Number 12 Limetrees Close in Middlesbrough was to have a starting bid of £1,000.
By Nigel Burnham
With the U.K. economy in the middle of a worsening double-dip recession, the housing market across the pond is in free-fall. British estate agents must be more imaginative in their desperation to sell.
At the bottom end of the market, this is producing some incredible bargains for home-hunters – albeit in run-down, crime-ridden areas – with agents falling over themselves to advertise “Britain’s cheapest house” and many houses selling for considerably less than a London garage would attract.
The house in Stoke was being sold for just £1.
In Stoke, Staffordshire, for example, you could buy a house on Bond Street for just £1. It’s likely to be run-down, if not derelict, and being sold for a nominal fee in a bid to reinvigorate the area.
With thousands of empty buildings in the city, living standards are at rock bottom and crime rates are up – and a £30-million scheme funded by the Stoke-on-Trent Council and the government hopes to get things moving. The only catch is that the owner must renovate the house and live there five years before it can be sold.
Stoke-on-Trent councillor Janine Bridges, cabinet member for housing, neighbourhoods and community safety, says: “This is a daring and innovative scheme which we are developing to bring empty properties back into use and improve the living standards of homes within Stoke-on-Trent. We are keen to make Stoke a great place to live, work and visit.
“The scheme means that the council will sell empty properties acquired with a Housing Market Renewal Grant for a nominal fee and provide new homeowners with a loan of up to £30,000 to implement a series of improvement works that the council deems necessary to bring the property back to a decent home standard.”
If things in Stoke are bad, the situation is not much better in many other U.K. property black spots.
On Teesside, Northeast England, homes are on sale for less than £1,000.
A house to be auctioned in Middlesbrough shortly could become Britain’s cheapest ever with a starting price of just £750. Number 12 Limetrees Close in the Port Clarence district of the town is a three-bedroom semi-detached home with a lounge, entrance hall, family bathroom and a front and rear garden. Although situated in a troubled area, it is being described by agents as an “ideal investment”.
Number 42, on the same street, also a three-bedroom property, is being sold with a starting price of £1,000. With no reserve on either, the estate agents will entertain the idea of a “buy one get one free” offer.
Agent Richard Watson says: “We are looking for a quick sale at auction on these two three-bedroom properties. We are still in talks with the auctioneer and the owner about making them a job lot, buy one get one free, but at the moment we are hoping that when they go up for sale bidders will bring the owner a decent price.
“Number 12 is needing a bit of work so the price reflects that, but the other house could take a tenant almost straight away.”
Britain’s largest property website, www.rightmove.co.uk , which lists 90 per cent of the nation’s houses for sale, is convinced this must be the cheapest house in the U.K.
This house in Ferryhill attracted only one bid, for £501
Earlier this year, another worn-out end-of-terrace house claiming to be Britain’s cheapest home went on the market in the former mining village of Ferryhill, Co Durham.
The two-bedroom terrace, needing a “desperate” makeover, attracted only one bid of £501 online but eventually sold for £8,250 by traditional auction in a crowded hotel lounge in Sedgefield, the constituency of the former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Jamie Cook, director of iam-sold, which managed the sale, says: “We have sold this property for the lowest amount I can remember. It could be a lovely family home for a first-time buyer, but it needs a lot of work and the price reflected that.
“As far as I am aware it is the cheapest house in Britain. We had predicted that it would sell for between £6,000 and £12,000. So in the end it went for around what we thought it would.
“The vendor is very happy with the sale. The house was a bargain and attracted a lot of bids. A wide range of people attended from many different walks of life. There were young first-time buyers as well as property owners planning for their next home.”
This house in Tonypandy, Wales, had a guide price of £4,000.
In Wales, yet another house advertised as “the cheapest in the U.K.” – a terraced house in Tonypandy with a guide price of £4,000 – sold at auction for £16,500 in August.
One local estate agent estimated the buyers would need to spend around £20,000 to bring it up to date, but said that the house, which is currently unmortgageable, could eventually be worth between £55,000 and £75,000.
The traditional “two-up, two-down” property has two reception rooms, a kitchen, two bedrooms upstairs, a forecourt and an enclosed rear garden.
Auctioneer Paul Fosh said it was the cheapest house he had sold for many years but thought it could be a shrewd investment.
“The property, dubbed the cheapest house in the U.K., created a huge amount of interest throughout the country,” he says. “Many thousands of pounds will need to be invested in the renovation of the property but the new owner could still stand to make a profit if he subsequently decides to sell, having bought at such a keen price.”
To put all this in perspective, in central London, the top price for garages (for parking cars rather than repairing them) has now reached £300,000.
