old MOD houses - Sound of Kintyre

[Kevin Mc]

My first post on the site

When we were up in Campbeltown last week, we had a look at the Sound of Kintyre with a view to renting one of the houses next Summer as a "holiday cottage".

However, we had a look round a couple of the show homes whilst we were there, and were very impressed with what we saw. So much so that we are comtemplating moving up to Kintyre.

We saw something on the internet that suggested the development was two years old. One of the new build houses had a lot of moss in the guttering on the conservatory which would suggest the houses may be a couple of years old.

Is there any reason why the houses are taking so long to sell? I've no idea about the local house market, so don't know how long they take to sell, but they do look expensive compared to others in Campbeltown itself.

Is it because of the uncertainty over the proposed Golf Course?


Excellent site by the way - we have nothing like this where we live

[Dr Dog]

They're quite expensive for the area.

Might be worth making them an offer and see if they go for it.

[bakbjerg]

Hi Kevin,

we're a couple from Denmark with the same speculations. Just been to the SoundOfKintyre, and noticed there's a lot of properties for sale. Is there any reason for all those properties put on the market ?

The SoundOfKintyre staff told us about a coming timeshare project in connection with the new golf course. Does anyone know a little more about this ?

/Bakbjerg

[Kevin Mc]

Hi Kevin,

we're a couple from Denmark with the same speculations. Just been to the SoundOfKintyre, and noticed there's a lot of properties for sale. Is there any reason for all those properties put on the market ?

The SoundOfKintyre staff told us about a coming timeshare project in connection with the new golf course. Does anyone know a little more about this ?

/Bakbjerg

Kintyre84 said this on a thread I started about the local School:

I also stay at Sound of Kintyre and think its great It is near enough the town to be close to all amenities and is now beginning to feel like a communtiy. I live in a refurbished house not a new one, and feel the reason the new houses are slow at selling is most certainly the price. When the houses started selling they were extremely cheap - a two bedroomed house was £29.000!!! They were slow sellers from the start and locals seemed to thing they would never take off. However, people bought them as holiday homes and retirement homes and slowly but surely they filled up. The trend has changed over the last year or so and more and more families have moved in making it a nice place to live.
The new houses are a different kettle of fish. They were built from scratch and therefore targetting a new market. They are pricey compared to the refurbs and I am not sure who can and would buy them. Not for any other reason than cost. They are too pricey for the holiday home market and also for the average home buyer in Campbeltown - most salaries locally would struggle to afford them. I do feel they are ideal for people moving to the area as they are probably average price compared to most other places.
if you are considering moving here and working from home then I think you would love it. It is a beautiful place to live and great for kids in that its safe and secure. Well worth considerinig!

So it does sound like a lovely place to live.

On thinking about this for a few days, I think the reason some of the houses aren't selling is this:

As Kintyre84 said above, the new houses are very pricey for the local market, and too much for people looking to buy holiday homes to rent out. People who would be able to afford it would include people moving from more expensive areas with equity. Only problem is that there aren't many available jobs in Kintyre to support the mortgage needed to buy the houses.

They do really need to drop the prices.

One of the show-homes was up for £230k, though they'd dropped the price to £215k. As Dr Dog said, I'd probably ask for more off than that. Better for them to break even and have the cash in the bank than have an over-inflated house sitting there unsold.

There are a lot of things looking up for the area though. The Kintyre Way, the new Mountain Bike trails on Ben Gullion(sp), 2 Golf Courses, the new leisure centre, etc, etc.

These new facilities will hopefully attract more people into the area to holiday (pumping more money into Kintyre).

People from all over the UK (and Euopre it seems!) looking to move from crowded high cost property areas to the coast, are having to look further afield to get what they want. Some of these people will eventually find there way to Kintyre (if they've not started already!), pushing up prices in Kintyre as a whole. Apart from higher property prices, this will be good for the area. The new migrants will spend their money locally all helping the local economy.

The proposed Golf Course at the old air base would conspire with all the above to make the Sound of Kintyre even more attractive. Must admit I'd move up there with or without the golf course. I suspect if the Golf Course were a definate, the houses would sell - possibly at inflated prices.

I've read a lot on these forums about this proposed Golf Course. Going off memory (please correct me if I'm wrong ) I think the planning permission is there, though there are no concrete plans to start building. I believe they were considering re-vamping the Royal Hotel in the town to be the club house and a high quality hotel, to attract moneyed Golfers to the region. I think this is an excellent idea - they'd have the marina, a local airport and three 18 hole golf courses within close proximity. I don't think the Hotel thing is going to happen which I think is a mistake.

The saleswoman at the Sound of Kintyre development sounded far more positive about the Golf Course going ahead, though I suppose they have houses to sell! When we were there, they said the first person to complete a house purchase would get the promotional car (Vauxhall Corsa) as a bonus.

There aren't many jobs in the area, but with companies encouraging home working, more people may be able to move to the area without a local job. I hopefully fall into this category, as I can do almost all of my work from home.


Sorry for the waffle

[Bobbie En Tejas]

What are they thinking with house prices there. It would be interesting to find out the ratio of housing:wage. Seems like they are charging you in pounds and paying you in dollars. You might have a worker who makes £15,000 a year, and ours might make $30,000 (equal), but you pay £10 for an item, and we pay $10. Average household income in my area in 2005 was $50,000 a year, and the average house $131,000. You can't imaging what you could buy for half a million dollars, which is what they are charging you for those houses there. Granted, I'd rather be there, but seems so would your children, and if they are priced out, they won't be.

[Kevin Mc]

What are they thinking with house prices there. It would be interesting to find out the ratio of housing:wage. Seems like they are charging you in pounds and paying you in dollars. You might have a worker who makes £15,000 a year, and ours might make $30,000 (equal), but you pay £10 for an item, and we pay $10. Average household income in my area in 2005 was $50,000 a year, and the average house $131,000. You can't imaging what you could buy for half a million dollars, which is what they are charging you for those houses there. Granted, I'd rather be there, but seems so would your children, and if they are priced out, they won't be.

The average cost of a house here is £170,000, compared to £115,000 around Campbeltown. (source)

No idea what the average salary is but I'd guess at low 20's around here which puts the price of the average house at over 8 times average salary.

The house prices are hugely distorted when close to a good school. Last year we looked into moving 3 miles away to get into the catchment area of a good school, and we would have to pay over 50% more to get the same size house

The average priced house on the Sound of Kintyre is way above that £115k figure....

[Martin]

....

[Moyster]

Hi Kevin Mc,

Nice to hear that you are thinking about moving to the area. I am born and brought up in the area for the last 35yrs and am married with two young kids. You only really start appreciating the area, I feel, when you have kids. You speak to people and read stories about larger area and the concerns that have about safety etc, where here you have the community feel about it. Some people think it's claustrophobic but personally I would rather know my neighbour than not!

On the housing market -- I am involved in a business capacity with this and would like to give you a few "personal" pointers. Unfortunately the housing market is high at the present time because of various reasons =

1) Mortgage Rate Low
2) Confidence in the workplace
3) Lower unemployment
4) Supply and demand for houses
5) Local area going through an area planning review over the last few yrs which has stifled any major developments.

The area has generally always had lower house prices than other area because of the location but because of the above and other circumstances the prices over the last 3/4yrs have, in some cases, doubled. As for the SoK houses, my opinion is that they have pushed the price to high and trying to sell too many.

If I can offer any other info for you or anyone, please pm me.

Moyster

[Sheik Yir Erse]

Kevin,

I'm an ex-local and was interested in buying property back "home" for investment purposes. We looked at SoK however were put off mainly because we didn't feel there is not enough rental income in the Campbeltown area to cover the mortgage.

I'm sure if you put your haggling hat on and you should be able to negotiate a good deal. They're trying to give away a car, if you don't need a new car then get them to pick up your stamp duty, removal costs, etc. In my opinion you should be paying a less than £200K for one, as long as you're prepared to sit in there for a while then you'll make money.

If the golf course comes off, then you'll make alot more.

The other posters are right, the money was to be made 3-4 years ago when the refurbs came on the market at £29K. I have a friend who works for Defence Estates (which sold the properties) and believe me they were making a decent profit at £29K

Best thing to do is have a look on other web-sites to see what else you can get in the Campbeltown area for £200K. Maybe have a look on S1homes.com. (look in Argyll and Bute and tick Campbeltown, Machrihanish, Muasdale, Carradale) As has also been mentioned there is a shortage of high end properties in Campbeltown, and the really good houses don't really come on the market. Again you'll see this on these web sites, you'll see what is on offer away from SoK and then you can decide if it's worth the cash. People in Kintyre are prepared to pay top dollar for old established houses. If you want a new house then you buy a plot of land and build your own. There have probably been no speculative new houses built in Kintyre for probably 20 years plus - this again is a reason locals may be wary, the SoK development is far from common in this part of the world.

Finally it might be worth even picking up a refurb, 3 bedrooms etc for approx £80K. Have a settle into the area, rejoice at having comparatively NO mortgage, see if you like SoK, and then buy a new build further down the line. Alternatively you might want to buy somewhere else in the area after a while. You can't really lose much money on an £80K, 3 bedroom house!

All I can say is if you've got kids, or your interested in the outdoor life, then you're moving to God's country! You'll appreciate what Kintyre has to offer even more. But whatever you do - don't tell anyone else, we don't want it getting crowded

Hope this helps.

[Kevin Mc]

They must be making an obscene profit on some of the refurb's now if they were making a profit at £29k!

We're not bothered about the car, so we'd definately haggle. Asking for the removal costs and the stamp duty (and a further reduction in price) sounds good

We wouldn't be buying for an investment, so not massively bothered about the house values in the future.

We're probably going to be up in Campbeltown again in a couple of weeks. We'll have another look at the SoK houses, but also have a look at what else is available in the town.

As for getting a 3 bed townhouse for £80k ish. THat appeals to me as we'd have no mortgage. Only problem if the area picked up, the differential between the townhouses and the bigger houses would widen.

That reminds me - there seems to be a huge jump in price between the townhouses and the bigger houses.

The townhouses can be had for £80k (similar house would be £130k+ here), though the detached houses are all over £200k (similar price to here). If it followed the pattern down here, those Detached houses would be £122k.

Is this just the difference between the real market value and what the developers are trying to get?