why is this house 'only' 225k?

[spacepyramid]

www.onthemarket.com/details/7679659/

Am I missing something that's awful about the area?

Like these?

I prefer the before too.
The area isn't one I'd want to live in. I think the Stoke area is somewhere you need to have been born and bred in. Not dissing it though.

Can’t think why anyone would prefer the before it’s utterly hideous, the after is not my style but it’s an impressive transformation but incongruous with the area, a row of terraced houses and a country cottage tacked on the end, all a bit bizarre.

I’d prefer the house before renovation

1. because this new one isn’t my style
2. the original plot was twice the size!
3. it had parking
4. I’d be certain the current owner has permission to build a detached house on what was the old plot. So you’d have 8? months of building works 900mm from your house as soon as you complete.

I think it’s overpriced, the other 3 beds with no parking whilst not as done up are 100-150k. I wouldn’t like to guess it’s value but I can see larger detached houses with larger plots and parking in pretty good condition for the same price as the asking price of this one.

Amazingly cheap houses! The smallest flats around me are seldom under 200k.

I know the area. I would keep looking. As previous poster mentioned Nantwich is nicer or even Alsager.

Wasn't this the same house that was shown a few weeks ago on Location, Location, Location- a what happened after we left segment? It looks very familiar.

Slightly off topic, but I don't understand why someone would plan such a thorough, clearly expensive refurb that it very particular, style wise, unless the owners were planning to live there long term. Do they think their taste in style is definitive? I really dislike it and would have to look hard to look beyond it to the potential of the house.

I prefer the before because it has a garage, and it has potential. The heavily stylised after is not to my taste and every scrap of space has been used. I don't like open plan or bifold doors and am not keen on all the grey or the orangey wood.
The front of the house is not in keeping with the rest of the terrace or the houses in the area. It does not have kerb appeal for me.

Alsager is nicer, I agree.

Alsager is nice, parts of Crewe are nice. Nantwich is obviously lovely but very expensive - if you want more for your money, look elsewhere.

Hahahaha Old butt lane, Butt lane !

my hubby always looks at the pictures of houses like this and says "nope - cost too much to de-grey it" - saw a pp use the de-grey term, made me giggle.

I would definitely be looking further out. The villages to the east are nice but N-u-L is quite industrial. Talke isn't very nice. It is old coal-mining territory.

Ceiling price for the area - over developed for the area and people are not prepared to pay more than X amount to live in that area.

Dunno but at that price I'm considering moving to stoke!

Houses in the area are low for a reason @MurrayTheMonk

Yes but I work in social care so can this work anywhere and I'm lived in some of the roughest bits of London in far more horrible but far more expensive houses than that...
Horses for courses I suppose...

I know someone from Stoke who says there is actually a really good sense of community so...

You could consider it MurrayTheMonk.
If your pay is on a fixed scale, you could get a better standard of living there. There is a community feel.
Have a look at houses there on something like Rightmove. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

The nice houses in the right areas aren't as affordable though.

It looks like a lot of house for the money. I don't know stoke in Trent but understand housing is cheaper there that a lot of places. I suspect:

No garage so on street larking by the look of it
Over developed for the area but that is a benefit to the buyer - houses usually have a top value anyone will pay in a certain area so it doesn't matter what you spend, you won't get it back
Surrounding area and how good, or bad it is?

What I would want to see if I was buying it is evidence of a good structural engineer being involved as the steelwork holding up the back of that house will need to be of a very high spec and welded/bolted well. I know as we have done similar and it is vital it is done well to avoid movement

The thought of having that kind of structural work done on a house in a former coal mining area is a bit of a concern. Thanks for all the input, we've decided not to look in this area and certainly not at this house.
Back to the drawing board. We're relocating but as long as we can get to Salford/Cheshire (semi self employed but with a lot of clients/contacts in this area). We were keen on Staffordshire because it's cheaper but will have a rethink now.

You could look at Merseyside or Deeside for affordable, OP.

You should look at the Wirral, OP. You'd get a nice house for that.

God that's foul. Looks like someone's gone to a modestly-priced hotel in Brussels and tried to recreate it at home.

Yes to Wirral. I thought Deeside and Merseyside covered it, but Deeside is in Wales, and Wirral is in Cheshire.
There are affordable areas in Cheshire too.

Way over done and totally out of place. They are going to have to reduce the price considerably, even then I think they will struggle to sell.

They have spent loads of money on but it looks like they haven't bothered looking at running cost judging by the EPC. That would really put me off somewhere nowadays. I also think the outside looks lovely but so different to the rest of the street it looks odd.