County Durham properties...........

[SimonTheSailor]

I recently watched a repeat of one of those properties programs and some guy bought a property for 20K at auction. It was a mid terraced 2 bedroom house, wasn't bad and needed a light refurb. The date of the program was 2012.

I thought as the program was a few years old I would check on the web as I thought prices might have gone up since. I don't know if I'm looking at the same location or not but theres lots of similar priced properties, admittedly most going to auction but some flats ard 17,500 to 20,000 pounds ?!

I know nothing of the area AT ALL, why so cheap ? Mass unemployment ? Occupied by drug lords ?

This one bed flat in Hartepool is 17,500K and has sea views (just) -

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...

I saw this flat advertised for 25K, looks quite nice with nicely kept gardens outside, even says its close to the Nissan plant so must be loads of people working nearby ?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...


I'm only interested as I could buy and rent it out, it would pay for itselfs in a few years. Have no intention of ever living there.

Anybody have any insights into the general area ?

[EireEng]

Put the postcode into Zoopla in the house prices tab, then go to local info. That'll let you put your best judgmental hat on and gauge the area by employment, hobbies, family makeup, and which newspapers are read...

[Uggers]

On my street the average for property is £64,000. You can buy a 2 bedroom flat for £30k and rent it out for £350 a month. Just depends after the rental you may not have much left of the flat to either sell or rent out again. You take your chances.

I've come across a lot of people wanting to get into the rental market around here. See the low purchase price and potential decent yields and see the £ signs. Unless you live close and can keep a very close eye on proceedings you can easily get burnt.

Edited by Uggers on Sunday 29th January 23:52

[tumble dryer]

The truth is, the North East is as cheap as chips compared to, well, just about everywhere.

It's also not nearly as bad an area to live in, as some would have you believe.

Up the budget (quite) a bit, say £400k, and you won't believe what's on offer.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...

...and a hundred others.

[paulwirral]

I'm from Durham , there's some great places in and around the area , but there's also some less desirable areas to say the least . The council once offered a street of houses in a village 15 mins outside Durham in an auction for basically free quite a few years ago and no one bid on them !
As pointed out , it's good for rental if your just looking to harvest the rent , you'll not get much capital growth at the lower end of the market , if any .

[beedj]

I originate from Hartlepool but no longer live there, however I still have 5 BTL flats there, all 1-bed, purchased for between £30-40k each, and each let for £360-£380 per month. Mine are in nicer areas and are more modern than the one you've linked you, which is in a relatively poor area. More generally it's a town in long term decline so don't expect any capital growth - probably some loss in fact - but yields are clearly very strong if you get the right tenants and few void periods, and it's a decent second income. Leasehold costs are low (c.£1k in total p.a. for five flats), relatively minimal other costs

Four of my tenants are on housing benefit - in general I've found these to be more reliable than employed tenants - local authority will pay direct to landlord if tenant requests it - which I encourage, obviously...
Three of the five tenants are relatively long term, dependable and generally low maintenance. I've found it takes me 3 or 4 tenants in each flat before I land one that is there forever-ish (maybe stuck there to be blunt) and "makes it their home". I also agree comment above about needing to keep an eye on the property, we've had a few tenants disappear over the years, and whenever something goes wrong it's never at a good time. I live about 30 mins away now which is still close enough to do most minor maintenance myself and deal with any emergencies (but far enough away to be in a very nice area :-) )
I'm not sure it would be worth the hassle for one or two flats - the workload doesn't seem to increase much for extra flats - three or four is probably critical mass, and the income is worthwhile.
i know a few people who have BTL street or estate houses - but they seem to incur two or three times as much maintenance one way or another as my flats do - and probably worse yields.

Long post! - hope it helps. Feel free to pm me if you want a chat

Edited by beedj on Wednesday 1st February 21:57

Edited by beedj on Wednesday 1st February 22:01

[beedj]

Ps. Don't rely on estate agents knowledge - Hartlepool isn't even in County Durham!

[paulrockliffe]

paulwirral said:

I'm from Durham , there's some great places in and around the area , but there's also some less desirable areas to say the least . The council once offered a street of houses in a village 15 mins outside Durham in an auction for basically free quite a few years ago and no one bid on them !
As pointed out , it's good for rental if your just looking to harvest the rent , you'll not get much capital growth at the lower end of the market , if any .

I'm sure would have been with strings attached and demolition costs on top. Do you have more details, I'm local too.

I live 10 minutes from the city in a really nice village and houses are still cheap here, not as cheap as the OP, but I'm surrounded by those sorts of places. The less-desirable places around me have lots of history and character and a really interesting places. Not without their problems, but if you're reasonably robust you can live very cheaply, all within reasonable commute to Nissan, Durham, Newcastle etc. If you have £400k+ you can live in the former mine owners mega houses that were later surrounded by cheap houses in areas badly affected by the closure of coal and steel, there's some stunning stuff all along my commute.

[paulwirral]

paulrockliffe said:

I'm sure would have been with strings attached and demolition costs on top. Do you have more details, I'm local too.

I live 10 minutes from the city in a really nice village and houses are still cheap here, not as cheap as the OP, but I'm surrounded by those sorts of places. The less-desirable places around me have lots of history and character and a really interesting places. Not without their problems, but if you're reasonably robust you can live very cheaply, all within reasonable commute to Nissan, Durham, Newcastle etc. If you have £400k+ you can live in the former mine owners mega houses that were later surrounded by cheap houses in areas badly affected by the closure of coal and steel, there's some stunning stuff all along my commute.

I know you are , you live a few doors down from my in laws ! I used to live in the street behind , I built the 2 storey second hand brick extension you can see from the bridge where you probably walk your dog ! And if you get there in ten mins you'll lose your licence soon , there's a few traffic cops live in the same village !
I know your not from the area but there's a lot of less desirable areas to the east of durham , the council offered these houses at thornley years ago , no one bid as they were a liability . 3 rivers association took a complete estate at sherburn road for a rumoured quid a house , it could be bks but I grew up along the road and I can't see why anyone would even consider taking them on if they were paid , the only interesting thing they have going is the crime element , I know the bad lads who live there , I went to school with most of them !
Your local bar owner and butcher was my best man , crin !
I'm not knocking anywhere around the area as I'm proud to be from there but as you say , it was all steel , coal and ship works , we moved away due to wife's work .

[paulrockliffe]

paulwirral said:

I know you are , you live a few doors down from my in laws ! I used to live in the street behind , I built the 2 storey second hand brick extension you can see from the bridge where you probably walk your dog ! And if you get there in ten mins you'll lose your licence soon , there's a few traffic cops live in the same village !
I know your not from the area but there's a lot of less desirable areas to the east of durham , the council offered these houses at thornley years ago , no one bid as they were a liability . 3 rivers association took a complete estate at sherburn road for a rumoured quid a house , it could be bks but I grew up along the road and I can't see why anyone would even consider taking them on if they were paid , the only interesting thing they have going is the crime element , I know the bad lads who live there , I went to school with most of them !
Your local bar owner and butcher was my best man , crin !
I'm not knocking anywhere around the area as I'm proud to be from there but as you say , it was all steel , coal and ship works , we moved away due to wife's work .

Ha ha, I forgot how close your inlaws are. I remember asking you ages ago about the paddock, I spoke to one of the neighbours about that after I noticed all the local maps show a road running through someones extension that took you to the paddock and got the background around how that happened. I suspect someone is in for a shock when that house comes up for sale with the changes to the law around adverse possession.

You're right, I don't know the East of Durham all that well, I very rarely even drive over that way.

[hedgefinder]

tumble dryer said:

The truth is, the North East is as cheap as chips compared to, well, just about everywhere.

It's also not nearly as bad an area to live in, as some would have you believe.

Up the budget (quite) a bit, say £400k, and you won't believe what's on offer.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...

...and a hundred others.

I remember laughing when my sister bought her first house down in London a number of years ago....
she told me it was in a really nice area
( which I later found was true in comparison to a lot of other areas of London!).
I took some stuff down to her new house and was shocked by the bins on the streets and the boarded up windows at one end .... I was later told this was to prevent squatters in empty properties - looked lovely I have to say...
Anyway, she wasnt too impressed when she told me the purchase price of the Victorian Terrace was almost 750k and I started to question how "good" an area it was at that price.
Later that afternoon I asked for directions to the local shops. I was then given directions and off I went, only 2 streets away.
I bumped into a young black guy coming out of one of the shops, I apologised even though it wasnt solely my fault and he hissed/clicked at me though his teeth and just looked at me, I started walking back to her house and at a junction I looked around and noticed the same guy following me and still looking at me.
I just ignored it and walked on.
When I returned to my sisters house and told her she was absolutely stting herself as to whether the guy had followed me back to her house.
She then went on to explain she lived in a nice area but 2 streets away wasnt a good area and I had probably been lucky that it wasnt later in the evening as I would likely have been stabbed..... which was nice......


Dont think I have EVER felt unsafe walking around ANY area in the North east, even at night and even on some of the supposedly roughest council estates...