"Woolaway" Construction

olgadapolga

Hi,

Does anyone have any information - good or bad - about this type of building? We are going to look at a house of this type of construction and basically know nothing about it. I tried investigating online but all I found was that lenders usually won't offer a mortgage on them but that's not an issue as we are cash buyers (I understand that it may make selling slightly more challenging but we are planning on living in it for 5-10 years so not an immediate issue).

Is it possible to turn them into "standard construction"? Do they suffer badly with damp/mould?

Thanks in advance

booksurr

olgadapolga wrote: »

I tried investigating online...
Is it possible to turn them into "standard construction"? Do they suffer badly with damp/mould?

how hard did you try??

http://www.valley-developments.co.uk/woolawaybungalow.html

https://thepassionofneweve.wordpress.com/tag/woolaway/

GDB2222

olgadapolga wrote: »

Hi,

Does anyone have any information - good or bad - about this type of building? We are going to look at a house of this type of construction and basically know nothing about it. I tried investigating online but all I found was that lenders usually won't offer a mortgage on them but that's not an issue as we are cash buyers (I understand that it may make selling slightly more challenging but we are planning on living in it for 5-10 years so not an immediate issue).

Is it possible to turn them into "standard construction"? Do they suffer badly with damp/mould?

Thanks in advance

If the property is unmortgageable it should be priced at a discount of around 30-40% off normal build properties. That's the discount that you'll need to give when you come to sell. So, yes, selling does matter, and it won't be 'slightly more challenging"; it will be very hard indeed.

Oh, yes, and the lenders aren't idiots. These are unmortgageable because the long term maintenance costs are likely to be very high.

stator

Is it a Woolaway house or bungalow?
Woolaway houses are designated defective, so no hope of a mortgage.
If you want to buy it you should get it inspected by an expert. This will involve making holes to look into and make sure it's not in immediate danger due to corrosion.
Yes it is possible to convert it into a normal house. This costs a lot of money but should add a lot of value to the house. The thing is that you need to make sure you get a proper company who can issue you with a PRC repair certificate that will be accepted by mortgage lenders. Without that you won't be able to sell it.

GDB2222

stator wrote: »

Is it a Woolaway house or bungalow?
Woolaway houses are designated defective, so no hope of a mortgage.
If you want to buy it you should get it inspected by an expert. This will involve making holes to look into and make sure it's not in immediate danger due to corrosion.
Yes it is possible to convert it into a normal house. This costs a lot of money but should add a lot of value to the house. The thing is that you need to make sure you get a proper company who can issue you with a PRC repair certificate that will be accepted by mortgage lenders. Without that you won't be able to sell it.

The trouble also is that it's not necessarily a good deal financially to convert your house, unless the neighbouring houses are also converted. That's because yours may end up say twice as expensive as your neighbours' and thus very hard to sell. It's always harder to sell the most expensive house in the road.

Davesnave

Is it a property with land?

The only Woolaways I know locally that have sold have had land and / or a position worth buying into.

One had the walls replaced and was then flogged-off by an enterprising local builder. It had unassailable and beautiful views.

The other was reduced to rubble and turned into a 4 bed luxury house with an acre for a pony. I'm still to be convinced that it made money though!

There's a couple of others....languishing.

GDB2222

Davesnave wrote: »

Is it a property with land?

The only Woolaways I know locally that have sold have had land and / or a position worth buying into.

One had the walls replaced and was then flogged-off by an enterprising local builder. It had unassailable and beautiful views.

The other was reduced to rubble and turned into a 4 bed luxury house with an acre for a pony. I'm still to be convinced that it made money though!

There's a couple of others....languishing.

How much are the languishing ones on the market for? Do you have a RM linky, perhaps, Dave?

Davesnave

GDB2222 wrote: »

How much are the languishing ones on the market for? Do you have a RM linky, perhaps, Dave?

Here's one. Far too high a price, even reduced.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54327275.html

Here's another. It suggests maybe sold, but it's been on and off for years:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56442475.html

olgadapolga

Thank you for the input, everyone.

The property is a bungalow with a huge garden (that's the attractive part) in a village. So possible scope for redevelopment.

Looking at sales prices of other houses in the area, I would think that other properties are a mix of standard construction and Woolaway as there are huge variances in the prices.

I think that we probably need to go and have a look at it and then decide what to do. We may not like it or the area

GDB2222

Davesnave wrote: »

Here's one. Far too high a price, even reduced.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54327275.html

Here's another. It suggests maybe sold, but it's been on and off for years:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56442475.html

Not exactly giving them away, are they?

Davesnave

GDB2222 wrote: »

Not exactly giving them away, are they?

Most older bungalows with land tend to need work by the time the elderly codger owners give them up, so they're not cheap when updating is factored-in.

If replacing the outer walls comes into the equation, any concept of value is completely lost.

After all, it's still possible to buy a passable farmhouse with some character and an acre or two in these parts for around £1/2 m, so why would anyone buy a boring bungalow if they intend to spend that much?