Tag Archives: London Property Market

OP-ED: the dog ate my homework!

Please note:  opinions, viewpoints and experiences are by definition ‘personal’.  As such,  @ZombifiedPixie asserts that her specific personal experience outlined in this blog   may  or  may  not   be applicable to others.  It is therefore up to the reader to make his/her own mind about the merits of this opinionated blog.

Furthermore, whilst every effort is made to be honest and accurate, @ZombifiedPixie makes no claim that all details here are factual, representative or complete.  Therefore, anyone researching any of the named parties are strongly advised to continue with his/her own research to form a more robust finding.  To be blunt, this is an honest but opinionated diary and therefore should not be used in isolation when forming an opinion about any of the named parties.    

By continuing to read this post, you accept the terms of this website and you accept that you are reading an opinionated blog. @ZombifiedPixie accepts no liability if the reader mis-translates an opinion as a fact.

Feedback, correction and/or alternative viewpoints, please contact feedback@zombifiedpixie.com.

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Yesteryear’s excuse of “my dog ate my homework” has been upgraded.   It’s now “oops — your email was inadvertently sent to my junk folder and thus I missed your email”.   To be fair, I do know of genuine cases where this has happened.  BUT, in this particular case, the person shirking responsibility and accountability has previously received and responded to my emails.  As such and unless this person’s email system was recently infected with a virus, her system has already accepted and processed my email account as “non-junk”.

After a follow-up email (and after enough time has passed to render the original request more difficult to fulfil), the person in question wrote to say:

“I apologise for not responding sooner, for some reason the original email went into my junk email folder, however I have added you to my contact list so this does not happen again.

Unfortunately as the development is now complete and the builders are off site it really is too late for us to make and changes to the units.

I am sorry we cannot assist you on this occasion.”

Needless to say and assuming that her company’s email system is unadulterated, I thought this person’s response was highly unprofessional and lacked integrity.  If the request cannot be fulfilled then I thought she should have advised accordingly instead of hiding behind the “dog ate my homework” excuse whilst “running down the clock”.

In short, this is yet more reason, methinks and based on my personal experience, that I’ll never recommend Acorn New Homes to my family and friends.

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OP-ED: Shame on me !!!

Please note:  opinions, viewpoints and experiences are by definition ‘personal’.  As such,  @ZombifiedPixie asserts that her specific personal experience outlined in this blog   may  or  may  not   be applicable to others.  It is therefore up to the reader to make his/her own mind about the merits of this opinionated blog.

Furthermore, whilst every effort is made to be honest and accurate, @ZombifiedPixie makes no claim that all details here are factual, representative or complete.  Therefore, anyone researching any of the named parties are strongly advised to continue with his/her own research to form a more robust finding.  To be blunt, this is an honest but opinionated diary and therefore should not be used in isolation when forming an opinion about any of the named parties.    

By continuing to read this post, you accept the terms of this website and you accept that you are reading an opinionated blog. @ZombifiedPixie accepts no liability if the reader mis-translates an opinion as a fact.

Feedback, correction and/or alternative viewpoints, please contact feedback@zombifiedpixie.com.

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Shame on me!  Shame on me!  I’ve been fooled.  Despite my very best and determined efforts and ‘street smarts’, I’ve been hoodwinked.  I hang my head low in shame.

Damn the London property agents!

After the fiasco with 325 Borough High Street (see earlier blog), I wonder if my immune system against property-agent-developer-bullshit was compromised and therefore I was more susceptible to making foolhardy decisions.  Or, perhaps it was the pressure of seeing the property market rocket ahead and the fear of incurring an opportunity cost for not proceeding rapidly enough with another property that made me listen/accept/digest the bullshit from the next property agent.  Regardless, I blame only myself for not recognising the deft high-pressure sales tactic used by a Daniel Cobb (London Bridge branch) agent.

When I’d received this email from the agent on July 11, 2014, alarm bells should have gone off:

“An offer has come in from a bulk buyer to purchase all remaining units in the XXXXX. I understand from your previous correspondence that you are returning to HK today/tonight however the developer’s would like to know if you would like to pursue unit XXX asap.”

As I was about to hop onto a 12+ hour flight (read:  no internet access), I had to make a very quick decision.  And so, I’d advised my husband that he should proceed with the purchase of Flat XXX  before the “bulk buyer” snaps it up.

It later transpired (according to the same agent) that the developer rejected the offer to purchase all remaining units from this bulk buyer.  Unfortunately,  we discovered this only after the contract was signed.   I now wonder (and this is only a supposition) whether or not there was ever a real bulk buyer.   Have we been hoodwinked into making a significant financial decision based on smoke and mirrors?

The other major disappointment experienced was that I was led to believe, by the very same property agent who pressurised me to make an immediate decision,  was that once the newly built apartments are completed, there would be an uptick in property value.  This is because (rough quote here) most buyers want to see the completed product to examine the fixtures and fittings.  Furthermore, a completed product has certainty whereas an off-plan product has more inherent risks (such as delays in completion date, construction problems, etc) and therefore an off-plan is usually priced at a discount to reflect the higher risks.

So at the completion phase (Dec 2014 – Feb2015 …. due to unexpected construction delays), not only was I incredibly surprised to find out that of the 19 flats in the building, only 6 flats (including ours) have been sold.  And, instead of the price uptick linked to product completion, there was a drop of 5-11% in the asking price of the remaining units!  And this is during a period when prices in London are still increasing (albeit a slower growth rate …. but a growth rate nonetheless)!

Again, I have to ask myself whether or not there was ever a real bulk-buyer for the remaining units.  If there was indeed one, then I could only surmise that the developers (Northstar 2000 & Acorn New Homes) must be kicking themselves dreadfully because they would have sold the remaining 13 units at a much higher price.  Instead, the remaining units are now on the market at a steep discount.

The only conclusion that I could reach that made sense to me is that the apartments were originally overpriced and thus did not sell well and as a consequence, the Daniel Cobb agent took advantage of my flight to Hong Kong to pressurised me to make a quick decision.

Shame on me for not recognising the high-pressure tactic!

In short, as bitter as the above pill is to swallow, I confess that I’m still at peace with completing the property purchase.   (This is an owner-occupied purchase and not an investment purchase.  As such, the no-rent-to-pay offsets some of the bitterness.)  Regrets are terrible and I didn’t want the enjoyment of the new flat to be tarnished by what transpired previously.  I’ve therefore filed my experiences above as “lessons learned” and hoped that in the future, I will be a little smarter and less likely to be hoodwinked by (in my opinion) untrustworthy sales agents.  And that by the time my husband and I decide to move on and sell the property, we would not be in negative equity.

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OP-ED: I regret . . .

Please Note:   I, personally, am not bound by a non-disclosure or gag clause.  As such, I am at complete liberty to write about my opinions, my views and my experiences as they relate to a particular event.

Opinions, viewpoints and experiences are by definition ‘personal’.  As such,  @ZombifiedPixie asserts that her specific personal experience outlined in this blog   may  or  may  not   be applicable to others.

Furthermore, whilst every effort is made to be honest and accurate, @ZombifiedPixie makes no claim that all details here are factual, representative or complete.  Therefore, anyone researching any of the named parties are strongly advised to continue with his/her own research to form a more robust finding.  To be blunt, this is an honest but opinionated diary and therefore should not be used in isolation when forming an opinion about any of the named parties.

For the avoidance of doubt, be advised that @ZombifiedPixie recounts the events below from the viewpoint of an observer and as an advisor to her husband.  Succinctly, @ZombifiedPixie has NOT engaged in any contractual relationship with any of the named parties.  In short and in the interest of clarity, @ZombifiedPixie has an outsider’s perspective.  It is therefore up to the reader to make his/her own mind about the merits of this opinionated blog.

By continuing to read this post, you accept the terms of this website and you accept that you are reading an opinionated blog. @ZombifiedPixie accepts no liability if the reader mis-translates an opinion as a fact.   

Feedback, correction and/or alternative viewpoints, please contact feedback@zombifiedpixie.com.

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I regret LifeLessOrdinaryLondonProperty

Not wanting to be one-of-those-idiotic-overseas-buyers-who-buy-offplan-and-ends-up-buying-a-dump, I was very careful in selecting potential properties.   An advantage that I have is that I know London very well after having lived there for 9+ years and could therefore quickly discount the bullshit in the glossy marketing materials.   For example, “25 minutes from central London” is quite attractive on paper but is actually quite meaningless in reality.  Why?  Well, “central London” is not well defined and as such, it could mean 25 minutes from the the furthest point in Zone1 . . .  and Zone1 is quite massive.  Furthermore, the ’25 minutes’ claim is also ambiguous.  A real Londoner would use the travel time published by Transport for London (TfL) to get a more accurate ‘guestimates’ rather than rely on the travel time published in the posh marketing.  (That said, TfL times are actually ‘guestimates’ at best because the Underground is consistently unreliable.)

I also used Google to de-select  and whittle down potential properties from my search list.  Whilst extremely helpful, Google is no substitute for first-hand research.  As such, a trip to London was mandatory before any serious money is exchanged.

As the property that we were interested in is a new-build and as the construction has not started yet, my goals in visiting London to assess this potential property at 325 Borough High Street (SE1) were:

(1) walk around the neighbourhood at multiple times during the day to assess the quality-of-life —  i.e.,  traffic volume during the morning and evening rush hours;  clubs/pubs/social places in the vicinity that could cause nuisance issues;  volume of litter (if any) on the street; the personality of the neighbourhood, etc.

(2) view the vacant lot and “size” up the property.  Floor plans are great but walking around the actual perimeter is a priceless assessment opportunity.

(3) view the developer’s past (completed) projects to assess the quality of the build and the quality of the fixtures and fittings.  In addition, I wanted to interview nearby residents of the completed projects to get feedback on the construction crew.  It is my opinion that a good developer hires a good construction crew.  And, as such, this feedback would be a very valuable barometer in assessing the overall merit of this property purchase.

[ Reminder – please note #ZPDisclaimer. ]

Once the agent emailed me that the offer was accepted (subject to contract and with the reservation fee paid), I hopped onto a plane bound to London in Feb 2014 to conduct my own assessment.

In short, I recommended to my husband that this was a ‘good purchase’ based on the following factors:  I assessed the neighbourhood and liked the area very much;  the feedback from nearby businesses and tenants about the construction crew (from a recently completed project) was positive; the build quality of this completed project seemed to be of a high standard; I had personally met with the Heenal Lakhani, one of the directors of the property development company (‘Life Less Ordinary London Property Developers‘), and had a positive first impression; and finally, I did a Google-search on the company, the company directors, and their past credit histories — with no significant red flags raised.   In short, I concluded that everything about this property appeared to be positive.

I was wrong.

Many months later and based on everything that I have observed (and in perfect hindsight), I look back at this trip with serious regrets.   I regret wasting my time and my energy in assessing this property.  More importantly, I regret advising my husband that based on my opinion he should pursue the purchase of this new-build apartment.  And, I regret that we wasted many months of our time and our solicitor’s time reading thru countless documents and search-conveyancing results.

In hindsight, I’m not sure what more due diligence I could have done.  The ‘curve ball’ that was thrown was completely unforeseen and in my opinion, more research would not have been helpful in uncovering it.  Furthermore, our solicitor has advised that in his 20+ years of experience, he has never encountered this type of ‘curve ball’ before.

If there is a silver lining in this unpleasant event, then it is that we have purchased a better apartment elsewhere (but in the same neighbourhood).  It is also a new-build and of the same quality specifications.  More importantly, it is with a more established (and  in  my  opinion, a more reputable) developer.  Unfortunately, the replacement flat is more expensive (because the London property market dramatically increased during the many months we wasted with the original property and as a consequence, we were out-of-pocket financially with respect to the opportunity costs associated with a rising market).

Would I recommend ‘Life Less Ordinary London Property Developers‘ (www.l-l-o.com) to my family and friends?   Based on my specific personal experience and based on what I have observed —  No, absolutely not.

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