prince albert apartments

[causecelebre]

hi all

first off i'd like to say hi. new to the forums and lots of good info here.

i'm new to auckland and looking to invest in the city.

some questions:

whats the general consensus on the prince albert apartments, auckland? is it a good quality building? does it have a good reputation? is the area considered a good part of town to live? any well known issues with the building?

thanks in advance

[eri]

i think they are a 1980's conversion of a 1920's building...

that means they are probably not up to current earthquake requirements

the big questions are

- what percentage of current code are they?

- how much will it cost to find this out?

- what percentage do they need to be?

- how much cost would it cost to strengthen?

- how much is current insurance?

- how much is future insurance likely to be?

- how much of the above can be answered by visiting the council offices or by buying a copy of the building file and paying an experienced architect to try and answer them for you

most people are not looking at places like this as investments as there are just too many questions

if you are looking to buy and live in, these places may end up being bargains considering their excellent positions

investors are generally steering clear of them as they may NEVER be profitable, at least in our life times

[causecelebre]

Thanks Eri

They are good questions to ask. I'm new to apartment buying and we are initially looking at owner-occupy. Do all apartment buildings need to comply to the new earthquake spec?

[jimO]

Thanks Eri

They are good questions to ask. I'm new to apartment buying and we are initially looking at owner-occupy. Do all apartment buildings need to comply to the new earthquake spec?

not untill it falls down in a earthquake

[SlyAnimal]

I don't know much about those apartments themselves, but if I am thinking of the right ones, they are quite nice apartments, with a view of some square/church, but also quite expensive. I also remember that the hallways were quite dark and oppressive feeling, but that was maybe 5+ years ago, so might be different.

Your best bet, is to read through the last 2 years Body Corporate minutes, that should tell you most of what you need to know about what the building has been doing etc. The body corporate should be looking into issues like earthquake strengthening etc if it's needed, and will likely have a good idea of the costs listed in the minutes. You can also review their accounts, and see how much money is in their long term maintenance fund, as if something unexpected comes up, they have these resources to use rather than just a special levy from the owners (The building managers usually can provide you with this information as well, and sometimes more recent information too, if the last BC meeting was quite some time ago).

The real estate agent will also give you a Pre Contract Disclosure statement, which is usually prepared by the body corporate which will tell you the rates + bc fees, and whether the building was ever subject to a leaky homes claim (If so, you need to do more research)

From there you just need to crunch the numbers, and from looking at the apartments, decide if you would enjoy living there or not.

Personally for myself, I've found that any apartments in "historic" buildings are usually unnecessarily expensive, as the BC costs are higher because of the need for repairs/maintenance/strengthening. But then I also don't like apartments with gyms/pools etc (Prince Albert doesn't have either though I think), since that usually also bumps up the BC costs quite considerably, but each to their own.

[causecelebre]

great info all, thanks. very helpful

[eri]

basically newer buildings SHOULD be better as far as quakes go than old

i say SHOULD because they should also leak less, and that isn't always the case....

but the buildings to be VERY careful of are the ones built in the 1920's or earlier

they are often unreinforced masonry, meaning heavy blocks that are stacked with only mortar holding them together

from the 30's? onwards i think some level of steel was required to hold the blocks together in a long slow shake

i would be all over these old places myself if it wasn't for their "issues"

http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-for-sale/auction-543841670.htm

http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-for-sale/auction-517883432.htm

a typical "issue" is when during the conversion they stick a few extra floors on the top

like the CTV building in chch just because it was done only 30 years ago doesn't mean it was done right...

so you need correctly experienced professionals to go over the drawings and building before you start talking numbers with agents

since chch, LOTS of these heritage building apartments seem to have hit the market at seemingly reasonable prices

why do the owners suddenly seem so keen to get rid of them ???

http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-for-sale/auction-565883483.htm

http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-for-sale/auction-561198577.htm

[SwissKiwi]

Ask them why the building is named after an unusual body piercing.

[absoluteproperty]

hi all

first off i'd like to say hi. new to the forums and lots of good info here.

i'm new to auckland and looking to invest in the city.

some questions:

whats the general consensus on the prince albert apartments, auckland? is it a good quality building? does it have a good reputation? is the area considered a good part of town to live? any well known issues with the building?

thanks in advance

I lived in the immediate vacinity for 5 years until 2 years ago.

check the foundations, and read the body corporate rules on why scaffolds were erected around the building for about 2 years until mid 2010 if I recall.. great location, but the building had issues, and has a higer than normal chace of in the future. maybe good to occupy, but you may not get back what yiu pay for it.

[eri]

and 6 months later

albert turns to custard

The Prince Albert Apartments at 41 Albert St was evacuated by Auckland Council staff within an hour of engineers finding significant cracking in foundation columns.
............................
The building was built in the early 1900s and was converted to apartments in 1995

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=10906345

so it seems that even in 1995 when the conversion was done

the engineers and architects were unable to correctly work out how strong the old foundations were

and how long they would last

imho

this puts a huge ? over

guardian, 4 seasons and all the other old 1920's conversions

council will probably now be making plans to require all the old buildings in auckland to pull the covers off their old columns for

hammer, ultra-sound?, x-ray? inspections

at owners cost of course

oh

and pull down the old st.james theatre

as no one can afford to make it safe