Why are there no ‘Project Properties’ anymore?

[wetwinnie]

Is it me, or does it seem like every project house has already been snapped up and done up?

We were looking for a renovation project anywhere in the countryside but commutable within an hour or so on the train to London, and there is nothing. Only a few 70s or 80s builds on estates. What is available is hugely overpriced, and not worth the time. We had quotes in for one property (and we would do a lot) and it came out £100k more expensive than buying the finished deal!

This is my favorite fixer upper.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/124238957#/?channel=RES_BUY

DS just bought a fixer-upper, 1 hour from London. I despair because he could easily sink another £40k in it and still do a huge amount of rennovation work himself before it's "nice" Msg me if you want more in his area ...

Everyone has become a Homes Under the Hammer fanatic and doing the same thing pretty much!! The thing is though, you need to buy the right property and ideally know people in the trade who can give you the best price.
My friend purchased a property back in 2018 for £140k - needed completely gutting - planning permission to extend - spent 120k on the full works as was done to an impeccably high standard and sold in 2021 for £300k - only 40k profit. If he waited another year when the property market was booming and properties were selling for ridiculous prices - he might have got nearer to £350k.

You may find some doer-uppers come back on the market in the near future, as the costs of doing them up have rocketed and some buyers, sadly, may have bitten off more than they can chew in recent years.

Just having a browse and there are a few available.

This one needs lots of work! About 90 mins from London

We've seen two doer-uppers. Proper-haven't-been-touched-since-1972 doer uppers. One already had an asking price offer and I'm not gazumping someone with 6% mortgage rates to spent minimum 50k to do the place up.

The other backed on to a noisy pub which was a dealbreaker. Otherwise we would have made an offer. We live near a quiet pub so I have nothing against pubs, but it was noisy at 4pm on a Saturday.

This is the problem.
There seem to be plenty of probate type properties around but the sellers have become greedy and are pricing them far too high considering the cost of the work and the hassle involved so people are not buying them.

I'm just over the border in Somerset & it's the same here.

The sellers of one of the properties we looked at were doing something similar. It was a probate and the sellers were refusing to take it off the market until completion and actively encouraging higher offers.

I’ve noticed that in the richest area of the city where I live the properties have the worst and most outdated decor. Like someone mentioned, 40 year old kitchens and bathrooms. I suppose people can’t afford to buy them and do the work, so they buy elsewhere.

I think it’s always been the case that you don’t make back what you spend on renovation if you are doing a high quality reno.

You are kidding? Every single house on the market here in Somerset is a project property. Even the modern ones - people seem to move in, trash the place and move out again.
I have a 1980s house and I've been working on it for three years.
I did not want to do up another house because I want to do other things.

There was one near us recently that I was quite tempted by as a hobby job, but it went by auction really quickly. It needed a lot of work and the garden was a jungle, but in a nice area. I would guess a builder bought it.

I think ordinary people buying project houses, do it because they can't afford the finished house they would like to live in where they want to live. They usually intend to do the work over years and do as much as possible themselves, so it's not that they have to immediately spend a fortune on getting work done. In the meantime they are on the ladder with hopefully an appreciating asset.

There are loads of project properties where I live but they are priced the same as the refurbished ones, if you spent the necessary money on these properties you would have overspent on the ceiling price by at least 150k, it’s ridiculous.

This is quite common when one/all the beneficiaries are a charity. It can be really difficult for the non-charity beneficiaries. Another reason I will never leave a % of my estate to a charity rather than a stated finite amount.

@Kingsparkle Ahhhh that makes sense. Still, fuck 'em.

A wreck near us sold last year for 750k...builder spent a lot, he made very little profit on the project about 20k....its not worth it now as cant make money. friend is now selling late aunts wreck in hackney, should get a good price but its collapsing and buyers are a bit nervous now.

I think this is similar to the quality of stuff in charity shops going down, folks learned that there's money to be made in the vintage stuff!

think this is similar to the quality of stuff in charity shops going down, folks learned that there's money to be made in the vintage stuff!
I'm not so sure. I suspect it's mainly because more people are buying fast fashion crap that charity shops are inundated with poor quality, cheap clothing that people have worn a couple of times.
Anything of any value or in good quality will often get pulled by managers and sold on eBay/depop/vinted.

Some of what I've seen marketed as vintage really isn't vintage at all.