Two-bedroom home with breathtaking river views and spacious garden for sale at just £1 - but all is not what it seems

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

A two-bedroom home with breathtaking river views and a spacious garden is set to go on sale for £1 - but not all is as it seems.
The mid-terraced cottage - named Bwthyn Cariad, or Love Cottage - is nestled in the Pembrokeshire countryside in Wales, and comes with a mindblowing price tag.
But with house prices skyrocketing in recent years, buying a two-bedroom home for just £1 sounds too good to be true - perhaps because it is.
The home is in need of a total revamp - and the seemingly bargain price will just be the starting price at an upcoming auction.
Though auctioneers at Paul Fosh Auctions boast that the property is situated near to a shopping area, has easy transport links and a spacious garden, the reality of the work needed to renovate the home is enough to stop homebuyers dead in their tracks.
Images of the vacant home show one room that needs a colossal amount of work, including plastering, new plumbing, floor construction and a possible overhaul of the electrics.
Another room appears to be the remains of a once fitted kitchen, which has since been stripped bare and is in dire need of floorwork, plastering and completely new kitchen appliances.
All the rooms will need major painting work, while one smaller area with shattered walls will need an entirely new brick construction.
However it's not all bad, as the home boasts a breathtaking seafront view that can be seen while looking out from the property.
Seen across the river appears to be another quaint village and hilltop views.
Meanwhile its back garden, though dingy and overgrown, boasts a sprawling green space, perhaps ideal for a growing family, holiday let, long-term rental or renovation project.
Sean Roper, senior auction valuer at Paul Fosh Auctions, believes there could be handsome rewards for an investor willing to show the cottage some much-needed love.
He said the massive project could potentially see earnings in the hundreds of thousands - as once completed, it could attract around £900 each month in rent.
'Renovated, a typical, two-bedroom high standard property in this area could sell for between £160,000 and £185,000,' said Sean.
'There is also an option to renovate and sell the garden space that runs up Meyrick Street that's with the property.
'Parcels of land could be sold to individual houses along Meyrick Street and then retain the house with a portion of the remaining garden space'.
He then detailed what the property had to offer, though he admitted it had 'certainly seen much better days'.
'There is plenty of scope presented by what is there and added to that the property has a very large garden which could also be exploited - and an auction guide price of just £1!' explained Sean.
'Currently Bwthyn Cariad has two lower ground floor rooms with two bedrooms upstairs, with the expansive garden which extends down the rear of Meyrick Street'.
He revealed that the property is located within close proximity of the main shopping area at Pembroke Dock.
'Pembroke Dock itself is a town located some three miles north west of Pembroke and seven miles south of Haverfordwest' added Sean.
'[It has] good road links provided by the A477 which links to the A40 at Johnstown.
'Pembroke Dock provides a comprehensive range of shopping and recreational pursuits, also it benefits from a rail station North West of the property providing further transport links.
'The A477 also leads north via the Cleddau Bridge crossing Milford Haven through to Honeyborough and also provides access to the heart of Milford Haven Centre'.
Still, even with the so-called local amenities, Sean acknowledged that he hoped the property's price tag of £1 would attract investors who were hopefully up for the challenge.
To entice future buyers, he suggested a number of ways purchasing the property could benefit them.
Sean explained: 'It would seem that the lot offers a number of development opportunities, subject to obtaining planning permission.
'The first could be to renovate and refurbish to a high standard for holiday lets due to its proximity to many of Pembrokeshire top tourist areas.
'Typically, a refurbished two-bedroom cottage would generate in the region of £28,000 per annum net as a holiday let'.
He also suggested purchasing the bare home to renovate and refurbish it to a high standard as a 'long term let'.
'There could be a high demand for this kind of refurbished property from young professionals and local workers' he added.
He said with this method, one could achieve a monthly rental price of around £900.
'Another idea could be to renovate and refurbish to a high standard and sell on the open market' he concluded.
Bwthyn Cariad is one of some eighty plus lots which will be sold online at Paul Fosh Auctions which starts at 12 noon on Tuesday, June 24 and ends at 5pm on Thursday, June 26.