This is one I've not come across before: newbuilds up for auction!

A little background on 'The Pinnacle': this is a former council tower block in a not great area of Nottingham. The place had a bad reputation for drugs and there has been at least 1 murder there that I can recall. About a year ago it was completely refurbished and the flats put on the market as 'affordable luxury flats' or something like that: over 100 1 bed flats going from about £85k.

Now I see that there are 4 up for auction, guide price £70k (I assume that is each, I might consider it if it was for all of them )

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-172...=2&tr_t=buy

Not sure whether this is the developer wanting shot of them or people who have bought off plan having to bail out before they've even been lived in! I suspect the latter.

The auction is on October 18th so I'll keep an eye out to see if they sell.

As a council tax payer, I'd be delighted if the council bought back the entire block at knock down price in a year or two and didn't even have to foot the bill for the refurb.

Pass this every day on the tram. My idea of hell. I was also wondering how someone probably on min. wage pays a mortgage of £85K... and more to the point, why would you in this place. Did you see the windows hanging off their hinges the other week? Don't know if they are rubbish or if the place was vandalised.

I used to pass it on the tram every day but then I moved...

Totally agree. Why on earth would anyone entertain the idea of buying one of those things? Have you seen the official website for the development:

http://www.thepinnaclenottingham.co.uk/

Possibly the most optimistic attempt to sell basically posh council flats ever.

There are quite a few blocks of flats in Nottingham which are going to get absolutely decimated in any crash. I could name them but anyone from the area would probably come up with the same list. Tomorrows social housing...

DM

Unbelievable.

The photos on page 1 of the brochure are Asda and a car park.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that the contact phone number to sell these exclusive investment opportunities is a mobile.

That, my friend, is aspirational living and don't you forget it.

Is that the old done up tower block in Forest Fields? I seem to recall a great deal of speculation that the housing near the tram routes would 'explode' in popularity. I wonder if the proposed Clifton line would therefore work the same miracle that the line has done for Bulwell

That's the one.

I'm not quite sure if you're being ironic here: I used to live in Bulwell (moved there just prior to the tram opening) and it wasn't a great area. The tram was about all it had to recommend it TBH. If that was an improvement then I shudder to think what it was like before.

I can't say I really see it improving Clifton: it will still be Clifton! The main areas to gain (IMO) will be those areas which are pretty nice already but will then have a massive improvement to their accessibility e.g. Wilford and Toton.

70k guide price for flats in hyson green!!?? Madness, and anyone thinking of going after one needs to think again.
Hyson Green is a cesspit. Drugs, Prostitution, Goose Fair and Nottm being the 2nd worst place to live in the whole of the UK.
Be best to buy a cardboard box instead

It's with an air of inevitability that I can announce that, of the 4 flats available in this particular auction, precisely none of them sold.

http://www.grahampenny.com/component/optio...temid,99999999/

Not good for those who bought at "from £85k" earlier this year who have now made a minimum of a 17% loss in the last approx 8 months. Doh!

So the Nottingham flat bloodbath looks like it's started. There are a couple of other blocks which I've got my eye on, but personally I don't see anyone buying in this one anytime soon.

DM

I know Nottingham very well. Born and bred so to speak.
I'm lucky I live south of the river!

And yet the developers attempt to "polish a turd" in highly questionable areas staggers belief. Monumental stupidity

Shamelessly morphing my own thread into an all purpose Nottingham auctions topic, here's another beauty which I hope holds the national prize for 'lowest price property failing to sell'.

http://beta.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-17...=2&tr_t=buy

1 bed flat in St Anns (Nottingham's worst area). Auctioned following repossession with a guide price of £35k. Failed to sell:

http://auctions.erinaceous.com/lot-overvie...ial&page=10

The market in Nottingham seems to be absolutely dead.

Have you actually seen how many flats there are now in Nottingham? Altered big houses, new builds, tatty old things etc. etc. Even when Uni-land is full, there are so many to let signs about it is unbelievable, with a full range from "luxury" to grot. I saw a 4 bed Victorian semi for sale in an ea window a couple of weeks ago £135K with possibility of 5 rooms to let out. It was a beautiful house in the wrong area - Hyson Green.

Just to add to the 'glut' of flats for sale in Nottingham.....

8 of those horrible things above Hooters in the Hicking Building listed for sale by the same people today. £120k for the 2 bed ones, 90k for the 1 bed shoeboxes.

Another BTL Landlord spooked ?

Ha, that's another of my 'watch' blocks, which I think will be hit particularly badly. My list so far:

The Pinnacle
The Hicking Building
Marco Island
ParkWest

Nicely bounding the city by the 4 compass points. Anyone gone any more to add?

Auction your newbuilds; Bring out your dead.

See seems to rhyme but I have had a few

How bad will things get in Nottingham?

It depends really. I've lived here for about 10 years in total now, and one thing that has always struck me is that there's no one particular area within a 5 mile radius of the city that you could consider to be nice and safe; the whole area is blighted with undesirables, whether you live in Bulwell, St Anns, West Bridgford or Keyworth.. obviously with differing degrees, but that factor is there.

I think that's the reason why prices, even through the 'boom', have not really risen to the extent that neighbouring cities have; when all's said and done, Nottingham isn't that great.

I can see the return of the £40k terrace in places like Sneinton, Sherwood and Radford, some parts of which aren't so bad. In places like Beeston and Carlton it'll be a little bit more on average. Of course, your enclaves like The Park and Bunny will probably retain high values, but that's par for the course.

Just IMHO, as ever

quick edit - I've left out the final fate of all the luxury apartments that have taken over the city centre because I haven't got a clue! I can imagine a lot of them becoming the new state housing, as has been suggested on many other threads, given that lower prices in the suburbs might lead to something of a gentrification in some areas, leaving the city relatively empty.

An update: having so gloriously failed to sell in October, they had another go in December's auction with a guide price of £64k. And guess what?

http://www.grahampenny.com/component/optio...temid,99999999/

Still no interest!

It's a bloodbath in the Nottingham flat market at the moment with prices back to mid 2004 prices or even 2003 in some cases. When I've got time I'll dig out the links.

Perhaps someone should tell this joker that it won't sell at £111k.

Another block taking a bath: Cranbrook House, NG1 1ES

Purchased April 2003, £117k

Purchased March 2003, £108k

The market is saturated and they are still building more. If you can't sell something, it is technically worthless.

EDIT: this is even worse (NG1 1JL)

Purchased August 2001, £95,950

Actually, this game is getting easier. Historically, EAs don't tend to post full address details as it makes it easier for a buyer to miss them out so they miss out on commission. However, with the stuff that appears to be impossible to shift at any price, they just want rid so will post the full address.

Someone else getting in on the act of auctioning newbuilds:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-187...45&tr_t=buy

http://www.grahampenny.com/component/optio...temid,99999999/

I love this bit:



If auctioning off a 'penthouse' flat for 50k less than a flat has ever been sold for in that block (sales dating back to 2003) represents 'more successful' then the Nottingham flat market must be even worse than I thought.

Anyone any ideas what this means?

" Under the Estate Agents Act we must inform interested parties that the vendor is a partner of Graham Penny Auctions. "

This is the standard blurb to say that the vendor isn't a private individual but a company which has repossessed the property.

On repossessed Halifax properties they add this to their adverts...

This property is being sold by Halifax Estate
Agencies Limited or one of its licensees on
behalf of a company within HBOS plc group.
Halifax Estate Agencies Limited is a part of the
HBOS plc group.

I don't think that you are right in this case.It would normally say that it was a repossesion being sold by the Mortgagee or similar.

Declaring a personal interest
Under the Estate Agents Act 1979 (the law), if you or a connected person has any personal interest in a transaction, you must reveal this promptly and in writing, if you:

have an existing personal interest. You must declare this before you begin negotiations
plan to acquire an interest in your client's property
are selling your property to the client.
You must not ask for or receive a deposit for the sale of a property in which you have a personal interest.

I think that this flat is in the personal ownership of 1 of the Partners at Graham Penny auctions and he is offloading it.

Sold for £94k. So quite a hefty loss.

Seems like a major investor is bailing out:

See this

and this

and this

and this.

That's 16 identical flats suddenly arrived on the market. Comedy pricing too, there are still some unsold ones from the first time round in that block which have been on for months at £65k.

I'd love to know the circumstances behind this one, I have a suspicion the investor might not be local and thus not fully appreciate the size of the price drops over the past year. Must have bought them off plan too.

As chance would have it, I drove past here the other night and there weren't many lights on!!!

I think those 4 ARE the block of 4 available. Even so...
Someone's being hopeful - 110K for a shoebox off Hyson Green!!

I did wonder which was the correct interpretation, and even now I'm not entirely sure!

Just had a look at
http://www.thepinnaclenottingham.co.uk/
I wonder if the developers ever considered how difficult and expensive it is to secure a mortgage on anything above the 4th floor? Even if the location, services charges or the high rise living doesn't put people off, the higher interest mortgages will.

"Off Hyson Green" - Hyson Green Community Centre is actually next door to it.

..gasp for air...