Housing Refurbishment Schemes
Are £1 home schemes a success?
Liverpool City Council launched its £1 home scheme as part of a pilot project but 18 months on nobody has so much as moved in…. yet in Stoke-on-Trent for example, a similar project has seen would-be homeowners rushing to grab a bargain property.
The homes were offered for the lightweight sum of £1 on the condition that the new home-owners pledged to refurbish the property throughout and remain living there for at least five years.
It doesn’t take much imagination to wonder what sort of state the properties may have been left in by previous tenants; couple this with the fact that any potential purchaser would likely be a complete novice and also unable to shell out for the expense of complete renovation.
An excellent idea in principle, and very useful to get people onto the property ladder and improve areas by way of self-regeneration at cost only to the homeowner – but this cost has proved to be prohibitive to the project.
The aforementioned project in Stoke however opted for a different strategy by way of offering a loan of upto £30,000 to the new homeowners for the needs of renovation and thus allowing skilled contractors to complete the works. At last count, 31 out of 34 of the homes are now occupied within Stoke’s scheme.
It must be considered then, that if Liverpool City Council were to repeat the scheme, or even relaunch it, it may be more prudent to follow the lead of other such projects offering a lending facility as to not daunt the potential homeowners in the first instance.
Although DIY projects excite a few positive souls, would a complete renovation allow such enthusiasm for the general target market as opposed to painting the odd kitchen wall, or installing a simple handrail? The caliber of property, and the size of it for that matter is unlikely to warrant any elaborate glass filled stainless steel staircase, indeed most are likely flats in high rise buildings, but costs can soon spiral, especially for the novice renovator.
Such schemes are often in requirement of a variety of skilled trades to refurbish or install new lighting, plastering, carpets, and balustrading; even down to simple decorating that some people are just not cut out for.
So are the projects a success? Mixed results really, but what else could you get for £1 nowadays?
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