Wreck needs a refurb
Sales reps are being recruited with the promise of 5% commission to sell these tasteful-looking flats, in the top picture, to investors here and abroad.
“An opportunity has opened up for agents to market low-risk, easy-sell apartments in the UK city of Liverpool,” reads the blurb on the website for overseas property professionals, www.opp.today.
“The new Eldon Grove development features one to three-bed apartments in a fully refurbished, Grade II listed building.”
But far from being fully refurbished, the second photo above shows what Eldon Grove in Liverpool’s Vauxhall district actually looks like.
Behind this project are JGLT Developments, the Eldonian Group and marketing company Aspen Woolf.
I put it to them that telling a prospective sales agent that the development is complete would mislead the agent and, if the agent repeats this claim, mislead potential buyers.
An initial response from Karl Gwynn, director of JGLT and Eldonian Group, stated that they’d been trading successfully for 10 years and added, rather oddly: “I feel there is a witch hunt here and I am being singled out for no reason.”
A later statement from their lawyers explained that buyers are made aware that the building will only be complete when sufficient investors are on board.
It added that the “fully refurbished” claim in opp.today came about as a result of Aspen Woolf trying to recruit sales reps.
The developers say they have asked Aspen Woolf “to amend this editorial to ensure that it is not misleading or ambiguous and to ensure it is clear that the investment opportunity at Eldon Grove is an off-plan opportunity.”
Aspen Woolf have not explained to me how the fully refurbished claim came to appear, but the developers said they’re grateful to me for bringing it to their attention.
Well, I’m here to help.