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Property Opportunity?: The Manor House/London area


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I was near Kings Cross today. In fact I walked behind Kings Cross to the London Bioscience Incubator passing by a massive building site (behind the British Library) where the new Francis Crick Institutie (www.crick.ac.uk) is being built (a massive biotech building - 1250 scientists; £100m operating budget - opening in 2014). I was surprised that neighbouring streets are seriously run down and full of social housing. What particularly bemused me was a big sign outside a trade union building nearby which was very very anti Mrs Thatcher. In fact this set the tone for a lot of the neighbouring streets all the way to Mornington Crescent Tube station (I had never really cottoned on to it really existing as opposed to being just a figment of 'I'm Sorry I have a Clue').

 

Given the massive investment in and around Kings Cross / St Pancras, (350k sq ft of new offices / new Google Campus / the Francis Crick unit) I am thinking the whole of that area is about to go through massive gentrification.

 

In fact I wondered about popping into the Trade Union building I saw (think it was something like Dockers and Transport union or something) and offering to buy the building....just to see their reaction. I would have said I was thinking of building a Thatcher Institute there :-)

 

Seriously though I think Kings Cross / St Pancras by 2015 could be very interesting. However I do not have a lot of local knowledge.

 

I appreciate the area has a degree of 'heritage' - eg I recently saw a small apartment block on sale that was described as a 'private club' - the web site pictures included a pole; red decor and mirror ceilings in rooms which had rather gaudy beds. I passed this building today and it was very much a hive of renovation activity and clearly is being 'repositioned'. I suspect there are a number of such opportunities in the area.

A lot of this is in the price already. Valued a property in the area last summer and had to report a figure less than the foreign purchasers had paid for it, as it did not stack up. Foreign money being parked out of euro zone chasing up prices....

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These types of New Properties are exactly designed to catch the interest of foreign buyers,

who may know next to nothing of the surrounding area (and its reputation).

 

abbak.jpg

 

They may not be great investments, but over some years they can create nice "pockets" gentrifying an area- of all goes well.

 

(But all may not go well... and that is the risk)

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  • 1 month later...

Lots in the UK press over the last few days / weeks talking re housing bubble.

 

Am skeptical normally re believing / following newspaper headlines but this time I do wonder about the rapidity of the price rises.

Anyone got any thoughts?

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