EASTBOURNE must be Glutted with New developments,
since we are seeing them come on the market through Property
Buying Syndicates, at 10-15% discounts

Here's an example:
We have one 2 bed apartment available in this stunning development on the waterfront in Eastbourne.

With a 17.5% discount if you can obtain an 85% mortgage there would be 2.5% cashback on completion.

For more detail see the below downloads.

TYPICAL EXAMPLE
No of Beds Market Value Purchase Price Amount Needed to Invest
.... 2 ... ... £197,500 ..... £162,938 ...... £8,405

Link: http://www.propertyforlife.com/property.php?i=20040726155446


2/ ANOTHER


THE BROADWALK SOVEREIGN HARBOUR EASTBOURNE

The broadwalk is a community of new apartments set within Eastbourne’s magnificent Sovereign Harbour. The Waterfront features an exciting blend of shops, offices, terraced restaurants and bars, with spectacular views across the marina and harbour. There is a wonderful cosmopolitan atmosphere all along the quayside which is brightly lit at night and proving a popular meeting place for residents and visitors alike. A landscaped walkway leads to a 6 screen cinema and the adjacent Sovereign retail park with its additional amenities. Twin locks provide swift access in and out of the harbour for a constant stream of boats.

Every apartment is uncompromising in style and quality. You wouldn’t expect anything less from one of the UK’s premium homebuilders. Also because of its design and location within the harbour, the majority of apartments boast a waterfront view, a feature unique to the Broadwalk. The design is bold and eye catching with splashes of blue and yellow combined with materials like aluminium, wood and canvas, creating a very individual feel. When evening arrives, exterior up lighters set the mood by illuminating the buildings in breathtaking fashion.

This has a 17% discount and is currently an off-plan development with a build time completion in November 2005.

Reservation fee is £1,000

An arrangement fee to Ashkey Property Investment Ltd for this deal is 2%+VAT this is your finders fee. Your mortgage broker fee is 0.50% and is payable to our mortgage brokers

A 5% deposit is required at exchange of contracts, contracts are exchanged 28 days from the time the solicitor receives the draft contract.

Ashkey Props

Here are two (from many) reasons not to buy there:

1. The land on which these developments are built is below sea level (global warning anyone?!!)
2. Given a fresh onshore breeze the stink from the sewage works just to the south west is phenomenal!

Hi, I currently live on Sovereign harbour Eastbourne. The picture in the post above is the view I have from my balcony although the flats are scaffolding and cranes at the moment.

I rent a 2 bed flat at the going rate of £650 per month. The flats I am in sell for around £185,000. A similar price to these new builds. What sort of yield is that ? You would get more return in a building society and there are hundreds of two bed flats going up here in the harbour. If they are having trouble now selling or letting them now what will happen when a few hundred more hit the market.

I see in the local paper one letting agent advertising 10 flats in the new Boardwalk development. The flats are for sale at £200k to £250k and available for rent between £750 and £850 per month. With only two out of the six blocks completed I wonder how many empty flats will be available in 12 months time when all 200+ flats are finished.

The SIPPs change is not going to help the situation. There are a large number of developments around the harbour and I have looked at a few of them because my parents are looking to move here. Flats we saw a couple of months ago are still available with more supply coming onto the market all the time.

Everyone is looking for a HPC trigger and a glut of property over the next 12 months could be it for Eastbourne harbour.

PS just renewed my rental contract, no change in my rent for four years.

Paul

I can confirm this. Actually Sovereign harbour housing is NOT below sea level because I looked at several last week at high tide and they were all still above the water level! However many of the sudden influx of newly built apartments now coming online are not even being offered for sale. Nearly all are being offered for rent by either the developers or those who bought off-plan. Here's why:

A typical luxury 2 bed apartment in the complex would have been sold off plan or to the first occupant buyer for around £250,000. I know this because I have looked at the Land Registry deeds of several of them and the better ones went for this price. Even allowing for the odd back hander, this price is utterly unsustainable now. Many of these apartments are going for £199,000, and some of the not-so luxury ones for a great deal less. That means that if your bought off-plan or around the period of early 2005 or even later summer 2005 you are already going to be in substantial negative equity. The highest rents these apartments can achieve is £800 per month, and as others suggest the going rate is more like £650.

Add up the figures for yourself and then apply them to all of these kinds of develpments nationwide. The conclusion doesn't take much effort to arrive at.

And we are told prices actually ROSE last month? Pah!

VP

I've visited the area many times over the years lived in Eastbourne myself for over twenty years and know a lot about the crumbles area. I think such places will literally sink value wise and many have predicted could be the ghettos of the future. A future housing-estate anyone? Every inch of land is being used. It’s awfully compact down there. I would never wish to buy/invest into such an area. Get a few rogue families in and hey presto! Thats all it would take and remember alot of it for rent........

I'm STR here in Sov harbour - the rouge families are already here - I'd give it 5 years & then the whole place will be a sink estate. There are many 'family,modern town houses' here - the vast majority of which are now rented out to 3/4 young, chavvish,couples. Who wants family life in a four storey house, the ground floor rooms of which have no windows?!
Also had an idle look at the last phase of flats going up - half a million for the penthouse and you get one parking space in a shared underground garage- words fail me as to the stupidity of some people.

(But it's fine as a rental - no chance of being booted out 'cos the landlord has sold it ) - 50%, at a conservative estimate, of all property for sale in Eastbourne is within Sov Harbour. This place was bought in 2003 for 297K and similar properties are on the market for 275K- and not selling.

This summer (2005) I was looking at Rightmove to consider what to do when my rental contract expired in November. There was only a small choice of properties to rent right up until the autumn, say 20 to 30 in the price range I was looking. Now when you search you get in excess of 100. I know one factor is seasonal being a holiday location and also perhaps more agents are using rightmove but the increase in supply is still dramatic.

The house price rises could be explained by the increase in new builds. Before the recent new builds the average 2 bed in the harbour had an asking price of say £160,000 now its say £190,000. Not may sales but the statistics would record a rise of 20%.

Chatting with my landlord yesterday and he thought that he should have sold some of his Eastbourne properties over the last couple of years to take full advantage of the recent gains. I read later in the HBOS report that average prices fell 5% in 2005 in Eastbourne. So he may have been right. 2006 may record falls also as the surplus new builds get price cuts to shift them. Overall my landlord seemed happy to stick with his portfolio but anyone buying in the last couple of years for BTL purposes may be feeling uncomfortable with rents not covering costs and the prospect of no capital gains and at worse a loss.

The Boardwalk development shown in the posts at the top of this thread are still being built. Two of the six blocks are completed with another two completed by the end of this year.

I do wonder how they are selling. An awful lot seem to be available for sale in the blocks being completed this year and a lot of rentals available in the two completed blocks.

There seem to be a lot for sale, many properties sticking around for ages on the marina unsold. While others are snapped up straight away at full asking price.

Anyone else with a view on the eastbourne market?

Huge number of second homes / holiday homes in and around Eastbourne marina. I don't expect the doubling of council tax will be welcome. Most 2 bed flats are Band D which is currently around £1,200. Could it really rise to £2,400 or even £3,600?

The local papers property section seemed to have loads of new New Price banners and No Chain signs. I know of a couple of flats reduced in price by between 5 and 10%. However, the other side of the coin is that I know some have sold straight away at full asking price. So seems the market is mixed.

Starting to see some price reductions around Sovereign Harbour. One three bed flat reduced from £199,000 to £175,000. One two bed reduced from £199,000 to £195,000. A four bed townhouse £250,000 to £239,000. Also a lot of properties seem to be sticking around unsold. Be interesting to see what happens as the new build supply hits the market and perhaps people rush to beat 1 June HIPs deadline.

What is the best area to buy in Eastbourne as the son of a friend will be relocating with his job in January. He will be looking for a minimum 3 bed semi.

Tides are different heights on different days/months/years. What was the tide height on that day compared to the yearly and 20 year cycle highs?

Depends what you mean by best?

The most expensive house sold last year was on Upper Carlisle Road (near Beachy Head)

I am currently living in Sovereign Harbour. Not bad but the nearby Langney sink estate brings some of the associated unwashed (bit of street racing and the odd group of kids spraying graffiti - I guess everywhere is like that these days. It's hard to tell) and I live next to what is currently a building site.

My landlord gave me and the girlfriend notice a couple of weeks ago, citing increasing interest rates as the reason he's selling (also selling his own townhouse down the road due to lack of parking space).

We are moving to Lower Meads on the other side of town in a couple of weeks.

I think Meads, Willingdon and the old town (BN20 / 21) are the areas he should be looking at. Or possibly the Harbour (BN23). Hailsham, further inland, gives better value.

Hope that helps

I would say Old Town is the best area to live in. Old Town has more facilties and is closer to the station and town centre. I used to live on the Harbour before I emigrated and I got fed up of the traffic queues and also the lack of facilties apart from one shopping area.

Yes, Sovereign Harbour is at risk from flood. Always check out the environment agency website before you buy peeps!!

Sovereign Harbour....

http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyb...tion=BN23%205BJ

Although the flats in Sovereign Harbour are overpriced (and there is massive oversupply as well) the houses don't look like such bad value, if you pick your location carefully. What do local peeps think, as it's an area I am considering if I can sell my place in the sticks! Looking to spend about £225k or so on a 3 bed place.

My old street has the 2-bed flats going for £160k now down from £250k two years ago. Still not selling. The town houses are holding up around the £210k mark but I wouldn't buy one. The freehold charges and the flood defence charges must cost a small fortune before you even consider either mortgage or council tax.

I think the pick are in the North-East corner of the North Harbour (I lived by the outer harbour and the sheer density there now is a complete joke!)

Yes I think you are right on the North East part having the pick of the best stuff. Accepted an offer on my house this week, got pretty much the asking price and there is no chain involved, so looks like I will be out in 4 weeks - going to rent somewhere there for a while until things settle down. No shortage of rental properties there, especially those new developments at The Boardwalk...