What's the current status of Princes Wharf apartments?

[mabmarabnis]

Having returned to New Zealand we'd like to buy a small 1 bedroom 'crash pad' in Auckland (we live in the country), near the central waterfront. We're not looking to rent this out, only to use it ourselves. We do not consider this primarily an investment property - it's really mainly to make use of and enjoy.

We've looked at Princes Wharf and are away of the problems back in 2009-2010 and were wondering what the current status of apartments there is. Alternatively, what other properties would you recommend in downtown Auckland?

Thanks for any advice you may have for a newbie

[eri]

drop in to council

call their weather-tight section from the front desk

give them the address of the building you are asking about

and ask if it has a current code of compliance and building warrant

get at least 3 years of the BC minutes from a REA

read through them

and ask the agent specific weather-tight questions via email

but even after all that i wouldn't touch anything that was leasehold....

the current status of apartments here seems to be

that they cost >$6000/m2 to replace

they are a little hard to sell this winter

but sellers are in no hurry to drop their prices

[elguapo]

Why would you buy in Princes Wharf? It's leasehold, so all your buying are all the potential problems will a building built over seawater!

[mabmarabnis]

Why would you buy in Princes Wharf? It's leasehold, so all your buying are all the potential problems will a building built over seawater!

Wouldn't that be the same for a freehold?
We're not at all set on Princes Wharf... Just want to be somewhere near the ocean.

[elguapo]

Wouldn't that be the same for a freehold?
We're not at all set on Princes Wharf... Just want to be somewhere near the ocean.

Nope, you'd have the freehold too! At the moment you will be paying BC, ground rent and then all the extra costs associated with being on the sea, if you wanted to live there you'd be a lot better off renting.

[eri]

Apartment owners in one of six Princes Wharf blocks are about to be hit by a 157 per cent ground-rent hike from this weekend, galvanising them to form a group to fight what they call an "outrageous" rise.

The wharf has six sheds and about 300 apartments, all on leasehold titles so all subject to rent review, but from Saturday 53 homeowners in Shed 22 face paying a massive rise in fees and people in other sheds will also have to pay more too.

Shed 19 and Shed 23 have also had reviews.

Apartment owner Kristina Anderson, now paying $8015.04 a year, faces an annual $20,572.99 bill from Saturday

...............

"Not only do we as lessees face an extremely excessive rental increase but also a considerable drop in the value of our apartments as a result ... "

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=11360060

[BlueSky]

Oh the good old days..where have all the above members gone ?

One has come up for sale $269K , how much were they asking for back then ?