My advice is to avoid all Off Plan properties. Our experience has not been good. We bought a hotel room in London, from Key Homes. It turned out to be a fraud. Up to today, we are still trying to claim our deposit from our solicitors. Rayney, the self styled property guru sold us the property. Till this day, he claimed that he also lost money but i believe he did not pursue the developers / fraudsters because he took a hefty commission from the deal.
We bought an off plan in Greenwich Millennium Village in London. Waited for 2.5 years before finally getting it. We made GBP100k from it. Not bad. Collected a positive cashflow of GBP3k per annum. But the project had many units held by investors. It was very dense. 20 mins walk from transportation. We had to rush for mortgage as we were given less than 3 months from warning to settlement. Our stressed level rose dramatically.
We bought two off plan in Australia. One was in Brisbane. Turned out to smaller than we expected. Living room was small. Backyard was small. It did not appeal to families and hence capital appreciation is likely to be slower. We bought it for AUD398k and there were a few units transacted at AUD445k. The agent, Gilbert, made things very tense in the end as we requested for an extension to the settlement date.
The second unit was in St Kilda, Australia. The developer was Goal Property Group. We were shocked that there weren't rubbish chutes on every level. We had to bring rubbish to the ground floor via one lift, and transfer to another lift to the basement. once in the basement, we had to walk through a dark alleyway to the rubbish bin.
http://www.goalpropertygroup.com.au
Remember this developer. I reckon the entire block was sold to foreign investors. Hence, the developer cut corners. The finishing was poor. When I wrote to the CEO, David Birner, his reply was terse. He claimed that the views were fantastic (true), finishing very high quality (absolute rubbish, flimsy shower doors, poor quality carpeting), abided by the standard of Port Philips, not City of Melbourne. Jalin, the agency that sold us the property and made an enquiry on our behalf. But I would not buy anything else from Jalin or Goal Property. They sell high density off plan properties that are held by investors.
Still, I believe we made money in this property. STK and another condo was sold for around AUD1000 - 1100 psf. We bought at 810 psf. Even if I take a 15% discount to the nearby properties, it will be around 900 psf. We will get around AUD750k. We have to be patient. Time will provide capital appreciation.
We bought an off plan in Greenwich Millennium Village in London. Waited for 2.5 years before finally getting it. We made GBP100k from it. Not bad. Collected a positive cashflow of GBP3k per annum. But the project had many units held by investors. It was very dense. 20 mins walk from transportation. We had to rush for mortgage as we were given less than 3 months from warning to settlement. Our stressed level rose dramatically.
We bought two off plan in Australia. One was in Brisbane. Turned out to smaller than we expected. Living room was small. Backyard was small. It did not appeal to families and hence capital appreciation is likely to be slower. We bought it for AUD398k and there were a few units transacted at AUD445k. The agent, Gilbert, made things very tense in the end as we requested for an extension to the settlement date.
The second unit was in St Kilda, Australia. The developer was Goal Property Group. We were shocked that there weren't rubbish chutes on every level. We had to bring rubbish to the ground floor via one lift, and transfer to another lift to the basement. once in the basement, we had to walk through a dark alleyway to the rubbish bin.
http://www.goalpropertygroup.com.au
Remember this developer. I reckon the entire block was sold to foreign investors. Hence, the developer cut corners. The finishing was poor. When I wrote to the CEO, David Birner, his reply was terse. He claimed that the views were fantastic (true), finishing very high quality (absolute rubbish, flimsy shower doors, poor quality carpeting), abided by the standard of Port Philips, not City of Melbourne. Jalin, the agency that sold us the property and made an enquiry on our behalf. But I would not buy anything else from Jalin or Goal Property. They sell high density off plan properties that are held by investors.
Still, I believe we made money in this property. STK and another condo was sold for around AUD1000 - 1100 psf. We bought at 810 psf. Even if I take a 15% discount to the nearby properties, it will be around 900 psf. We will get around AUD750k. We have to be patient. Time will provide capital appreciation.
