The Preacherman Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Tenants shun Shard – leaving Europe's first vertical city up in the airLondon skyline's £1.5bn addition remains all but empty year on from opening, with flats designed to pull in super-rich unsold ...But despite the stunning design by the Italian architect Renzo Piano and glamorous marketing, almost a year after its opening the building remains practically a shell. Ten apartments, designed to pull in some of the richest people on the planet with price tags of £30m to £50m each, lie empty – still for sale just as the so-called ultra-prime London property market seems to be slowing. The five star Shangri-La hotel, which was originally scheduled to open last summer, has yet to welcome its first guest, while the Shard's 25-floor office complex currently has just one tenant, on the 14th floor – Duff & Phelps, an insolvency practice that few outside the business world have heard of. http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jan/24/tenants-shard-vertical-city-empty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Magnificent! A true folly! I want to light the top and then "stand well back"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozen_out Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 I thought the Chinese were snapping these types of properties up faster than they could be built... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debbiebegood Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 I thought the Chinese were snapping these types of properties up faster than they could be built... +1 Empty Shard is a clear evidence that rich Russians and Chinese are NOT the ones that are "snapping" up prime Central London, hence London prices go up due to the "trickle effect".As we all know that it is instead these: HTB,FTB,QE, other schemes behind closed doors to various parasite organisations which are not just banks,... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Who needs tenants......the iinvestment increases in value whilst staring at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
interestrateripoff Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 So a very nice tax loss for someone then? Perhaps they could fill the apartments with social housing, obviously keep the riff raff out just let them at social rates to nurses etc.... who can't afford to live in London. I'm sure you'd be able to offset the rental loss against tax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackgoose Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 The Quataris don't seem to mind losing money. They just want others to see them as rich - Manchester City is an example. That is what happens when you inherit billions of barrels of oil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddie_George Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 At £25 a pop, they just need 60 million visitors to the viewing area to break even. Every Briton must do their duty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 It's a monstrous glass turd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Basically a massive Islamic statement bearing over the London skyline, so I doubt the owners are bothered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moneyfornothing Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Its property, not manufacturing... So quick, bail them out...bail them out.. Think of the children.. Ohh the humanity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashmonitor Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Wanting North of the river prices for Southwark. The only advantage for the tenants is that they can pick up a £2.99 meal at the Wetherspoons around the corner, Pommelers Rest, as opposed to a £100 a head job at Le Gavroche; assuming they don't get mugged on the way home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 (edited) Wanting North of the river prices for Southwark. The only advantage for the tenants is that they can pick up a £2.99 meal at the Wetherspoons around the corner, Pommelers Rest, as opposed to a £100 a head job at Le Gavroche; assuming they don't get mugged on the way home. People forget these area's are quite impoverished, despite property costing 'millions.' And a friend of mine was telling me the other day that, in the parish of Southwark, about 350 pounds a year was given away in doles of bread by charitable people in connection with one of the churches. As a consequence of this charity, the competition for small houses and single-room tenements is so great that rents are considerably higher in the parish!~Winston Churchill Edited January 25, 2014 by aSecureTenant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goat Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Wanting North of the river prices for Southwark. The only advantage for the tenants is that they can pick up a £2.99 meal at the Wetherspoons around the corner, Pommelers Rest, as opposed to a £100 a head job at Le Gavroche; assuming they don't get mugged on the way home. Yep, delusional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Executive Sadman Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Why do people want to live in a tower block anyway. If it was a city with an amazing backdrop, like vancouver or hong kong, i could understand. But south east england isnt exactly pretty from high up. No snow capped mountain ranges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Basically a massive Islamic statement bearing over the London skyline, so I doubt the owners are bothered. It's hardly Islamic, although some of the funders might be! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozen_out Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 I've always thought it was the most obviously masonic building ever built. The all seeing eye sat on top of a pyramid, able to see across the whole of London. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigantic Purple Slug Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 People forget these area's are quite impoverished, despite property costing 'millions.' To be fair that was some time ago ! I think the main problem is if you have got 50 million to spunk on a flat you want to be where the action is. I dunno how long it takes to get across to it from the west end but I bet it is quite a long time, maybe 40 minutes or so. Maybe instead of a spike on top they should have built a helicopter landing pad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worzel Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 To be fair that was some time ago ! I think the main problem is if you have got 50 million to spunk on a flat you want to be where the action is. I dunno how long it takes to get across to it from the west end but I bet it is quite a long time, maybe 40 minutes or so. Maybe instead of a spike on top they should have built a helicopter landing pad. London bridge to green park on the tube is about 10 minutes, but if you spend £50m on a flat, you may want a limo, which would take 20 minutes minimum, possibly up to 40. Are the flats on rightmove? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARTINX9 Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 I've always thought it was the most obviously masonic building ever built. The all seeing eye sat on top of a pyramid, able to see across the whole of London. Who do you think runs the City of London? The poor developers still have to cough up for business rates even while its empty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeepLurker Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Anecdotally: I'm not at all surprised. I work approx 15 minutes away from it, when the sun is at the right angle you can see the light shining straight through some of the floors. They're completely empty, as in: zilch. Bare concrete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbeth79 Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Basically a massive Islamic statement bearing over the London skyline, so I doubt the owners are bothered. Yes, like muslims are stupid when it comes to investing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigantic Purple Slug Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 London bridge to green park on the tube is about 10 minutes, but if you spend £50m on a flat, you may want a limo, which would take 20 minutes minimum, possibly up to 40. Are the flats on rightmove? Not seen them. One thing that would be interesting would be a zipwire from the top floor. If you dropped 1m vertical for every three metres horizontal then that would give you a range of 900m. You could get across the river with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheBlueCat Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Am I the only one here old enough to remember Canary Wharf going up? I imagine this place will stand empty for a while, then maybe the owners will go bust or maybe someone will buy it for less than the construction cost then, finally, the rents will come down and it will fill up pretty quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecrashingisles Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Once I viewed a flat and it was a farce Soon turned out it was a shard of glass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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