So even with the £150k reduction, the property is still valued £225k MORE than what she bought it for in 2004.
Cry me a river. Eat less avocados on toast and stop drinking Starbucks. Problem solved.
> rose from around £3,000 a year to almost £4,000
> There is a smaller flat on the other side of my road which has a lower service charge
> Nonetheless, Davidson thinks negative attitudes towards leasehold properties are overblown
> “But that said, I wouldn’t want to go leasehold again – but that’s the phase of my life that I’m in.”
I think Davidson will say anything to sell the flat.
She brought it in 2004 for 350,000 and is now frustrated that she won’t sell it for 800,000 but more like 550,000. That’s still a healthy profit/ROI.
Free marketeers when the free market doesn’t do what they want 😡😡😡
lighting up a candle for the lady so she doesnt become homeless.
It’s true, I could never really reconcile the general discussion about exploding prices with the fact that the flats I was looking at buying had doubled in value every 10 years but completely stopped increasing in 2016.
Even now two years after buying, I could sell it for what looks like a profit but actually is just about the average inflation we had over the last couple of years. It hasn’t actually increased in value.
I mean, did they try and find the most obnoxious examples? The Help to Buy lady is the most sympathetic but a landlord suggesting mortgages are a rip-off and you should rent? Can’t think what his motivation might be there….
She has clearly treated property as an investment, and for no good reason has made the assumption that she deserves over 2X return on her investment.
The whole country has gotten wise to leasehold and expanding service charges, it’s tough to find any sympathy for her when she is really looking for some desperate younger person to take a hospital pass from her.
My profit from selling went from 350k to 200k. I m devastated.
*”“I think leaseholds get a bad name – there are benefits not being discussed, it seems to be one-sided. We have a good managing agent and the building is looked after… if you [buy freehold] you have to do your own repairs and maintenance, so you end up spending a similar amount,” she says.””*
Yeah fuckin’ right it costs £5k a year to pick up dead leaves and paint the occasional windowsill, lol. Never buy leasehold peeps.
Buying a 1 bed flat in Stepney for 440k is alarm bells to be honest.
Service charges are just starting to run out of control and it’s shown clearly in the graph. The service charges are growing faster than the growth in the price of the flat which fucks you when the service charges end up being a larger percent of the capital cost which is unattractive to lenders. Which impacts the value of the flat so you’re in a sort of death spiral.
The regulation of the property management sector needs a hard review to empower leaseholders and to reduce costs (particularly insurance costs).
My heart absolutely bleeds for her. The struggle
Sounds like a first world problem, house has only gone up 200k or like a 70% return on initial purchase and she probably paid off most of it at close to zero interst. Now upset it hasn’t gone up 3x and her husband needs a house because he is a piano teacher…
I mean come on, sorry you didn’t get more free money.
Maybe if the telegraph and co would stop sucking on the tit of farage and the tories then we may not be in the current situation…instead they put out these tone deaf fluff pieces.
Fuck Telegraph
oh boohoo
I can’t find the property on right move/ zoopla or even the location. Any one else found it?
Its still up from when she purchased it, and she is still complaining?
The main reason its not going to sell is because its next to the fucking A41 –…. Not everyone wants to live next to 4 lanes of traffic!
You can sell anything if the price is right for the market. Try harder.
Its London, no one has money to buy houses except the rich but they already have their property
Tiny 🎻 why would anyone want to spend near 800k on that? This story just shows what’s wrong with society at large that housing is used as an investment vehicle rather than a place to live, we’re so obsessed with rising housing prices in this country it’s unhealthy.
First world problem.
At least she owns her property. She would she grateful for that
Yeah we bought our flat in 2017 and ended up selling it at a loss in 2022. I would have been more annoyed but I worked out we were still better off than if we’d continued renting in all that time.
I think the Telegraph takes these submissions solely from its wealthy readership because they always seem so out of touch with reality.
Last week they published some story that was so out of touch, they actually took it down. Presumably it was someone trolling them but it was so close to some of the stories they actually post that they thought it was real
It’s high time leaseholds are archived as the feudal hangover they are.
Leasehold apartments with cladding issues are the worst. I sold mine for a lot less, and then had to drop again as the buyer was going to pull out. Didn’t even pay the mortgage off. Never again.
My leasehold has a ground rent of £7 per year and no service charge. Not a chance I’d buy a leasehold with any of these crazy terms.
We’ve been looking at flats for a while now, there’s new builds which companies just can’t shift now, they won’t lower the price either.
Same with resales and some are now worth less than their original sale price.
But that completely undermines your actual numerical point.
What’s the average market rent for a similar property in the area. Where is that in your calculations?
Has someone literally written an article on an overpriced flat not selling ? Sweet Jesus
I get so annoyed by this. A home is not necessarily an investment, sure making more than you earned is nice but what about what you get during living there. A home, that you could make decisions for, that no one could sell from under you and that you can live in and is yours, that often you pay less for a mortgage than for renting an equivalent flat in the area.
Even if you sell for less or equal value (which I have done) isn’t what you had to live in while you lived there worth something? Aren’t you still better off generally speaking?
Even the guy who said he is renting because he can’t sell and wishes he’d never bought, he’s renting it… so generating an income and everyone knows London rents are crazy, so I wouldn’t be surprised if in the long run he’s better off and I’m sure the rent is covering the mortgage and it’s still a property with value.
I’m not saying that everytime you buy a property it’s a sound choice to make or you can’t be worse off, but there is something to be said for what you get by living in a place you own, that no one seems to value or include in these articles.
* It’s a fuckin’ weird layout/shape.
* Half of the flat is in a basement.
* Fortune Green Rd is lovely – as is Ingham Rd (friends live there) which is what is noted on the particulars, but it isn’t on either – its on the chuffing A41. Noisy, dirty, high traffic.
* The building is a converted church and Synagogue (I would not wish to live in a place of worship, converted or otherwise).
* Short lease.
* High service charge.
saw someone post on twitter that she was their landlord and she’s awful, so zero sympathy from me.
If you live in an apartment, someone has to maintain the common areas, lifts and pay the concierge (if there’s one). Whether it’s share of freehold or leasehold, there will be a service charge that covers these. So service charges aren’t inherently evil. Leasehold with a reasonable ground rent (mine is £200 per year) is also fine.
Leaseholders can club together and take over management of the block (known as Right to Manage). So if the leaseholders are worried that they’re overcharged for maintenance they can take action.
The problem is more that there’s been very high inflation in the past 4 years, particularly when it comes to the cost of blue collar labour, so basic maintenance costs a lot more now than it used to.
When I bought my shared ownership flat in elephant and castle early 2020 my service charge was expected to be £130 p.m. When I moved out 3 years later it had more than doubled and seen the flats are now closer to £400p.m. These were sold as “affordable” housing for local residents. Such a con.
Uh, how dare these rich folks complain about this. She’s got a half million quid flat. She should give it to charity or something, people shouldn’t have assets – they should belong to the state.
£3888 pa in service charge and ground rent, plus 92 years left on the lease. Opposite a 4 lane road. Nah fam it’s a hard swerve from me.
Flats leasehold service charge cladding 😱😱😱😱
Maybe it just smells weird, did she ever think of that?
She slashed her asking price *on her two bedroom flat* from *725,000* to *575,000* – is this a fucking joke?
Hard to feel too sorry as it’s an incredibly 1st world problem… But people have been conditioned to see property – especially in London – as a risk free investment that will “always go up” so naturally it’s a shock when it doesn’t work out that way. As much as renting gets shit on, I’m more than happy not owning as long as I stay in London.
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Wonderful news
So even with the £150k reduction, the property is still valued £225k MORE than what she bought it for in 2004.
Cry me a river. Eat less avocados on toast and stop drinking Starbucks. Problem solved.
> rose from around £3,000 a year to almost £4,000
> There is a smaller flat on the other side of my road which has a lower service charge
> Nonetheless, Davidson thinks negative attitudes towards leasehold properties are overblown
> “But that said, I wouldn’t want to go leasehold again – but that’s the phase of my life that I’m in.”
I think Davidson will say anything to sell the flat.
She brought it in 2004 for 350,000 and is now frustrated that she won’t sell it for 800,000 but more like 550,000. That’s still a healthy profit/ROI.
Free marketeers when the free market doesn’t do what they want 😡😡😡
lighting up a candle for the lady so she doesnt become homeless.
It’s true, I could never really reconcile the general discussion about exploding prices with the fact that the flats I was looking at buying had doubled in value every 10 years but completely stopped increasing in 2016.
Even now two years after buying, I could sell it for what looks like a profit but actually is just about the average inflation we had over the last couple of years. It hasn’t actually increased in value.
I mean, did they try and find the most obnoxious examples? The Help to Buy lady is the most sympathetic but a landlord suggesting mortgages are a rip-off and you should rent? Can’t think what his motivation might be there….
She has clearly treated property as an investment, and for no good reason has made the assumption that she deserves over 2X return on her investment.
The whole country has gotten wise to leasehold and expanding service charges, it’s tough to find any sympathy for her when she is really looking for some desperate younger person to take a hospital pass from her.
My profit from selling went from 350k to 200k. I m devastated.
*”“I think leaseholds get a bad name – there are benefits not being discussed, it seems to be one-sided. We have a good managing agent and the building is looked after… if you [buy freehold] you have to do your own repairs and maintenance, so you end up spending a similar amount,” she says.””*
Yeah fuckin’ right it costs £5k a year to pick up dead leaves and paint the occasional windowsill, lol. Never buy leasehold peeps.
Buying a 1 bed flat in Stepney for 440k is alarm bells to be honest.
Service charges are just starting to run out of control and it’s shown clearly in the graph. The service charges are growing faster than the growth in the price of the flat which fucks you when the service charges end up being a larger percent of the capital cost which is unattractive to lenders. Which impacts the value of the flat so you’re in a sort of death spiral.
The regulation of the property management sector needs a hard review to empower leaseholders and to reduce costs (particularly insurance costs).
My heart absolutely bleeds for her. The struggle
Sounds like a first world problem, house has only gone up 200k or like a 70% return on initial purchase and she probably paid off most of it at close to zero interst. Now upset it hasn’t gone up 3x and her husband needs a house because he is a piano teacher…
I mean come on, sorry you didn’t get more free money.
Maybe if the telegraph and co would stop sucking on the tit of farage and the tories then we may not be in the current situation…instead they put out these tone deaf fluff pieces.
Fuck Telegraph
oh boohoo
I can’t find the property on right move/ zoopla or even the location. Any one else found it?
Its still up from when she purchased it, and she is still complaining?
Edit Found it https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/156078164#/?channel=RES_BUY.
The main reason its not going to sell is because its next to the fucking A41 –…. Not everyone wants to live next to 4 lanes of traffic!
You can sell anything if the price is right for the market. Try harder.
Its London, no one has money to buy houses except the rich but they already have their property
Tiny 🎻 why would anyone want to spend near 800k on that? This story just shows what’s wrong with society at large that housing is used as an investment vehicle rather than a place to live, we’re so obsessed with rising housing prices in this country it’s unhealthy.
First world problem.
At least she owns her property. She would she grateful for that
Yeah we bought our flat in 2017 and ended up selling it at a loss in 2022. I would have been more annoyed but I worked out we were still better off than if we’d continued renting in all that time.
I think the Telegraph takes these submissions solely from its wealthy readership because they always seem so out of touch with reality.
Last week they published some story that was so out of touch, they actually took it down. Presumably it was someone trolling them but it was so close to some of the stories they actually post that they thought it was real
It’s high time leaseholds are archived as the feudal hangover they are.
Leasehold apartments with cladding issues are the worst. I sold mine for a lot less, and then had to drop again as the buyer was going to pull out. Didn’t even pay the mortgage off. Never again.
My leasehold has a ground rent of £7 per year and no service charge. Not a chance I’d buy a leasehold with any of these crazy terms.
We’ve been looking at flats for a while now, there’s new builds which companies just can’t shift now, they won’t lower the price either.
Same with resales and some are now worth less than their original sale price.
But that completely undermines your actual numerical point.
What’s the average market rent for a similar property in the area. Where is that in your calculations?
Has someone literally written an article on an overpriced flat not selling ? Sweet Jesus
I get so annoyed by this. A home is not necessarily an investment, sure making more than you earned is nice but what about what you get during living there. A home, that you could make decisions for, that no one could sell from under you and that you can live in and is yours, that often you pay less for a mortgage than for renting an equivalent flat in the area.
Even if you sell for less or equal value (which I have done) isn’t what you had to live in while you lived there worth something? Aren’t you still better off generally speaking?
Even the guy who said he is renting because he can’t sell and wishes he’d never bought, he’s renting it… so generating an income and everyone knows London rents are crazy, so I wouldn’t be surprised if in the long run he’s better off and I’m sure the rent is covering the mortgage and it’s still a property with value.
I’m not saying that everytime you buy a property it’s a sound choice to make or you can’t be worse off, but there is something to be said for what you get by living in a place you own, that no one seems to value or include in these articles.
* It’s a fuckin’ weird layout/shape.
* Half of the flat is in a basement.
* Fortune Green Rd is lovely – as is Ingham Rd (friends live there) which is what is noted on the particulars, but it isn’t on either – its on the chuffing A41. Noisy, dirty, high traffic.
* The building is a converted church and Synagogue (I would not wish to live in a place of worship, converted or otherwise).
* Short lease.
* High service charge.
saw someone post on twitter that she was their landlord and she’s awful, so zero sympathy from me.
If you live in an apartment, someone has to maintain the common areas, lifts and pay the concierge (if there’s one). Whether it’s share of freehold or leasehold, there will be a service charge that covers these. So service charges aren’t inherently evil. Leasehold with a reasonable ground rent (mine is £200 per year) is also fine.
Leaseholders can club together and take over management of the block (known as Right to Manage). So if the leaseholders are worried that they’re overcharged for maintenance they can take action.
The problem is more that there’s been very high inflation in the past 4 years, particularly when it comes to the cost of blue collar labour, so basic maintenance costs a lot more now than it used to.
When I bought my shared ownership flat in elephant and castle early 2020 my service charge was expected to be £130 p.m. When I moved out 3 years later it had more than doubled and seen the flats are now closer to £400p.m. These were sold as “affordable” housing for local residents. Such a con.
Uh, how dare these rich folks complain about this. She’s got a half million quid flat. She should give it to charity or something, people shouldn’t have assets – they should belong to the state.
£3888 pa in service charge and ground rent, plus 92 years left on the lease. Opposite a 4 lane road. Nah fam it’s a hard swerve from me.
Flats leasehold service charge cladding 😱😱😱😱
Maybe it just smells weird, did she ever think of that?
She slashed her asking price *on her two bedroom flat* from *725,000* to *575,000* – is this a fucking joke?
Hard to feel too sorry as it’s an incredibly 1st world problem… But people have been conditioned to see property – especially in London – as a risk free investment that will “always go up” so naturally it’s a shock when it doesn’t work out that way. As much as renting gets shit on, I’m more than happy not owning as long as I stay in London.
Still overpriced
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