House prices soar: Homes for under £50,000

By Ben West
Posted: 2010/06/27

Despite soaring house prices BEN WEST manages to find good bargains, some of which are delightfully alternative

BOATS
Boats are a great source of accommodation on a budget. Virginia Currer Marine (01784 432 111/ vcmarine.co.uk) always has a selection of houseboats for sale including a traditional narrowboat for £35,000 that is moored at Iver, Buckinghamshire.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Subsidised home ownership schemes where you part-own the property and pay a subsidised rent for the remainder, with the option of increasing your proportion of ownership later on allow you to buy at this budget level.

At Axcess MK in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, you can buy a 25 per cent share of the full value. One and two-bedroomed apartments are available with prices starting from just £32,500 for a quarter share. Further details are available from Knight Frank (01908 302 932/knightfrank.co.uk).

Merseyside kick-boxer Anne-Marie Thornburn, 27, paid £49,000 for a 75 per cent share of a two-bedroomed flat at Harron Homes' Firdene Park in St Helens. She says: "Firdene Park is a superb development ideally located close to my work place, my brother and the Warrington Kickboxing Studio."
For further information contact Firdene Park (01744 452 421/harronhomes.com).

BEACH HUTS
Beach huts may be little more than glorified garden sheds and usually you can't stay in them overnight, but they often change hands for huge sums. At Sandbanks in Dorset one recently sold for as much as £165,000.

Mark Oliver Estate Agency (01903 503 111/ beachhutsuk.com) has a more modest example for sale at £10,600 in Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex.

HOUSES AND FLATS
Areas with the cheapest property in the UK include industrial inner cities like Sheffield, Liverpool, Nottingham and Newcastle, and pockets of the West Country and East Anglia.

Estate agency Savills recently researched property values identifying the five lowestpriced locations as being Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, Sedgefield in Durham, Kingston-upon-Hull in Yorkshire, Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorgan and Blaenau Gwent in Ebbw Vale.

The Welsh valleys and borders, rural Northern Ireland and northern Scotland are also especially good value.

Smiths Gore (01343 823 000/smithsgore.co.uk ) is asking £40,000 for a derelict cottage at Ballindalloch, Banffshire in Scotland.

TIMBER CABINS AND LODGES
Timber cabins and lodges are an inexpensive way to buy living space, whether you want an artist's studio, garden office, granny or guest annexe, teenager's den or home gym. Seldom subject to planning permission, they can usually be erected in a couple of days. The range from Homelodge (01962 881480/homelodge.co.uk) starts at £13,357.

WOODLAND
If you want to escape the rat-race why not buy your own wood? Although planning permission to build is rarely available nonpermanent structures such as garden sheds and tents are allowed.

Woodland Investment Management (020 7737 0070/woodlands.co.uk) has several for sale including £35,000 Luckwells Wood at Wheddon Cross in Somerset. It is dominated by mature spruce interspersed with oaks and sycamores.