Help! Buying 150 year old Victorian house that needs rennovating

mistermo_2

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of purchasing an old Victorian style house that requires major work. It has wood rot, roof leaks, whole house needs to be rewired for electrics etc. It has amazing potential and the price at which I have bought it for is very low, I am wondering as the house is quite old and has some very nice features - are there any grants available to help me restore it back to its original beauty? As far as I am aware the house is not a listed building and is in Scotland just outside Glasgow.

Any information would be most appreciated.

Fire_Fox

Ask the local council. Is it in a conservation area?

agrinnall

I'd rather see my council and income taxes going to pay for hospitals, schools and libraries than helping a private individual make their property nicer. If you can't afford to pay for the refurbishment yourself then don't buy it is my advice.

phoebe1989seb

Have no idea about Scottish property I'm afraid, but have restored several period properties in England, including Victorian, Tudor (not listed as it had been moved and rebuilt in the 1930s and for some reason slipped through the net!) and currently Georgian. The Victorian was in a conservation area and had previously been divided into four good-sized flats. We thought we may be entitled to a grant of some kind, but no. We bought our current house as a half-finished project in an AONB, having been rethatched and all timber work done by the previous owner. Whether he was entitled to any grants I'm not sure. All I would say is it's definitely worth investigating and the work itself will be immensely rewarding.......go for it and good luck

pleasedelete

Immensely rewarding but incredibly expensive. It has cost as much to renovate our Victorian house as it did to build 3 bedroom large extensions onto our last two.

. You need deep deep pockets If you intend to really renovate and not just modernise.

tbs624

Historic Scotland offers Building Repair Grants for some buildings but from your post it seems unlikely that you/your property would qualify: would there be any benefit to the local community, other than presumably the visuals of an improved property?

You say you got the property at a good price, so presumably you have allowed a fund for renovation, even if it takes you a few years to complete?

Maybe you could think about offering short term free accommodation to volunteers with specific skills? Some folk do this as a way of getting to see new places, both here and abroad.

maninthestreet

Presumably you had a FULL survey carried out on the property, and have sought professional advice on how much it is going to cost to renovate it??

G_M

mistermo wrote: »

....an old Victorian style house that requires major work. ...... the price at which I have bought it for is very low....

Connection?

So the low price is because the buyer is expected to have to spend some money on it...

Once you've spent the money, it will be worth more!

mistermo_2

Thank you all for the input - it has been most helpful! To answer some questions:

The property belonged to the local doctor for the town and there's an outbuilding to the side with separate entrance which housed his surgery. I would have no issue with allowing people access to this property once finished to learn of the history of the town. The previous owner lived in the house from 1955 to now and has sadly passed away. Unfortunately during this time I don't believe any maintainence or work of any kind has been carried out

I have the home report which is quite detailed and advises a damp and timber specialist be brought in (which I have done and he estimates work to be 10-11k for just fixing wood rot).

This property is not for restoring and then selling, I really want to raise my young family here and I can see myself spending the rest of my days in it Stark comparison to the other interested people I met when viewing the property (mostly builders and business people who all saw the potential profit after restoration).

I will ask the local council but I am realistic and believe this will take a few years to complete. I was just curious if there was any help available. The property cost 130K and houses in this area are worth 250-300k so I estimate a great deal will need to be spent to get it up to scratch.

pleasedelete

Problem is you need the money in cash not mortgage. Last 3 houses we just remortgaged as we got work done (so as value went up) to fund the next bit but on this house noT so easy as harder to remortgage, need bigger value to loan, rates will go up if remortgaging etc etc

At the end the mortgage was never more than 50 per cent of amount we sold for . On this house it has been 6 years (well 3 lots of £50k so 3 big spurts) and still ongoing. It is a never ending commitment and can be quite challenging.

You may need to spend more than the cost of buying one of the one up£250-300k houses in the end.

For example Victorian skirting board has to be specially made (ours is about 30cm high and oak) So costs many times the cost of new skirting. The last owners put in fitted wardrobes and took the skirting out behind them. Putting it back has cost £1000. it's the seemingly little things that add up

theGrinch

if its a purchase, the councils view is you should negotiate the cost of the work into the price....well that was the view of my council a few years back.

that said, each council may have its own (even several) policies. ask :-)

on a sober note, work out your cost and double it.