spouse of scouse

Some people might remember that scouse and I put down a deposit for a waterfront flat in an off-plan development, at the end of 2013. The development, in Liverpool, was supposed to be completed mid 2015, and it was going to be our home.

We knew the development had a troubled history (previous developers went bust after the GFC), but we didn't expect the delays, setbacks and associated rise in costs over the past 3 years. We've been on the verge of pulling out so many times, even though there was a likelihood that we would lose a lot of money. Honestly, this thing nearly drove us mad, but each time we had 'the discussion' we decided to stick it out.

Now, it's finally going ahead. Completion due early 2017 and while we've been stung too many times to be totally confident, we've finally relaxed a bit.
Plus now that we live here, we can make lots of site visits and hassle people
Herculaneum Quay - Primesite Developments : Primesite Developments

scrubbedexpat094

that you have no more problems. Looks great, very swish. What an excellent location too, not far from the festival gardens. I remember when they opened. Liverpool is such a great city, was hoping to pop in when we were over last month but didn't have time .

NB: hope the swimming pool is filled with fresh water and not taken from the Mersey

spouse of scouse

I love Liverpool too, but I've become quite attached to New Brighton now that we've been here for 8 months. Scouse is still keen to live in the flat, but we've renovated our Victorian semi over here and I'm not ready to leave it, so would rather rent the flat out. God knows where we'll end up!

The festival gardens were neglected for some years, which was a bloody shame. They're being brought back now though.

Yes, fresh water would be good, I don't fancy getting covered in oil and muck Not that I'd probably be in it much - it'd be like my discarded gym memberships, all good intentions for a couple of weeks and then my lazy gene kicks in.

robin1234

Oh.
My.
G-d.

I'm envious, looks beautiful.

Norfolk is nice, but I'm beginning to see what Friedrich Engels meant by "the idiocy of rural life."

spouse of scouse

To be honest Robin, it's been the most frustrating, stressful thing scouse and I have ever done. We made the huge mistake of looking at buying into the development as a 'normal' purchase - plonk your deposit down, make your progress payments, and voila! a flat magically appears.

It's been so far from that as to be laughable! We weren't buyers, we were speculative investors. If the development had gone bust, and it threatened to on no less than 5 occasions, we'd have lost all our money with no recourse. Not for the faint hearted, and I must have fainted about 67 times over the past 3 years

I wouldn't recommend this off-plan lark to anyone who was as green as we were. It appeared as a very attractive proposition, way below market value - that alone should have set alarm bells ringing. If it comes off, the flat will be worth nearly triple what we paid for it. But it could have so easily gone the other way - and I'm still not 100% confident. That's why I posted the construction milestone, it's been my only chance to celebrate in 3 years

Perth

Congratulations! That's one more heart attack averted then, eh?

spouse of scouse

We'll take you and Mr Perth to see it when you're over.

Perth

Love to see it! If we were staying in the area we'd rent it off you. We've already got an idea of what a good landlord you'd be

Freshwhyte

That view !!!!

I'd be keen to live there, how much are you planning on letting it for ? looks amazing !

spouse of scouse

spouse of scouse

Not sure, I might wait until it's a bit more than a couple of steel posts and a concrete floor before I think about that

Freshwhyte

Fair point lol

My response is akin to building sites in London, barely break ground and have a queue out the door with people trying to make deposits what's the development called ?

spouse of scouse

It must be horrible for people in London trying to rent at a decent price.

The development's called Herculaneum Quay, it's in Liverpool (L3).

When (if) it's completed, rent should be competitive as there'll be an awful lot of flats going onto the rental market. Although unusually, just over 50% of these have been purchased by locals who intend to live in them.

We should be ok though, there are 2 flats that are the biggest in the development and ours is one of them, with a river aspect. At a guess we'd rent it from anywhere between 900 - 1,200 pounds per month, depending on whether we furnish it and the standard of furnishings.

It'd be a good short term holiday let but I don't think I could be arsed with that, too much work

Freshwhyte

My mom inherited a listed property in Bute when her great aunt passed and she tried doing it as a holiday home and it was an absolute nightmare dealing with agencies and then found out work needed to be done but needed to go through the council first, eventually she became so fed up she sold it at below market to get it out of her hair.

I love the updates the developer is posting, it really is a great way to see your investment being built, day over day

BEVS

& me and MrBEVS.

Well done is all I can say .

I think it will look better with windows.