Ripoff Report Needs Your Help!
X  |  CLOSE
Report: #1054108

Complaint Review: PF Advisors Ltd / Providence Value Property Fund, - Salford Select State/Province

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Admin — birmingham Other
  • Author Not Confirmed What's this?
  • Why?
  • PF Advisors Ltd / Providence Value Property Fund, 2nd Floor Clifton, Wynne Avenue, Salford Salford, Select State/Province United Kingdom

PF Advisors Ltd / Providence Value Property Fund, Freshstart Living, Disastrous Property Investments Salford Nationwide

*Consumer Comment: freshstart living, empirical property group, pf advisors ltd

*Consumer Comment: freshstart living, empirical property group, pf advisors ltd

Show customers why they should trust your business over your competitors...

Is this
Report about YOU
listed on other sites?
Those sites steal
Ripoff Report's
content.
We can get those
removed for you!
Find out more here.
How to fix
Ripoff Report
If your business is
willing to make a
commitment to
customer satisfaction
Click here now..

Student pod return pledges under fire

 

Student pods – the latest buy-to-let vogue, where investors buy a single room in a development – have been attacked for failing to deliver promised double-digit returns.

Attracted by guaranteed returns of up to 10 per cent and prices as low as £30,000 – substantially less than an equivalent buy-to-let property – investors have snapped up pods across the UK.

But because the properties are small, typically 12-13 square metres, the bite-sized asking prices belie high underlying property values. A £59,995 pod investment on the market in Canterbury, for example, costs more than twice the average for the city on a per square foot basis, according to Hometrack, a housing analytics company.

Student-accommodation blocks have performed strongly,
with annual returns of 9 per cent last year, according to estate agent Knight Frank. Rents have been buoyed by the growth of students from Asia, who typically prefer purpose-built housing.

The strong market has attracted sophisticated investors, including private equity funds and overseas institutions. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, the property group, transaction in the UK student accommodation market was close to £1.9bn last year, more than double the value in 2011.

But there are fears that some developers are using the buoyant market to sell inappropriate products to private investors.

Kavita Bachada, an employment lawyer, bought a pod in Liverpool for £42,000 in 2011, tempted by a 10 per cent yield guaranteed for 12 months. “There was nothing out there . . . that offered anything like these returns,” she said.

While the income flowed as expected for 18 months, it has since dried up. Middle England Developments, the developer, has now asked pod investors for a three-month “payment holiday”. It blamed a surge in vacancies caused by tuition fees, a clampdown on foreign students and a wave of development in the city.

One problem is that the eye-catching guaranteed yields are typically subsidised by the developer, so income from rents, and property resale value, may fall when the guarantee runs out.

Another developer, FreshStart Living, last month agreed a settlement to hand over a total of £131,000 in unpaid rent to 70 investors. It has since stopped selling pods to individual investors.

“The guarantees are rarely sustainable,” said Charlie Cunningham, its chief executive. “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”.

 

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 05/27/2013 07:46 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/pf-advisors-ltd-providence-value-property-fund/salford-select-stateprovince-m27-8ff/pf-advisors-ltd-providence-value-property-fund-freshstart-living-disastrous-property-1054108. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

Search for additional reports

If you would like to see more Rip-off Reports on this company/individual, search here:

Report & Rebuttal
Respond to this report!
What's this?
Also a victim?
What's this?
Repair Your Reputation!
What's this?

Updates & Rebuttals

REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
2Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#2 Consumer Comment

freshstart living, empirical property group, pf advisors ltd

AUTHOR: ravegarden - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, July 31, 2013

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

Respond to this report!
What's this?

#1 Consumer Comment

freshstart living, empirical property group, pf advisors ltd

AUTHOR: ravegarden - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, 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.)

Respond to this report!
What's this?
Featured Reports

Advertisers above have met our
strict standards for business conduct.

X
What do hackers,
questionable attorneys and
fake court orders have in common?
...Dishonest Reputation Management Investigates Reputation Repair
Free speech rights compromised

WATCH News
Segment Now