thanks for the info. We had the an Architect come out to have a look yesterday who gave us some nice ideas. We are going try and put floor to Ceiling windows in both ends of the living room.
 
So After 11 months of legal problems we finally completed today. Which is not all that bad as I did not have to pay the mortgage (we where luckey to even get a mortgage really) for the last 11 months, also invested the money I planed to pay for the flat and work in the stock market and have done quite well so overall we are off to a good start.


We are aiming to start work in 3 months time. Hopefully everything will be finished within 9 to 12 months total.

I will post a build log as I go along.
 
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Here is what it looks like from the outside, we have the top floor.
P1000032.jpg




Oh one more thing, I got married a month ago so this will be our first home together:D
 
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I did not have to pay the mortgage (we where luckey to even get a mortgage really) for the last 11 months, also invested the money I planed to pay for the flat and work in the stock market
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That is quite jammy, looks nice and new. You've probably captured most of the stock recovery and hopefully got a good mortgage just in time.
I would suggest a fixed rate is a good idea if you have the opportunity at some point
 
silversurfer said:
That is quite jammy, looks nice and new. You've probably captured most of the stock recovery and hopefully got a good mortgage just in time.
I would suggest a fixed rate is a good idea if you have the opportunity at some point
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Yep it worked out very well. I am still investing the money I plan to use for the renovation work, but I will pull that out as soon as we actually start working. We could really do with an extra 50/60k to finish it off to a good standard, I think we should be able to borrow more money should we need it.


unfortunately because I picked the mortgage deal a year ago I got base rate plus 3% but I can change it in 2 years.
 
silversurfer said:
I would suggest a fixed rate is a good idea if you have the opportunity at some point
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From everything i am told, this is bad advice at the moment. We could well be seeing another whole year or more of ultra low rates.

What are you basing that advice on?
 
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