so bored, just went outside and rang up this guy who owns a local development, 5 bed shoe boxes for 500k, 3 beds for 290k, e.t.c. and took the piss, offering 210k for 3 bed, he got a bit angry, told me to go buy another house lol, he goes where else can you get a 3 bed in ***** for 210 and i mentioned where you could and then he goes why dont you go and buy that one then instead of bothering me, he was very distressed, such fun on a Tuesday. He sounded worried though, and so he should be, they have only finished building and i think he has sold 4 out of 20 or so property's.

just to add i spoke to the devolper himself and not the estate agent, i found the number

Well Done. Offered too much though? 70%ish of asking price.

yeah i would only pay 190 now to be honest

Well, the developer who bought the house 3 doors away from me finally seems to have gone tits-up.

I talked to him about a year ago as he just purchased - small 3 bed semi, left by a 94 year old, hadn't be touched since about 1970 (the house, that is, not the 94 year old...) The pictures on Rightmove showed what a state it was in. I suggested that he'd need at least 50-60k to make it OK; he just laughed and said "double that", as "I'll extend it into a five bedder." Which is exactly what he started to do - and make a bloody rotten job of it.

Turns out he paid £408k (!!!!!) for the place. He still hasn't finished it a year later; no where near finished, in fact. He told me the mortgage was 1700/month, and that was before the credit crunch. So, 1 year later, about 100k spent, plus mortgage payments, plus stamp duty...I'd think £550k would be about break even. He's had it on the market (still needs about 3 months work on it) for £575k. Not a single viewing - especially as I pointed out to him that one extended *professionally* AND with a loft conversion about 100 yards away sold last year for 465k at the market peak!

Anyway, the roofer walked off site 1 month ago has he hadn't been paid. Today the scaffolding company and the brickie came to collect their stuff as they too hadn't been paid. The large skip in the front hasn't been emptied in over a month now.

Looks like the bugger has run out of cash completely. I think he'd be lucky to get 250k-300k for it in it's current state.

And they say London property is always a winner!

Nomadd

heartwarming tale.the guy has obviously overdosed on the beeny stuff.overspend by 3005 and still make money cos people will pay you for the work you put in+profit,cos theyre nice like that

Nothing cheers me up like the story of a bankrupt developer. Shame they only need change the name of their company to start all over again, usually having paid none of their creditors.

Hello, long time visitor, first time poster here.

Talking about developers never to be seen again. We live in a block of Victorian conversions, with another block like it next to it in Central Scotland. In November, the old lady next door put up her one bedroom flat for O/O £80k to move down to stay with her daughter in the South. Now according to ourproperty.co.uk the flat went for £88k. This is for one bedroom, large kitchen diner, bathroom, living room. I've only been inside the flat once but would estimate that the last renovation took place in the 70's, maybe early 80's.

A few days after the lady moved out, a couple arrived and started absolutely gutting the place. After making a good start, they had a group of 3 workers coming in every day for nearly a month again gutting the place. I doubt there is even a wall standing in there. Shortly before Christmas the work stopped - as I thought, for Christmas - but neither the couple nor the workers have been seen since.

Unfortunately, the windows are windowleened and it's hard to see inside, but this should be just a huge room with a cludgie at the moment. Whether they had visions of turning this into a 2 bedroom flat (would have to be tiny bedrooms) or a dance studio I don't know. But I doubt they're coming back.

I'm just wondering who would even touch the flat in this state now, as you would have to put massive money in to even get it back to a one bedroom.

I feel kinda sorry for the lady who lives in the flat above as, certainly, for the first time in years she'll have to pay for her own heating ;-P

Ceinwyn

They were probably a couple of pikeys stealing everything (including things that were bolted down). When the new owners turn up they'll be gutted (like their house).

Wife was told by a work colleague that his neighbours house was sold to a developer for £800k, plan was to extend original house and build another on the land. Planning permission was refused for both and developer sold at £700k. Not sure of the timescales but this is an area where "rich people are, prices wont go down here" as informed by an estate agent a few weeks ago.

Location was Burnham (South Bucks or Berks, never sure where the boundary is).

Another glorious story of a clueless amateur doing his boll0x.

Thing was, he wasn't an amateur as such. He'd been doing this type of stuff for a few years - and there lay the problem: the "house prices only ever go up" mentality.

He came back today in a van. Stood around in the street for an hour or so looking at the place. Not quite sure how that's going to help? Looks like it's going to be a long painful year for him, after all those prior years of easy money.

Nomadd

Sounds par for the course for any builder. Whether they're quoting or 'working' this specialist skill is one they spend quite a lot of time doing.

So it must be important.

any chance of a linky or an update when it finally comes on the market.

No problem.

I've had a look on RightMove, but it isn't on there at present; seems he just has it listed with one small local estate agent just in case some mug turns up to buy months before it is finished. Nethouseprices does list it as sold last year for £408k - which is exactly what the developer told me. It's probably 3 months (at least) away from completion, but if I see it I'll certainly post a link.

Cheers,

Nomadd