New Ice Rink

Hiya, first post here. I was driving past this morning and i noticed that the final cladding is going up. Its the black and grey "snowflake" like cladding. It's on the end facing the watermark if anyone wants to go and have a look.

So fear not it is going to look something like the renders.

If the weather is good tomorrow i'll stop on my way home to try and get a pic.

Fantastic, be great to see some pics of that.

Welcome to the board.

As promised. Slightly ropey vantage point as i was double parked by Watermark but you will probably get the general idea...

Looks like a barcode version of the Cardiff City Lego Stadium!

Everybody loves Lego!

Popped past again this morning. Lots more cladding going on now. No photos as frankly the weather is bogging!

Popped past again this morning. Lots more cladding going on now. No photos as frankly the weather is bogging!

I haven't heard the word 'bogging' in ages ! Sums up this weather perfectly.

Today's rubbish picture update. More Cladding going on. There is more cladding on the back by the pool as well.

Looks like it will be the end of the year or early 2016 before the Ice Rink is open for business:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/cardiffs-olympic-standard-ice-arena-finally-8776340

Interesting what it says about the "houses not selling as fast as we had hoped" initially, but that they are now selling "much better".

Take a look here to see why:
http://www.cardiffpointe.co.uk/#!/plots

Prices have been slashed as I long expected they would:
- 1 bedroom apartments down from £189,000ish to £150,000
- 2 bedrooms are down from something like £289,000+ to £215,000+
Over £100k has come off the houses too.

I don't know what the developers were thinking with the original prices. Even the new ones are at the top end of the Cardiff market, and the plans seem to suggest sales are still a little slow.

You have to wonder about the economics of the whole deal.
- were prices initially so high because they just misunderstood the market and thought they could rake in huge profits?
- were they that high because of the cost of subsidising sports village amenities?
- are the economics of the sports village still sound at the new lower prices?
- what if prices have to be cut even further to spur demand?

You need to question both the developers and the council economic regeneration team's assessment and judgement here.

I went in to the show apartment, there didnt seem to be much left in the initial phases in terms of apartments, didnt really ask aboutt he houses but even then there didnt seem that many?