City apartments worth £4m put in hands of receiver

Jul 3 2008 by Alex Turner, Liverpool Daily Post

He said: “The key is to ensure that we manage the Princes Dock property properly and ensure that the residents are happy.”

He confirmed there had already been interest in City Lofts’ port-folio, but insisted it was too early to formulate an exit strategy.

“We will work out a strategy first and then work out how we are going to market it,” he said.

Harrogate-based City Lofts was formed in 1996 by founding directors Stuart Wright, Tony Brooks and Ross Mansoori-Dara.

It floated on the Alternative Investment Market in December, 2003, before being taken back into private hands in January, 2007, after a 30% stake was purchased by JER Partners and Lehman Brothers.

In its last set of published accounts, to December, 2006, City Lofts recorded a pre-tax profit of £4.6m on a turnover of £67.2m.

It is a difficult time for develop-ers as the slowdown in property shows no signs of abating, and the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee unlikely to cut interest rates while inflation is rising.

Nationwide’s monthly survey of house prices showed prices fell for the eighth month in June. The val-ue of homes have fallen 7.3% since their peak in October last year.

Figures from the Bank of England point to more gloom ahead as mortgage approvals in May were 64% lower, at 42,000 new loans, than 12 months earlier.

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