How much would it cost to renovate this derelict house?

[Rounters]

Dh and I are making the move out of London.

I ideally would find a house that needs completely redoing. We gutted our current terraced house - new floors, wirings, new kitchen etc. The end result was stunning.

We are now looking to move further afield as we expand our family.

im very much on the look out for a house that needs work.

Just put of interest, how much would you say it would take to get this house to a good standard? Decent enough spec but nothing insane.

£150k? £200k?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/163318442#/?channel=RESBUY

This is not my house but something I would love to go for.

Just trying to get a feel for prices and figuring out if I’m living in fantasyland

Grade 2 listed, so anywhere between 300k and 500k.

To properly renovate that, especially considering it's grade 2 listed you'd need to at least triple that I think.

It is beautiful but also listed with a lot of land and pretty much derelict. I think you'd be lucky to have money left over from £500k, by the time you need listed building consent for the works and heritage materials. There looks like a fair amount of structural work which you'd need builders for, even if you can do wiring / decoration etc yourselves.

I also don't think you'd be able to live there while you did the work so you'd need to add rent for somewhere else.

Given its current condition and that it’s listed, I’d say you need half the value it was up for to renovate and that’s conservative and only for the house, no outbuildings, driveway etc. So £500k.

Okay so I am deluded!

I was thinking just the main house initially- no landscaping, driveway etc

How long is a piece of string?

It's absolutely impossible to say. It depends what needs doing, how much you can do yourself, whether it's listed, and where you are in the country. If you find an unlisted house with good bones and a good roof, then you'll be spending one HELL of a lot less than if it's got structural issues and dry rot, for example.

If you find a project then your best bet is to get a surveyor in to list everything that needs doing (bearing in mind they might not catch everything) and then look for rough quotes locally.

We're about to start one, the house is probably roughly the same size BUT it is in good order, unlisted, and livable. We could move in tomorrow if we wanted and we'd be just fine. But we want to rewire (it is old), replumb, and modernise and we think it's going to be ~£50k or so but we can do a lot of work ourselves.

The one you've posted is going to be a back-to-brick job from the looks of it, possibly with the roof redone.

All extremely valid points.

I guess I am hoping for a house that size in that part of the country.

good luck on your home. Would love to find a house that needs gutting (obviously if the numbers work).

How much did it cost in your last house?

I think 300k would be the conservative end

That’s a beautiful house. We doing a complete renovation at the moment but my OH has quit work so he can do a fair amount of project managing / coordinating different trades etc. Ours is in Sheffield and the house is a similar size to this one. It’s not listed though. We think we can do the renovation part (new roof, rewiring, new heating system, couple of new bathrooms, new kitchen, add internal insulation, sand / finish floors, decorate etc. for 120k. You could easily spend double that (or more) if you need to appoint a contractor to do everything and arrange it all for you though.

It’s a beautiful house in a good location. I’d say £500K at the very least, not including interior/exterior decor, outbuildings, garden, drive, etc. To do everything to a good standard I’d think you’d be looking at close to £1M

The inside doesn't match the outside. There ought to be at least one grand sitting room and those low ceilings don't look right. The beams are fake. I hate period houses that are so done up that they lose all character and charisma and I'm happy often to leave well alone if it's not actually offensive and work steady over number of years. However, that house is easily going cost upwards of £500 and would probably break your heart. Been there, done that.
Having said that, it's a lovely and special house and despite what I say above ,I'd still have been tempted.

Your £150k-£200k is a huge huge underestimate.

double

This isn’t it

Well it says it’s sold subject to contract.

But easily £500k and that’s a conservative guess as the pictures aren’t showing many of the rooms.

It is absolutely beautiful.

It will cost more than you want though, as it’s listed. It is cheap for something here given where it is.

Half a million in the current climate.

Spent about £100k on a three bedroom flat. Probably could have done it for £70k by making cheaper choices, but it’s our home so we chose what we wanted. We also gave minimal skill! We did some painting, but mostly the place needed plastered anyway so we got the decorators to do both.

I think you would be lucky to come in under 400k, but it’s a really satisfying thing to do! Hope you find something that suits your family!

and because it's listed, you may need to apply for LBC and use someone the LA lists for any repairs.

When I did a complete house reno a decade ago, my architect told me to assume £125 ex VAT per square foot for a reasonable but not luxe renovation (so no top of the range kitchen, or brass light switches everywhere etc). That was pretty accurate - both for my modern-ish house in London and for a friend’s Tudor/18th century farmhouse in the countryside.

Adjusted for inflation it would be £174+ VAT a square foot = £494k. That sounds a reasonable estimate to me to do a complete reno and make it liveable. But the sky’s the limit and if you want top of the range instagrammable fixtures and fittings it will be a lot more.

If you want one that properly needs gutting then for something of that size you'll need to have a renovation fund in the six figures.

The last one we went back to brick on (although no structural work involved) was a tiny two bed terrace near Leeds, and although we did the rip out, painting, tiling ourselves it still came to around £20k for plastering, plumbing, rewiring, new kitchen and one new, small bathroom.

Edited to add, this was 2024/2025 prices.

Oh my word it's beautiful.

It will cost a fortune to renovate! We had a listed cottage years ago that needed new windows and doors so there was permission to gain and they had to be exact so built and fitted by artisans.

This place needs everything and then there's the grounds.

Oh but I love it so!

It is gorgeous. I adore that dresser in the kitchen.

It's such a shame it's been left. From the looks of things it's a probate sale where the house has been empty for quite some time.

The best way to preserve a building is to keep it lived in and used.

500k and then the same again in contingency.

Upwards of half a million. Quite possibly quite a lot upwards.

We've just spent £100k on a single storey extension (and DH did a lot himself) so I think your £150k is massively, massively optimistic unfortunately!

With it being listed too I would say you'd be looking at more like £400-£500k at least😬