Would you buy this house?

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We have found a project we are interested in. We love the plot (country side, south facing) but the house is butt ugly and damp and needs loads of work.
We feel it's overpriced and has been on the market since August 16 and has dropped from £400k to £360k currently. Another bungalow less than 1.5 miles away sold in 6 days at £299k but the garden wasn't as big.
Would you consider it? What would you offer, subject to structural survey, with the long term goal of extending and possibly putting a second floor on? or knocking it down and starting again!
ugly bungalow

Offer what it is worth as a building plot. The building isn't worth that much if it needs demolishing. I would start again. If it has hung around and you know somewhere similar went for £299,000 then offer £325,000 maybe?

It is unlikely it will have the foundations for a second floor to be added. If the price stacked up a builder would have had it!!!

It doesn't NEED demolishing, but it needs lots of work to make it beautiful and it's a consideration as to whether it would be easier to demolish it!! I agree about the foundations - hence structural survey would be planned.

I would make a cheeky what it's worth to you, now, offer. It's a good plot and, from my observations, a good plot is always worth more than the building on it!

A good plot in a lovely street, at that!

Another knock it down vote! Would you be likely to get pp? Any neighbours done it?

Yes, all the houses around it have had extensions or alterations.

I agree it needs lots of work and bedrooms are not very easily accessible but via other rooms. However the garden is lovely and you seem to have a lot of privacy with the plot. Go in with a cheeky offer and see what happens!

The estate agent suggested we looked at what we'd need to spend and knock £5-10k off the asking price. We nearly laughed in his face!!! More like £60k!!!

Id go in low, and be prepared to walk away.

It looks incredibly cramped inside - no real hallways so all the rooms are off the lounge. It seems wedged into the plot with loads of space in front and behind but none at all round the sides.

Id offer as a piece of land. Then walk away and they can come to you if they change their mind.

Looks a good project! Footprint of property good size. Go for it! Agree...try a cheeky offer first....what've you got to loose

We bought a similar bungalow with the intention of adding a second floor, dug inspection pits and had it coonfirmed that foundations were fine to take a second floor. In reality, we ended up demolishing due to several reasons, original insulation rubbish, huge cracks/holes formed when the roof came off, it really wasn't worth "saving" what was left so took the whole thing down,meaning we now have a lovely warm house up to today's standards - on a very expensive building plot - we live and learn!

It's a lovely plot but essentially looks like two bedroomed bungalow with the garage converted to two more random bedrooms accessed off the living room or other bedroom, which is just weird and doesn't work.

I am not sure how you could change that layout.

fWIW, our friends bought something very similar and knocked the house down. It was a horrible bungalow with awful layout too. The plot was up for sale for a couple of years and didn't shift. They actually got about 150k of the original price. Their new house cost 250k to build but it is awesome and the whole lot is now worth more than they paid. BUT friend is a tradey and all work was done himself or mates rates.

I guess it boils down to how much cash you have and the end valuation.

Gauche du Croft!!
I love the driveway and garden. Unless you have a massive budget I'd be tempted to stick with the existing bungalow and try and pretty it up gradually, i.e. Knock two rooms together to make kitchen diner, convert loft, re-render and paint front, add porch, new windows etc- obviously over a few years as budget allows. Seems a shame and waste to scrap the whole thing, plus you'll need somewhere to live for months maybe years whilst the work is carried out.

IIRC you pay VAT on modifications like extensions but not on new build. That can make demolition look more attractive if an existing building needs a great deal of work to get how you want.

It would still need a big budget to get the house you (presumably) want though. Tot up the costs and see what you could get for the same money. Is this place worth it then?

Interesting. Do you know the local area? Just that there's a big university nearby that may affect the prices but may also be affected by Brexit (in case you are thinking of selling again at any point). Not that I have any advice, it's just factors to consider. Also that it is not too far from the London train route and i know people commute even from Birmingham which has had an impact on prices here. Might partly explain the optimistic pricing?

Agree with Cake that on working with what is there.

It's not that ugly. But it is a weird layout.
Could you add bedroom 1 to the kitchen and put in a loft conversion if you need four bedrooms?

That is a bungalow ripe for munching if ever I saw one! No point extending. Cheaper to knock down and rebuild because of VAT. You could get a rough idea of what the kind of house you would like would cost to build based on sqm and what it would be worth when built on that plot, and base what you are prepared to pay on that. As a pp had said, if it stacked up a builder would probably have done it.

Expensive either way. As a building plot even say you negotiated to £325,000 plus £180,000 build costs you'd be looking at half a million. Are houses worth that in the area?

Know the area very well. House next door sold for £1.7m last year but that's MASSIVE!!

It would be a long term project, 5-10 years with a view to staying there long term.
We're going to speak to the local council about planning as it's surrounded by Greenbelt and pretty close to the enormous house next door.