What is wrong with this house?

[ButterPiesAreGreat]

Saw this house on Facebook last night.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/160791941#/?channel=RES_BUY

Sent it jokingly to DS as it’s not far (15 mins walk) to our team’s football ground and that was highlighted as its selling point. Then I looked through the pics and realised it’s a hell of a house.

Now the area it borders is not great but it’s not awful and a good mile from the really rough parts of town. It’s well away from the ground with most fans staying well away from the house taking different routes back into the centre. It looks out onto the park so it has a lovely outlook and the road in front is not a through road so doesn’t get loads of traffic. It’s also about a mile from the uni, where there are a few purpose built student accommodation places.

The more I thought about it, the more I was curious about the price because the house is in apparently good condition, even if not all of it is all to my taste. You could easily move straight in.

So I looked back at Zoopla price history and discovered it was listed 3 years ago, for £800K! Then it was listed last December for £650K, then listed again in June for £590K. There’s been 4 reductions of price since then, the latest just last week. It’s not sold any of those times, it was last bought in 2006.

Now I completely get that the area is not completely salubrious, and that interest rates have affected house prices but a 50% reduction in 3 years seems excessive. As it stands now, the owners are selling it for £50K less than they bought it for 20 years ago so they wouldn’t get back what they have clearly put into it.

I can only think that there is something structurally wrong or there is a legal problem of some sort, because if you wanted a 6 bed house in Preston, surely £400K sounds like a bargain. Our house is not much cheaper than that and it’s an OK size in a nice but not super expensive area.

What do you think? What do you think is wrong with this house?

Efflorescence on the bricks by the door and the R hand corner suggest serious damp issues.

Explainable on a new building but not sure about an old one

Why did you say that? It just starts a stupid North South argument, I'm a Southerner btw. OP it's a massive house and looks good value for money at 400k but those price reductions are quite big, 800k is way over the top, I think the sellers were just trying their luck!

Haven't RTFT, maybe someone has pointed this out, but WTF is going on in photo 50? It looks like bad AI. Door and ceiling are touching, picture above bed extends into ceiling, the panels on the door, doorhandle is a round bit with a free-floating rectangle next to it, chunk of doorframe near the floor is missing...

The decor is mostly depressingly old fashioned and there's a heck of a lot of rooms to redo. Far too many bedrooms for most families too. The garden though would be a deal breaker for me. And I wouldn't ideally want a basement room.

Is it not possible the mess that the property developer neighbour is responsible for is deliberate and is an attempt to drive the price down to add it to their portfolio? Wouldn’t be unheard of.

I’m from ‘up north’ and I interpreted it in the same way. That a property like that would fetch considerably more in the south, not as a slur on northern people.

There doesn’t seem to be any central heating upstairs. Lots of oil filled radiators and a dehumidifier in one picture. I suspect it costs a fortune to heat, council tax also high I would imagine. Some gorgeous original features in there though. One or two bedroom pictures looked like they might be AI - the more neutral beige one. One picture with a blue hall wall possibly has an irregularity/surface crack but no major ones. The roof does look old on that aerial shot.

Having looked through the photos I think that although it’s lovely, it’s not to everyone’s taste and it would cost quite a bit to decorate to your own spec. Add to that the high ceilings and big rooms, it’s going to cost a small fortune to heat - that would put a lot of people off.

Me too. But the north-south divide issue is always predictably prickly.

Doubt a developer would be interested it would need to be dirt as in dirt cheap to make a good profit
the ceiling price is quite low in that area
a palatial family home wouldn’t command a great price as people with a lot of money to spend wouldn’t want to live there
convert into flats is expensive due to building regs
Flats wouldn’t be expensive as you can get a house nearby for 100k
theres loads of HMO’s so doubt you’d get permission for one

Air B+B the running cost are too high for it to make a decent profit it’s low ECP so cost you as much to heat as you could charge to rent it out

the majority of these have multi generation live with Asian families in this area

Take no notice, they are just jealous that they have to pay £500k for a tin shack in a dodgy area of south London.

This is clearly a joke.

The blurb says it is ‘an investors dream’ and includes plans for turning it into flats or HMO.

No central heating shown or mentioned.

You see this comment is just as bad...

I would also guess it’s something to do with next door. They have a long building in the garden, a weird tarmaced drive thing at the back and have also built a new house/building on the property which could be commercial or an Airbnb. I’m another southern snob and my modest 3 bed is worth the same price so I still think it’s a pretty good deal, but I assume there must be a bigger issue than it seems for them to be selling at a loss

Edit: I also found this - approved application for 51 retirement homes on the same road https://www.blogpreston.co.uk/2025/03/moor-park-retirement-apartments-on-former-depot-site-set-for-approval/amp/ and they are also spending £4m on the park. Sounds like it might be a noisy couple of years on this road

Don't know the area - but some of the pictures look a bit fake/AI. Not sure if it's a filter or what but 42, 53, view outside in 32 - just "off".

I live near Preston. I doubt if it has anything to do with the house which looks amazing, it is the location and possibly the nearby schools.

What's happening next door? The fire escape makes it look like flats and the garden is also over looked. Who is living there? I suspect that's the biggest problem.

Other things to check would be un-authorised work. Some sort of restrictive covenant.
It looks like it is going to cost quite a lot to update it. for example it looks like it needs new carpets and flooring throughout which is going to be very expensive. Kitchen/dining needs knocking into one etc

My 4 bed was £100k... but then again I live in the north lol.

House in the OP does look grander than my house too be fair, looks like a nice house but council band F is very high. Highest I looked at was B.

Upkeep cost is a huge reason in bigger more expensive houses are sold, its also why a lot of old money, aristocracy and historic housing is in terrible states of disrepair.

Floor plan show it as an 8 bedroom but listed as 6 bedroom, looks like 1 bedroom is in the basement... I wouldn't really call that a bedroom. Would probably make a nice den type room for the kids though.

Its a basement conversion.

Gorgeous house. I know the area quite well. No one would really want to live on that road. Opposite the park at night. The house is v close to the A6, busy all the time. It’s behind rows of terraced houses, built for the cotton mill workers. Lovat Rd had its own tv show. So very concentrated population behind the house. The road itself a few HMO, offices, doctors etc. Back in the day (Victorian) it would’ve been fantastic. But now not so much. Sad really, it’s a beautiful house!

The other link on the thread - it’s not just the postcode that’s better - the road has a few gorgeous houses, more secluded road, and none of the disadvantages of this one.

What a beautiful house! (…and I’d hardly call the kitchen “poxy”)

Speak to the estate agent about it, I’m sure they’ll be able to give you some more info around the drop in price. I’d personally book a viewing, something like this where we live would be at least double that price!

Yes I feel the same way. Unfortunately for me it’s up north. But I’m stuck down here as mum and nan are in SE London and my nan will never move away but considering she is 87 I will let her off.

I imagine it would be expensive to heat in Winter?

It will cost an absolute fortune to heat and run and salaries up there are nowhere near London and SE levels.

Looks like it was an HMO too as it's been over converted