Guildford Town Centre: Apartments with a Cinema Lounge

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About this property

The development sits in the middle of Guildford, the county town of Surrey, about forty kilometres south west of London. The railway station is a seven minute walk away and trains reach London Waterloo in thirty three minutes, which puts the West End inside an hour door to door. The bus station is two minutes on foot and is being rebuilt inside the scheme itself with seventeen stands. For drivers the A3 runs past the town and Heathrow is a thirty five minute drive, Gatwick about forty. The town centre, its two hundred and fifty shops and the castle grounds are all within a five minute walk, and the River Wey path starts at the edge of the site. The scheme is a new quarter rather than a single building. Studios and one, two and three bedroom apartments sit above shops and workspaces, arranged around three public squares, a wellness garden and landscaped ground at podium and roof level. Residents share a gym, a cinema lounge, a co working space with a coffee bar and a concierge on duty around the clock. Homes are finished with fitted kitchens and integrated appliances, and most apartments have a balcony; the two and three bedroom homes usually have a second shower room alongside the main bathroom. Parking is sold separately and only with the larger apartments. Guildford is a working town rather than a commuter dormitory, and that is the investment argument. The University of Surrey brings more than fifteen thousand students, the local economy grew by roughly half over the last decade, and three quarters of the surrounding land is protected as green belt or conservation area, which keeps a hard limit on new supply. A nine hundred million pound regeneration programme is underway in the town centre and this scheme is part of it. Rents in the town have risen by close to forty percent over the last five years. Ownership is a 999 year lease with a peppercorn ground rent. Completion of the current phase is expected in the middle of 2029 and the purchase is staged: a reservation fee, ten percent within twenty one days of exchange, five percent at twelve months, five percent at eighteen months and the balance on completion. Two things to budget for honestly. The service charge is quoted per square foot and a parking space is a separate thirty five thousand pounds with its own annual charge. And a 2029 completion means the money is committed for a long time before anyone moves in.

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