Stratford Central by Telford Homes, E15, Part 2

As expected, the project is selling very well, with lots of interest from overseas investors.  This was my first blog post on Stratford Central a couple of days ago. I read in another report that Telford Homes is already building at full capacity.

Anyway, we have purchased from Telford Homes before. Their after-sales customer service is very good. So, even if you find any defects with your unit, they will rectify it promptly.  (Yes, there were some defects in our units.)

I have received some questions from several readers and let me go through them here.

1.Location of Stratford
Question: Stratford is in Zone 3.  Why is the location good?

Answer:  This is a very good question.  All investors should stare carefully at the London map and read about the area called Stratford before committing to any such purchase.  Stratford is 10km north east of Charing Cross (Zone 1).   It is 13 minutes by DLR to Canary Wharf DLR station.

Here are the rail links from Stratford (taken from wiki):

2.Location of the Tower
Question: How far is the tower from the Tube station?  Is it really one minute?

Answer: From all that I can see, the tower is at most 3 minute walk from the station.  You can check this out from the Google Maps.  You can also see this from the computer generated image of Stratford Central below. (taken from Telford Home's website)

3.Views From The Tower
Question: Are there good views?  Will there be new towers to block the view?

Answer: The immediate area looks very low build, see the picture below.  While nobody can predict whether more tall buildings will be allowed in the area, we can be reasonably certain that this place will never become like what we see in Singapore, a super congested HDB estate.  Also, the area close to the Underground station is the Olympic Area as well as the Westfield Stratford Shopping Centre. I think all the facilities will be preserved (i.e. not high rise towers)

See the computer rendered picture below.  The top 4 floors are penthouses, yet unreleased.  I think they will have gorgeous views.  I'm sure the pricing for the penthouse units would be very aggressive.

4.Noise from Tracks  
Question: Will there be noise from the tracks?

Answer: The answer has to be yes.  The issue is how much.  I think the lower floors that directly face the track may get a bit noisy.  Perhaps you want to consider buying a higher floor, or a unit facing away from the tracks.

5.Taxes
Question: What is the UK tax on rental?  What other tax expenses?

Answer: 
Income Tax (Self Assessment) is 20% after allowable expenses.  Singaporeans are not eligible for the personal allowances.

Council taxes are borne by the tenant, if tenanted out.  Otherwise borne by landlord.

Service Charges (aka maintenance charges) - Borne by landlord.  Check with developer.  These can be quite high.

Ground Rent - Borne by Landlord. Again, check with the developer.  Usually about 300 to 500 pounds a year.

6.Lease of the Property
Question:  The lease is only 200 years.  Is that ok?

Answer: Perfectly fine. Our properties in London are 125 years to 250 years.  We plan to sell everything in the next 20 years, so even the 125 years lease place is ok.

7. Are You Buying Into Stratford Central? 
No, we are not.  We have invested a substantial sum in London prior to 2014.  As I have shared in other threads, the prices have gone up substantially.  So, we are staying out of this one.


Important Disclaimer - . The views contained in this blog and blog post are entirely mine. We cannot be made responsible for any investment decisions you may, or may not, take. Nothing in this blog can be construed as professional investment advice, as we are NOT professional investors and we are ill qualified to give you any advice.  Read the blog at YOUR own risk

Stratford Central by Telford Homes, Stratford E15

STRATFORD CENTRAL, a new 31-storey residential tower on Great Eastern Street, Stratford E15, is the latest destination for professionals looking to live in the vibrant district of Stratford.  This development will have 157 developments.  The first few floors (up to 5th) are affordable housing (built for the council).  The rest are for private sale.

Location, location & location
The location is fantastic, a one-minute walk to Stratford Central and opposite Westfield London Shopping centre, one of the largest shopping centres in Europe.

As far as proximity to major transport links are concerned, you can't get a better location than this very prime plot.  And, Stratford will get Crossrail in 2018!

Transport Links @ Stratford

Stratford is a large railway station in East London (Borough of Newham, Zone 3).  It is busy, and will get more busy once Crossrail is open.  The Underground Station served 50 million passengers in 2012 (ok, that was the year London hosted the Olympics).  We go back to 2010 and Stratford served 30 million.  That is a huge number, even by London's standards.  And that is just the Tube.  The DLR (yes DLR comes to Straford!) served about 7 million passengers a year and National Rail more than 25 million.  

Developer

The developer is Telford Homes, well-known UK builders which focus in London.  They have recently won two awards - "Medium Housebuilder of the Year" and "Best Design 2013".  We have bought from Telford Homes before.  Our Brickmakers apartments were developed by them.  See our blog post here. 

The development has a very attractive website.  Go check it out if you are interested.

Pricing - circa 600 - 700 psf
The development will be launched on 24th April 2014!

I have just sighted the price list.  This place is hot. Many units already have expressions of interest.  The pricing is circa 600psf.   A typical two-bed is going for GBP 550K+.    Definitely very aggressive pricing for Stratford.

Sales Agent - JLL 
We understand that Telford Homes have appointed JLL to be this project's sole marketing agent.  When I contacted Telford Homes directly, they have told me to direct all enquires to JLL.

We have bought through JLL before and the agent we worked with is

Suzanna Lee - <Suzanna.Lee@ap.jll.com>
HP: 96873413

Let me state upfront that we are not affiliated to JLL in any way.  Just stating the contact of an agent whom we have worked with and given us good service.  She is knowledgeable with regard to the London market. Of course, you can always approach any other JLL sales rep too.

Project Selling Well
As expected, the project is selling very well.  I received some questions from various readers and I have tried to answer them in this new blog post here.

Happy Investing!

Important Disclaimer - . The views contained in this blog and blog post are entirely mine. We cannot be made responsible for any investment decisions you may, or may not, take. Nothing in this blog can be construed as professional investment advice, as we are NOT professional investors and we are ill qualified to give you any advice.  Read the blog at YOUR own risk

Brickmakers Apartments (Telford Homes)

Telford Homes - Brickmakers Apartments 

How we ended purchasing this development from Telford Homes is quite an interesting story.  We were informed by a friend who saw Telford Home signboards near her purchase at a development nearby.  She had been on site to visit her then newly completed property.

We contacted the sales agent and received the price lists.  The prices looked reasonable - this was in mid 2012.  We did our usual to go on Google Maps to walk the streets as well as look at its general location. This is the approximate location - (51.511097, -0.064533)

Proximity to City of London
This development was very close to the City of London.  Furthermore, our Singaporean friend informed that she had little problems getting tenants for her unit. We (including family) ended up purchasing a total of 3 units - two one-bed apartments and one two-bed apartment for a total cost of under £800,000.  In total, the 3 units were about 1,800 sq feet.

Very Negative Experience with CityZEN
CityZEN was the sales agent of Telford Homes for this development.  They were also Telford's preferred Lettings Agent.  Unfortunately, our experience with them for the Lettings part was extremely negative.  We will blog about that separately, but be warned.

Walking down Cable Street
These photographs were taken during a visit to London, second half of 2013.  This was Royal Mint Street, walking from Tower Hill, towards the direction of Shadwell, after the IJM development.

The place does look a bit run-down, which was to be expected.  The overhead on the left of the picture are the tracks for the DLR.

There was even an Enterprise rent-a-car, with their cars parked behind the gates.

Cars for rent!

There the Royal Mint Street sign, particular blocked by the traffic light.

This was the junction of Cable Street and Leman Street.  While doing our research, we looked carefully at the prices of property on Leman Street.  They were really high.  Yet, prices along Cable street were much lower.

Arrived at the Brickmakers site, under construction. Brickmakers has East and West blocks.

Walking around to the back, managed to get this photo of the almost completed block.

Another angle of the block, from behind. (Swedenborg Gardens)  This block would complete earlier.

The other block still under construction, completing later.

I took a walk behind, this was Swedenborg Gardens.  It was rather pleasant.

Some more housing behind.

This photo shows the 2 Brickmakers blocks.  One reason why they can't sell for astronomical amounts is because there is council/social housing in between.

The view from the front again.  It is true that the block looks to be stuck in between social housing.  Some have said that the social housing will never go away, therefore the upside of the value of the apartments would be limited.  That may be true, however, given the price and the location we decided it was worth the investment.

After viewing the buildings from the outside, it was time to walk onwards to Shadwell DLR. It was a very pleasant walk, less than 5 minutes.  This was the entrance to Shadwell DLR.

Look - bicycles for rent!  This was Cable Street.

A useful map.

I noticed the Barclays advertisement.  Not sure how many people actually rented these bicycles.

Thanks for viewing!!

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