Ten properties you could buy with your credit card
With money tight and the mortgage market shrinking fast, Times Money has put together a list of ten British properties - from flats to a four-bedroom townhouse - that would-be homeowners can buy outright for the price of a typical deposit, starting at £15,000.
1 One-bedroom flat in Tylorstown, the Rhondda Valley, South Wales: £15,000
This property in a beautifully situated, but deprived, former mining village comprises an open-plan sitting room/kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. All for the price of a mid-range car Details
2 Two-bedroom semi in Abertillery, Blaenau Gwent, South Wales: £25,000
Abertillery, another South Wales village, has weathered the collapse of coal better than Tylorstown, thanks in part to European Union money. It may also get a rail-link to Cardiff Details
3 One-bedroom flat in Rosehill, Wallsend, Tyne and Wear: £25,000
The vendor last let this property which comprises an entrance hall, sitting/dining area, bedroom and bathroom - all within 5 miles of Newcastle-upon-Tyne - for £300 per calendar month Details
4 Forester's Lodge, former meeting house, Blyton, Lincolnshire: £25,000
This odd building on the high street of a Lincolnshire village needs extensive work but has heaps of "character". Note that it is close to Blyton's acclaimed ice cream parlour Details
5 One-bedroom flat in Burntisland, Kinghorn, Fife, Scotland: £27,500
This property is in a popular seaside resort with good beaches and golf, and rail connections to Edinburgh and Dundee. It also sits conveniently - for some - between a pub and a chemist Details
6 One-bedroom flat in Rood Hill, Congleton, Cheshire: £29,950
A town-centre property in a desirable town for under £30k. There has to be a downside. And, yes, it is in need of total renovation - with access to the first floor by step-ladder. Still... Details
7 Four-bedroom mid-terrace house in Cleator Moor, Cumbria: £30,000
This four-bedroom period property (pictured, above) sits in the heart of a market town wedged between the Lake District and the Irish Sea. Predictably, extensive work is needed Details
8 Derelict cottage in half an acre in the Snowdonia National Park, North Wales: £30,000
The most scenic property on our list - but also a shell accessed only by footpath. Local attractions include superb walks, unspoilt, largely Welsh-speaking, villages and the Ffestiniog steam railway Details
9 One-bedroom flat in Bluetown, Sheerness, Kent: £30,000
Lord Nelson is said to have stayed in this very building, once the Royal Fountain Hotel. True or false, the seaside town is crammed with maritime history and counts Dickens among former residents Details
10 Two-bedroom mid-terrace house in Burnley, Lancashire: £30,000
This house needs "modernisation", but is close to Burnley's town centre. A 45-minute rail-link from the town to Manchester is under discussion - buses already do the route in an hour Details
List compiled by Mark Bridge, with thanks to FindaProperty.com and Globrix
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Glad all you Welsh people are proud to live in s**tholes you call towns!
Posted by: John | 4 Nov 2008 08:33:52
I'm throwing in with 'WELSH AND PROUD' (being from Albany, NY; born St. Paul, MN.) My father began life in Darwen, Lancashire, on December 7, 1900 -- but he always gave me the strong impression that Wales stands as a beautiful, magnificent, even a magical place, and this after he had seen much of the rest of the world for comparison, in the Canadian and then the U.S. Army. I'm proud as can be at having the strong Welsh element he told me flows in this Mensa Member's veins (respectfully; God blesses each of his children equally, but in different ways, I believe). Can't wait to sail/move there, if they'll have me. I'm told my first name means 'Welshman'; what more calling-card cachet could I need? That Snowdonia 'shell' is fantastic! Just needs a mysterious (chiseled good looks) bookish polymath fascinating foreigner with imagination, an extra $250,000, and a good construction contractor and crew. I have the "stream version photo" as background on my Sun Microsystems workstation (running Solaris 10 UNIX [sans pitchforks and torches.].).
Posted by: W Darwen B: | 25 Oct 2008 06:14:16
So...South Wales? Not a bad place to live, when you consider I was born and bred in Cardiff, strong links to the Valleys and just completed my PhD - I highly doubt we're all "torch wielding villagers".
I 'effin love it here, and really? Knife crime in London...do we need to go there?
Snobs.
Get the valley's out in ya butt!
Posted by: Welsh and proud. | 24 Oct 2008 23:21:12
You as the moderater are concerningly a foreinger or lover off as you prevent my previous English statement from being listed but its ok to sanction and be offensive against the welsh what are you mederating !!!
typical civil servant , thats why we are in this s**t mess now
Posted by: robert saggese | 11 Oct 2008 18:33:43
The houses in Detroit going for $1 each are falling down deathtraps that no one wants. The city's population has almost halved in the last 10yrs. Even the 'posh' areas are degenerating now. With Ford and GM posting losses in the 10s of billions annually, the city could very well die unless radical (and expensive) action is taken.
Factor in that and taxes, legal costs, repairs etc and suddenly the idea of buying up an entire neighbourhood for a couple of hundred quid seems less appealing. If it was such a good investment, they wouldn't be selling for $1.
Posted by: Anthony | 11 Oct 2008 16:43:21
i wouldn't want tp put £30k on a credit card. That would be silly.
Also, they are so cheap because no one wants to live there. Whats the point of buying a house, however 'cheap', if you can't get a job?
Posted by: Anthony | 11 Oct 2008 16:28:46
BAAAA!
Posted by: welsh rarebit | 10 Oct 2008 21:41:44
The second comment, from Fergus, is is offensive... "Welsh guys with torches" do not routinely burn English-owned second homes! He is clearly the sort to call us "sheap sh***ers". SAD. GET OUT MORE.
Posted by: Tom, Haverfordwest | 10 Oct 2008 16:03:20
suicidal places to live - whats the point...
Posted by: Armand Tamzarian | 10 Oct 2008 13:14:42
Interesting article. However, you pay for what you get.
Posted by: Marc d'Espagnac | 10 Oct 2008 12:34:11
The ruin in Snowdonia doesn't look such a happy place to be. Have a look on google earth, co-ordinates
52.898569 lat
-0.3916934 long
That's a sewage farm?
Posted by: Greg Heys | 10 Oct 2008 11:28:27
15k on a credit card? Please get in touch with reality, the average person doesn't have a credit limit that high.
I sometimes get the feeling Times journalists live on their own planet.
Posted by: starling | 9 Oct 2008 11:51:37
If you are interested in buying a few houses with your back pocket change (don't even have to pull out that credit card in credit tight times) why not try Detroit in the US where houses are going for a US Dollar each. The realtor web site has hundreds of them!
Posted by: Ian Tanner | 9 Oct 2008 10:29:05
It is not good news being a home owner that you can now buy homes for that money. Hopefully the current owners havn't made too much of a loss and still make money when selling
Posted by: lucyp | 9 Oct 2008 09:21:28
When a area has very high numbers out of work house prices will be low, so ok for the above people to say there comments. But when a greater number of jobs are lost in there area we will see if they are so smug.
Posted by: oliver | 8 Oct 2008 13:30:04
If only the banks hadn't cut my credit card limit...
Posted by: Francis Brown | 7 Oct 2008 00:47:30
Frankly, you would have to pay me to leave in South Wales, Tyneside, all of the above...
Posted by: PTF | 7 Oct 2008 00:46:29
The yield on number three beats even RBS and that takes some doing. (Almost 20 per cent!) But yields like this often are often the precurser to sharp falls in the pricde of the asset - see RBS!
Posted by: P Tontnes | 7 Oct 2008 00:45:35
15k on a credit card! I must be on a different planet than the rest of us?
Posted by: jd | 6 Oct 2008 13:19:24
Hmm...properties on credit card ? Isn't this the sort of borrowing/lending that got us into this mess..???!!!
Posted by: ROBIN | 6 Oct 2008 12:50:38
30000 for a 4 bedroom terraced house on a main road that would need about £70000 spending on it is not a bargain in my eyes, give it 6 months and they will have to pay people to take on these properties!
Posted by: ps3 bundle | 6 Oct 2008 11:38:12
Hmm. And who would be able to make a permanent life base in the middle of nowhere in Snowdonia? Perhaps it could be made into someone's second home. Oh wait... a bunch of welsh guys with torches would raze it to the ground within a week. I'll pass, thanks.
Posted by: fergus | 6 Oct 2008 10:36:10
what u can do there????????????????
Posted by: zvezdan | 4 Oct 2008 20:53:41