Could this e made liveable for £30k

[Zoosie]

this
I’ve seen it from the outside.

The conservary is a very amateur job, looks like it’s aboutbto fall down.

I think it needs an extension to kitchen to make more use of space.

Estate agents have done the annoyin stretching of photosi it’s not as big in real life.

It was obv meant to be a 4 bed so I’ve no idea why they’ve stuck the awful conservatory on.

Location is fab though!

Is there hope within our budget?

"Liveable" implies that the place is a complete wreck and would need £30k spending on it before you'd be able to reasonably live there

It's threads like this which remind me that some posters on MN live in a completely different universe to the rest of us mere mortals.

You need to check for rising damp in bungalows and the exterior looks very old and like it might be damp. I don’t like it personally there must be nicer houses for that money especially since it’s in the countryside and the middle of nowhere lol. I wouldn’t even pay that asking price it’s a bungalow. I doubt spending 30,000 on it would increase the property value by even 5000 so keep looking.

Well it looks like it needs curtains! That kitchen is twice as big as mine, as is the third bedroom. I’d kill for a house that size but round here you’d be looking at £350-400k for that.

It looks ready to walk into to me!

Non "liveable" to me means chunks of plasterboard falling off the walls and bare electrical cables.

The house looks amazing to me.

As long as the house is in good structural order, roof, windows, no damp etc.
I would move in and do nothing for a while until I get a feel for the place.

Blimey, round here, developers would snap it up and there'd be a small estate on the plot within 3 months.

It’s in Northern Ireland which I know well and where all of the houses are cheaper than England and it’s in the middle of nowhere so not a huge amount of buyers looking in that area I suspect and it’s a bit ugly from the outside and it looks damp. My main concern is the property value would not increase even if you spent 50,000 it’s still a bungalow in the middle of nowhere with large commute times to Belfast and other cities.

You could probably buy the land and self build a larger nicer home for that exact same price or a lot less. Or invest the 30,000 on nicer home.

If the property was in England it would change everything but it isn’t

I would change the family room back into a bedroom then change the bedroom beside the kitchen into living area and knock that through to kitchen, do a small extension there and do bathroom at the same time. I think all that in itself would cost you £35k, we are renovating in the province at the moment and prices are sky high due to the resurgence of the Irish property market in general. All contractors are working flat out.

Eventually I would do as pp said and put French doors from master bedroom and build nice patio down that end.

I hate those windows with the top opening, you could get them replaced with regular pvc for £5k.

Sky high that’s nothing compared to house prices in England and it’s also the county side with long commute time and terrible traffic getting into Belfast. only certain buyers would be interested if you wanted to resell at some point even with any improvements made and brexit/border issues. I would keep looking

Razing the conservatory is pointless. Square footage is value, if you cut it you decrease the value. If you don’t like it just don’t use it. Unless it’s actually dysfunctional, leaking and would cost a lot to fix.

Zoosie have you taken a builder round to the house to discuss what you would like done, and to ask how much it would cost?

That would be far more beneficial to you than getting dozens of different non-professional opinions on here surely?

Builders don’t necessarily have experience of property development, paradoxically.

If you ask how much an extension would cost they will tell you, but they won’t tell you it might not add value to a house miles from Belfast with Brexit border nightmares looming. They won’t advise on the optimal redesign.

Garden v overgrown! Really? I am seeing some hedges and a well tended lawn. You hardly need to hack through acres of brambles and knee high meadow grass to get to the other side.

I think @margaretriver has some amazing ideas. I thought the same about the garage. It doesn’t seem, from the arial photos, there’s much room for a kitchen extension? And it seems you’ve already got quite a decent footprint. I’d turn the garage into living space, which would be far cheaper than an extension, and have a big kitchen diner type thing. There seems to be plenty of room for parking cars on the drive.

I’d also move the front door to the very end of the hallway, facing the entrance to the property. I like houses where the front door is visible on the front of the house, like a ‘face’. My own house has the front door at the side and I think the front of my house is ‘faceless’ because of that.

I’d definitely be able to live in that house as it is. It’s completely livable, just not your dream home, maybe.

Thanks for all the replies!

It's 5 mins from where I work, so v good location.

The photos look like they were taken years ago, the garden is in an awful state right now. The conservatory looks fine internally but the brickwork at the back is in poor condition and the drive does not look well fitted.

Like the idea of using the bedroom beside the kitchen as a dining area and knocking through,then maybe a small extension.

Maybe bring an estate agent with you from a different company when you go to view it and ask them realistically how much return you would get if you extended and if it would increase the property value.

do more than one viewing get the survey done and check for damp. Outer walls look a bit damp from the photos and that’s highly expensive to fix.

Sometimes forever homes for turn out to be forever homes and styles change so you could spend the 30,000 go to sell it in 10 years from now and it would still need a new kitchen, possible new floors again to fit current styles etc.

Looks fine to me. Cheap as hell, easy commute, what more do you want?

If you plan on living there long term and it's affordable I wouldn't be terribly concerned about value (within reason). If you plan on renovating it and selling in five years then obviously you need to make sure the figures add up. But if you think you'll stay there forever (and let's face it, in N Ireland people do have a tendency to find a house and live there long term) then it doesn't matter so much.

What a daft thread title.

Especially when you consider the near slum conditions some people actually have to live in.

I think it's a shame the family room and conservatory are not closer to the kitchen and living room but not sure I'd drop £££ trying to fix that if there are other things you want to change, like the kitchen.

the garden is in an awful state right now.

So those pictures aren't recent?

Losing a bedroom to extend the kitchen that will affect the value.

As I said I’d knock the kitchen utility and garage in, to form a large kitchen diner. You could also knock the living room in to that to form a huge kitchen diner sitting room.

the garden is in an awful state right now

But that is probably the easiest thing to fix, it would probably be a days work for a gardening company to cut everything back and neaten it up, then once it was back in a good state you maintain it yourself. Or you could do it yourself if you prefer. It certainly would not be on my radar let alone a deal breaker because it is such a non issue!

Honestly, don't worry about the garden, 52festive is absolutely right, you'll be amazed at what a day of the landscapers/tree surgeons coming in can achieve! for a few hundred quid.

tatiana she could take the room with the conservatory back as a bedroom, maybe a kids one and they could keep their toys in the conservatory. I agree that converting the garage ideal, but much more expensive!

It looks fine to me and is very cheap even for NI.

Kitchen is not at all poky! It's fine.

But I know that lots of people in NI like everything to be sparkly and new.

How many of you posting would pay that amount to life there unless like original poster said it’s 5mins from her work. Personally the commute any city and the damp and age of the property and buying before brexit/border is confrimered or not. I’d buy a new build with a smaller garden that needs nothing doing to it and will actually increase in value.

Seems a bargain compared to buying in England but not a bargain for how ancient the property is. Also need to factor in new boiler costs/cavity insulating as bungalows are cold and not desired by the mass market and harder to resell especially given its out in the countryside. If it’s a job for life and you are never going to need to relocate then still offer less than the asking price. If not look elsewhere as it already looks run down and any new kitchen/bathrooms will have to be replaced again in 10 years if she does decide to move so extra costs but not much projected equity gain.

If the bungalow was in Bangor then yes future resale options but it is just too far out and the traffic into Belfast from that direction is awful so most professionals would rule it out unless they had family there