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any thoughts on garages/lock ups?
A couple of anecdotes rather than anything really useful....
... but knew someone who back in the day wanted to buy property in Paris, but didn't have the money. So instead slowly bought garages and parking units. It's now a massive portfolio with a good yield and nuts capital growth. Someone else I know of bought loads of run down workshops and small factory buildings in a now trendy bit of London which ended up being developed for flats. They obviously did well too.
In London the key for me would be the mechanics of the surrounding bits and ownership.
Do you buy the garage and lease the land?
What happens if the land is bought / sold for development?
What is the access like? Can someone fuck you to make your plot = £0 to force you to sell to them? Etc.
A lot of the new builds near Highbury that had car parking sold the spots to the first owners. From my searches when I was renting in FP a lot of those people were clearly then renting the parking spots. So I think you have good potential for yield.
First thoughts for places to look would be areas that are on the up/have come up but where the inhabitants might not yet be at the level of wanting somewhere safe to park their vintage Porsche.
With any luck in 15yrs time you'll have a re-run of that crazy Notting Hill garage story.
Also you never know, but there may be a shot at developing them into residential somewhere down the line.
hugo7-
Many a garage is in peoples portfolios. Big commercial LL's like Gerald Ronson (heron tower owner) started out on portfolios like that.
Regarding your question on getting done over if your garage is one of a number on a potential development plot it can not happen. The developer has to strike a deal with all the owners. Only time this is not the case is when it is compulsory purchased and you get market value of the asset.
if its a long lease versus owning freehold check the number of years on the lease.
FourGreenFields
Investing in property... I know flats/houses etc should be a good investment but any thoughts on garages/lock ups?
I assume they wouldn't rise in value by the same amount as property you can actually live in, but provided surrounding property prices rise you'd hope the non-residential property prices would follow. Plus being a landlord of something where there is nothing to break sounds a lot easier than having to deal with boiler issues, burst pipes etc etc.
Anyone with any experience/thoughts?