Glasgow Airport car parking investment

I see there is an advertisement on this website for car park investment opportunities indicating an 11% return per annum. I am urging caution to anyone considering this as a good investment.
Although I have no experience with the agent advertising here I do have a single car parking space in one of six car parks around Glasgow Airport managed by a company called Park First. My space is one of thousands in the area where private investors purchase individual spaces, own title deeds, etc and then sub let the space to short term airport users via the managing company.
My own experience is that after 2 years I am selling my space back to the managing company at a loss. There are terms and conditions in legalese in the contract which are meaningless to the layman but are legally binding. What this amounts to is the buyer owns a space inside a car park which is controlled by the seller – basically the buyer is a tenant who sub lets the space back to the seller who manages the space on the buyer’s behalf (for a fee of course).
I wish I had done the due diligence thing and consulted a solicitor before purchasing, however the seller’s agent at that time gave the impression of being very plausible and genuine. I put 20k into it and am now extricating myself from it after 2 years and am looking at a loss, just how much remains to be seen. That is definitely not a good investment.
ALL I AM SAYING IS BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT GETTING TALKED INTO BUYING SOMETHING WHICH YOU MAY REGRET LATER, AS I DO.

You’re only seeing that advert because the intelligent ad servers know you have an interest in leasing airport car parking spaces. It’s a pretty niche advert so I’d be surprised if anyone else is being served the same.

Apart from me now as I’ve replied, (on other sites of course, no ads here for Mr Big P)

Ace. Sounds like a timeshare but with a shit weather and a shit view.

Are you not getting your original investment back, OP?

FCA takes action against unauthorised car park investment scheme

There are terms and conditions in legalese in the contract which are meaningless to the layman but are legally binding.

I wish I had done the due diligence thing and consulted a solicitor before purchasing

🙄

I put 20k into it

😯

I know a couple of people at work who have invested in these schemes, will be following closely.

So do you get paid only if someone uses your spot or is it just a percentage of the takings of the whole car park? Also do you get to park for free in your spot?

With things like this, I always ask myself if it’s such a brilliant return, why isn’t the company doing it themselves?

Fair comment about intelligent ad servers – I noticed this on my phone this morning, but didn’t see it on the computer when I checked the website later.

My intention while starting the thread was to make others aware that in my experience it was not so simple as the marketeers would have you believe.
The car parking space was marketed as “an innovative investment opportunity with guaranteed returns of 8% per annum the first two years with the expectation of increasing to 10% per annum the following four years and a guaranteed buyback option of at least the purchase price after a 6 year term”.Not to mention the “projected increase in value of the space”.
So the deal was to purchase the space, get yearly returns of the initial cost by having the managing company sub let the space to airport short term car park users, which involved management charges, but still provide a guaranteed 8% return per annum for the first two years (which they did). What I didn’t realise fully was a clause in the contract which allowed either party to “break the lease after 2 years”, which for me meant that if I chose to break the lease, the “guaranteed buyback” the company provided was to buy the space back after deducting the interest payments they had already paid. But what happened was in September I received a letter saying the managing company chose to break the lease, thereby not guaranteeing to pay the minimum 8% after the 2 year period, and I would only get paid based on usage of the space
By the way, the conveyancing involved in the initial purchase was provided by the seller so I incurred no cost, which with hindsight might have set off alarms, but my point is that it was so slickly marketed that it all seemed fine.

Then in December I received another letter from the managing company where they decided to amend the contract (or actually to create a new contract) “because of the involvement of the FCA”. I knew the investment was not covered by the FCA when I got into it, as many investments aren’t (e.g: loan notes, etc, which although not guaranteed are underwritten by the company’s assets), but this was a real curveball and made me finally seriously question my decision.

So the options then were 1) to continue the existing contract where I would not have a guaranteed annual income. 2) Take the buyback option where the managing company would repay the 20k minus the returns already paid £3.2k, but with a 2% interest payment £800, minus management charges (which effectively wipes out that 2%), or 3) create a new lifetime lease where they would guarantee 2% per annum for the next 170 odd years and never see the 20k again.

With these options I decided cut my losses. I think I stand to lose 1k roughly as I’m incurring solicitor’s fees for selling the space back to the management company.I’m definitely going to be out of pocket but won’t know the actual amount until everything is signed.The decision to bail was because I no longer trust the company I’m dealing with (Park First Group). If anyone puts money into something like this the managing company has the investor by the curlies as they can call all the shots, the so called “innovative investment opportunity” turned out to be a bag of $hit.

I’m not a happy bunny but what’s done is done. I started the thread to raise awareness of slick marketeers who are only in it for their commission, so please tell everyone you know about my experience and perhaps caution them about these kinds of “investments”. I am not a wealthy person, but I have worked all my life and now in my 50’s I could afford to put my hard earned cash into something which I thought was a good investment.

Turned out not to be the case!

[Are you not getting your original investment back, OP?]

I hope to get the initial cost back minus solicitor’s fees for the conveyancing. That seems to be the best case scenario. I had contacted the FCA and as your link states the FCA still doesn’t regulate these kinds of things but has the option to do so.

It remains to be seen how much of a hole is in the initial 20k. I don’t trust Park First at all and getting out seems the best choice out of three bad options.

With things like this, I always ask myself if it’s such a brilliant return, why isn’t the company doing it themselves?

Exactly this. I have a friend who invested in such a scheme and he suggested it to me. I have a financial advisor that deals with my pensions and investments, so I had a chat. He had heard of these schemes and basically said exactly what bencooper said above.

Bad luck OP. I’m sure there’s many like you. Just in future maybe consider that companies don’t offer returns above about 4% otherwise they’d not be sharing these amazing offers to the general public. If they needed the capital to fund a business like this then they can get it for about 4% from elsewhere and keep all profits for themeselves.

In the end my FA steered me to Octopus Choice – peer-to-peer lending to bricks and mortar investors. 4% return, but the company has ‘skin in the game’ (i.e. they invest their own money also, and any losses will come from their capital before it hits yours).

I hope to get the initial cost back minus solicitor’s fees for the conveyancing. That seems to be the best case scenario. I had contacted the FCA and as your link states the FCA still doesn’t regulate these kinds of things but has the option to do so.

It remains to be seen how much of a hole is in the initial 20k. I don’t trust Park First at all and getting out seems the best choice out of three bad options.

Too right. TBH my eyebrows are going up at the idea that Parking First would take a large chunk of management fee for a change which has been brought on by their incompetence. I would be surprised if that was enforceable given the fact that they have sold you an investment product which should be regulated but is not.

Still, the whole firm will probably go bang at some point, so I would be first in line to get my cash out and worry about anything else later.

Sorry to read you put money into a scheme like this. As others have said if you dont understand it and it offers specatacular returns i am afraid its a scam.

Some v good people on here would have given advice foc before you parted with your hard earned cash.

Could have been worse i know someone who lost loads more on a similar scam.

I remember when that scheme came out a few years back. There were all sorts of warnings at the time though if you looked. I too seen it and thought it looked like a great deal. 5mins on Google though was enough to confirm it was nothing much more than a scam.

To be honest I also did some googling before the purchase and although there were examples of Ponzi scheme type scams Park First seemed like a legit operation with an interest in providing honest returns. If I was confident in the company I could have opted for a 2% return on the 20k (basically for the 173 lifetime of the lease). However I no longer have faith in the company and suspect it won’t be around for anything like that long.
Also, the odds are stacked heavily in their favour being the managing company.
I don’t think it’s a total disaster but I will be a lot happier when I get my cash out of the business.
If anyone is looking for short term airport car parking Park First usually comes up as the cheapest option, so they do have a functioning business model which seems to work. It’s just the apparently sneaky way they go about dealing with investors that peed me off and as stated made me decide to cut my losses.
I’m glad I’ve made some people aware of the pitfalls of these types of investments and stress the need to take independent advice though I do know that some personal investment managers were recommending the scheme.
I will never put cash into anything like this, timeshares, etc in future. Once bitten, as the saying goes…
Pity I wasn’t a member of this forum 2 years ago. But I’d like to thank all respondents for their comments and hopefully you will all spread the word.
Cheers

Oh, I feel bad about my initial reply now. 🙁
That’s shit OP, you have my sympathies.

Hello jlln,

I am also a victim of this and have opted for the buyback option due to distrust of Park First. Perhaps you would be kind enough to exchange notes and update the latest scheming by the company.
You can contact me on tnrn91@gmail.com