What it is: Bought in 1965 for £1,500, this three-bedroom, two-reception-room cottage set in three-quarters of an acre in rural Wiltshire has fallen into disrepair. “It’s like travelling back in time,” says the agent. “The first floor hasn’t been lived in for 10 to 20 years.”
The rather forlorn early 19th-century property has a tin roof and corrugated plastic windows, and the kitchen is simply a cupboard, an old wood-fired range, an outside tap and a bucket. There is a 1,000sq ft outbuilding used as a garage that could be converted into a games room or studio space.
The cottage is two miles from the village of East Knoyle, five from Shaftesbury and eight from the Waitrose in Gillingham. The property goes to auction on March 4 at the Pembroke Arms Hotel in Wilton, near Salisbury.
The problems: After tramping through the jungle of a garden, it’s a toss-up between refurbishing the cottage or knocking it down and starting again. You could renovate it as a weekend cottage for £60,000 to £80,000 or, to the more pioneering spirit, it presents a chance to build a new home in the country. Rebuild costs for a three-bed property of the same size are an estimated £160,000 to £200,000, but it may be possible (initial conversations with planners are positive) to extend the property to create a five-bedroom house. A planning consultant and an architect will cost from £1,000 to £4,000
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The advantages: “It is exceptionally rare to find such a dilapidated property in a remote location,” according to the agent. Three-quarters of inquiries to the Salisbury office of the selling agent are from buyers looking for a property that needs work — “somewhere where they can choose their own Farrow & Ball colours and Colefax and Fowler patterns”, says the agent, who has sent out more than 250 sets of details for Bramble Cottage.
He estimates that, once renovated, it should sell for £425,000-£480,000. A modern five-bed property could fetch £700,000.
Symonds & Sampson, 01722 336 944, www. symondsandsampson.co.uk