It was my birthday over the weekend and apart from a few grey hairs, I’m pretty sure I haven’t changed that much over the year. Shame I can’t say the same for this 2 bedroom maisonette in Lincoln Way, Enfield, EN1.
It’s currently up for auction with Savills on 25th September with a guide price of £150,000. At first glance there’s nothing majorly concerning about the flat and structurally all seems fine (although I’d always recommend getting an expert opinion and a full survey), however as the catalogue puts it this flat is in need of ‘modernisation’.It really isn’t very pretty to look at.
Starting outside the gardens are overgrown, fence panels are missing and broken, and there’s a derelict shed with some ‘interesting’ electrical cabling.
Inside the flat has two small double bedrooms, good size lounge, kitchen and bathroom. The laminate flooring needs replacing, and the flat needs redecorating throughout including replacing the kitchen tiles which have been painted black and look very lumpy! Although there is part of me that loves the Avengers wall paper in the second bedroom.
There are missing cupboard doors and many of the seals on the windows have blown leaving condensation between the panes. The kitchen units have doors coming off the hinges and broken handles and overall the flat needs a very intensive clean.
The first reaction is that there’s a lot to be done and it’ll cost a lot of money but………. like my grey hair, this is all very cosmetic.
In August 2016 this flat was on the market with Trojans for £235,000 and looked like this, a much loved family home.
You can see that the past 12 months have been quite hard on this little flat but as I said it seems to be very cosmetic and so relatively easy to address..
Based on the Zoopla price estimate and recent activity in the area I could see this flat fetching around £250,000 in it’s current condition.
At that price and with a potential rent of around £1,200pcm this flat could provide a gross yield of just under 5%, which isn’t bad.
There’s also the future opportunity to extend into the loft which has been done by at least one neighbouring house.
However, it’s not that simple. One thing you should always check with a flat is the time left on the lease and this flat has just 45 years left to go!!
That’s a major issue and if that was the end of the story you could expect the price to be slashed, however the good news is that a Section 42 notice has been served on the landlord so the conversation about extending the lease has begun.
These are nice flats and while not in the best location in terms of transport or facilities, they are suitable both for small families and sharers, but I would look into the lease issue very carefully before thinking about bidding!
