Liverpool City Council is selling a number of homes for the paltry price of £1.
Back in 2013, Liverpool City Council launched a ‘Homes For A Pound’ scheme, in which 20 run-down terraced houses were sold for £1 each.
Now it has expanded the scheme, dubbed ‘Homes For A Pound Plus’, and aims to sell off up to 150 empty properties at the same price, on the condition that buyers bring them up to decent standards and do not sell them for five years.
Webster Road, Liverpool | Source: Google Earth
Homes for a pound
The homes for sale in the current round of the scheme are two- and three-bedroom houses located near Toxteth Park Cemetery, including those on Garrick Street, Bird Street, Richardson Street and Webster Road. The homes are in various states of disrepair, with old wallpaper and broken tiles, while some have no bathrooms or kitchens. Some of the properties have been empty for at least a decade. The area has been described as a "ghost estate".
To qualify you need to have lived or worked in Liverpool, have a job and be first-time buyers.
The application stage drew interest from over 2,500 applicants, and Liverpool City Council says that everyone who applied should now have received an email explaining what happens next.
The Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, has made a pledge to build 5,000 new homes in the city, and a report from his office in March 2015 stated that so far 3,190 had been completed.
Richardson Street, Liverpool | Source: Google Earth
The report also says that 1,765 empty homes have already been brought back into use – smashing the original target of 1,000. The office has set a new target of 2,000.
This includes all empty homes that have now been re-occupied – those sold for £1 need a lot of work to bring up to a decent standard, and the new owners must do so as part of the conditions of sale. So this isn’t an opportunity to turn a quick profit.
People taking up the scheme were described as “pioneers” by Councillor Frank Hont, speaking to the Liverpool Echo.
“They are going into derelict properties and one woman we were talking to last week had done it up beautifully,” he said. “But it takes time before these areas become desirable places to live again.”
A free event aimed at owners of empty properties is being held today (13th October 2015) at Liverpool Town Hall, which will supply information on how to turn an empty home into an asset.
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Bird Street, Liverpool | Source: Google Earth
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