Birmingham: Canalside Apartments a Six Minute Walk From the New High Speed Station

Key details

About this property

The address is Pitt Street, B4, in Birmingham's Eastside, with 155 metres of canal frontage and four buildings arranged around elevated private courtyard gardens. The forthcoming high speed rail station is a six minute walk, which makes this the closest private residential development to it. The city's tram runs from Millennium Point nearby: nine minutes to Grand Central and New Street, thirteen to the western canal quarter and the central business district. Birmingham City University and Aston University are both on the doorstep, which is why the area is called the Learning Quarter. The two lists together hold a wide spread. One bedroom apartments run 44 to 62 square metres, 469 to 668 square feet, from 232,500 to 325,000 pounds. Two bedroom apartments run 63 to 107 square metres, 678 to 1,154 square feet, from 300,000 to 549,000. What moves the price inside each band is the outdoor space and the outlook: a sealed or Juliet balcony facing the suburban side is the bottom of the range, a three and a half square metre balcony facing the canal is the top. Rental estimates run 1,100 to 1,900 pounds a month. The residents' club runs to five thousand square feet and holds a twenty four hour concierge, a gym, a cinema room, a games room with pool tables, a business lounge and a reading and co-working area, with the elevated courtyard gardens outside it. Planned cafes, bars and restaurants, public art, interactive water features and an outdoor events area sit along the canal at ground level. The estimated service charge is 4.67 pounds per square foot a year, the ground rent is a peppercorn, and the build carries ten year building insurance. Two things separate this from a London listing. The first is the entry price: a one bedroom starts at 232,500 pounds and a two bedroom at 300,000, which is roughly what a parking space costs in Zone 2. The second is the tenure, a 250 year lease from August 2018 rather than the 999 years usual further south; 250 years is long enough that no lender blinks, but it is worth saying out loud rather than letting the buyer discover it. All four buildings are finished. Payment is a 5,000 pound booking fee, twenty per cent on exchange and eighty per cent on completion, so the deposit here is heavier than the ten per cent London norm. Yields on the list run 3.9 to 6.2 per cent and they track the balcony: the sealed and Juliet balcony homes are the cheap ones.

Features