The residential and commercial property market has many similarities, when one is doing well the other tends to be doing well also and visa versa. The economic problems we face mean there are plenty of residential and commercial property bargains out there. But, you must be prepared to do the work.
I found a property that I can afford. Its windows are boarded up, the paintwork is shabby and the number is painted on a piece of plywood and jammed over the door.
And though £15,000 for a two bedroom house may sound like a bargain, property hunters may question the sense in snapping up such an obvious ‘fixer-upper’.
Even the sales particulars don’t do the one-time family home any favours, describing it as ‘in need of comprehensive repair and renovation.’
The terraced property is being marketed in Burnley, Lancashire – the country’s value property capital – by estate agent John Dinsdale. And he admits they may even take less than the £15,000 asking price.
Dinsdale said the front wall of the house was unstable and needed rebuilding, while the inside needed a complete refurbishment. Adding, ‘It is a house in a very poor state of repair in a poor area. It has been broken into quite a few times. It will certainly need a lot of money spent on it to bring it up to scratch.’
Sited on Pritchard Street, in Rosehill, it is two miles from Angle Street, Daneshouse, the cheapest street in England and Wales, with homes costing an average of £32,400.
The not-so des res boasts a sitting room, kitchen, two bedrooms upstairs, a bathroom, a yard and even has some of its windows intact.
Much like last year’s cheapest street, Fernhill in Mountain Ash, Wales, Burnley used to be a centre for coal mining as well as cotton and wool manufacturing. But these traditional industries have been in decline for decades, with the last deep coal mine closing back in 1981. The closure of the Prestige Car Parts and Michelin factories around the turn of millennium, added to Burnley’s pain, as commercial employment growth took another substantial dive.
Looking specifically at Angle Street on the government’s crime map shows that there has been two cases of burglary, five of anti-social behaviour and two of violent crime in the last month.
So while prices for the area may look attractive, there are reasons to think twice about snapping up a home or commercial property on Angle Street.
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