- Report: #1054578
Complaint Review: Freshstart Living Empirical Property Group PF Advisors Ltd - Salford Nationwide
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Freshstart Living Empirical Property Group PF Advisors Ltd
2nd Floor Clifton, Wynne Avenue, Salford Salford, M27 8FF Nationwide, United Kingdom
Phone:
441617285283
Web:
www.freshstartliving.com
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Freshstart Living, Empirical Property Group, PF Advisors Ltd, Disastrous Property Investments Salford Nationwide
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Financial problems stack up for student pod investors
Student pods can turn out as poor investments – with returns and prices failing to stack up against other property investments, claims a leading developer.
Student pods are single room investments in private university halls.
The self-contained rooms are slammed as expensive and unlikely to perform as promised when developer incentives run out.
An added problem is the pods are difficult to sell.
Developer FreshStart Living sold student pods to investors but has pulled out of the market after hammering out a deal with 70 angry investors who wanted compensation for unpaid rents.
“The guarantees offered by developers are rarely sustainable,” Charlie Cunningham, the firm’s chief executive, told the Financial Times.
“Investors are often left with a useless property from which they will not only struggle to generate a reasonable income but they will also struggle to resell.”
Mr Cunningham called for tighter regulation of the market, noting “people investing in property are not that sophisticated”.
Mr Cunningham and other property experts accuse developers of taking advantage of financially naïve investors when selling student pods.
Investors to look at returns and are often in denial over the high prices they are paying, they claim.
Initial returns of 10% lure investors to pay at least £30,000 for a small room – and that price per square foot is often double that of a buy-to-let flat or terraced house nearby.
Some student pods are sold for £60,000 or more.
Developers quote yields and projections about student housing published by property consultants like Knight Frank, CBRE and Jones LaSalle.
Another student housing developer, Middle England Developments is pleading with investors for a 12-week rent break, blaming soaring tuition fees and fewer foreign students for vacancies.
The firm, run by director Nigel Russell, together with another company called Penlake, is under investigation for planning and housing act issues by Liverpool City Council that has sparked concerns for investors.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
ravegarden
Other,freshstart living, empirical property group, pf advisors ltd, fsl invest, fslinvest
#2Consumer Comment
Wed, July 31, 2013
A LONDON property developer is behind a bid to wind up Salford buy-to-let specialist FreshStart Living.
Roger Walters, chief executive of Supercity UK which operates three aparthotels in the capital, is chasing FreshStart over a £20,000 deposit he paid on 10 flats at a proposed FreshStart student scheme in Nottingham.
He says the scheme is now not going ahead and he wants his money back, but FreshStart insists the development is on track, although it has been delayed.
The company was planning to convert a 30,000 sq ft office building at the Victoria Shopping Centre into 157 student apartments in time for the 2012-13 academic year.
Mr Walters said: “They didn’t own the property and they never bought it so there was no chance of developing it so I asked for my money back, and they just don’t give it back, it’s incredible, they just don’t.”
Mr Walters issued a statutory demand, which gives a debtor 21 days to pay, and then issued a winding-up petition which was heard in London on Monday. The case was adjourned to give both sides time to submit evidence.
FreshStart’s chief executive Charlie Cunningham said it was “rubbish” that the Nottingham development had been abandoned. “We’ve exchanged contracts which makes us the beneficial owner and we’re going through the planning process to change it into student accommodation. It’s taken much longer than we hoped it would but there’s no question of the scheme not going ahead.”
He added: “He’s reserved six units and is contractually obliged to buy the units and complete. We’ve offered him a number of alternatives but that hasn’t come to anything.”
But Mr Walters told TheBusinessDesk he was not interested in other developments. He said: “I’m not going to let it go, I’m going to take it all the way. They’re not denying they have the money, they even offered to move it to another scheme. They’re not denying it, they just don’t want to give it back.”
A developer for 30 years, Mr Walters said he wanted to “let someone else do the developing” and has also put a deposit of £75,000 down on six flats at FreshStart’s Trafford Press scheme in Manchester which has not yet been completed.
as featured in businessdesk.com by James Graham
ravegarden
Other,freshstart living, empirical property group, pf advisors ltd
#3Consumer Comment
Wed, July 24, 2013
Notice Code: 2450
Petitions to Wind Up (Companies)
In the High Court of Justice (Chancery Division)
Companies Court No 4211 of 2013
In the Matter of FRESH START LIVING LIMITED
(Company Number 06816500)
and in the Matter of the Insolvency Act 1986
A Petition to wind up the above-named Company Registered No 06816500 of 2nd Floor, Oak Court, Clifton Business Park, Wynne Avenue, Swinton, Manchester M27 8FF, presented on 12 June 2013 by Roger Walters, of 55 Ennismore Gardens, London SW7 1AJ, claiming to be a Creditor of the Company, will be heard at The Royal Courts of Justice, 7 Rolls Building, Fetter Lane, London EC4A 1NL, on 29 July 2013, at 10.30 am(or as soon thereafter as the Petition can be heard).
Any person intending to appear on the hearing of the Petition (whether to support or oppose it) must give notice of intention to do so to the Petitioner or its Solicitor in accordance with Rule 4.16 by 1600 hours on 26 July 2013.
The Petitioner’s Solicitor is Brecher, 4th Floor, 64 North Row W1K 7LL. DX 42701 OXFORD CIRCUS NORTH. (Ref SR/W11-9.)
