An award-winning initiative which
breathes new life into derelict properties is going to be featured
on BBC’s Britain’s Empty Homes next week.
The programme meets 41-year-old first-time
buyer Liane Woods, who bought a two-bedroom terrace in Bootle with
her partner Jamie Trail for £12,500 less than the market value from
housing association Riverside under its Own Place scheme.
Own Place - which recently scooped the UK
Housing Award for Making Best Use of Stock - allows
people, who couldn’t otherwise afford to buy their own home, to
become owner occupiers by bringing back into use long-term empty
properties that require significant investment.
The properties are improved to a mortgageable
standard before being sold at a 25% discount to incentivise buyers
to remain as owner occupiers for a minimum of five years.
Liane said: “The fact of the matter is I would
never be a homeowner if it wasn’t for Own Place. My nan sadly died
last year and left me some money but even that wouldn’t have been
enough for a down payment. The beauty of Own Place is that the
discount funds the 25% deposit so you only need a 75%
mortgage.”
The property is valued at £50,000 but Liane’s
mortgage is just £37,500. Prior to selling the house, Riverside
fitted a new kitchen, gas central heating system, double glazing
and damp proof course and also tested the electrics and partially
decorated.
Liane said: “The property was structurally
sound. My friend who is a builder came to look at it before I
bought it and he said I’d be a fool not to take it. The only thing
it needed was decoration. The walls were skimmed and painted
magnolia so I didn’t have to rip somebody else’s bad taste
wallpaper down. It was a blank canvas for me to put my own stamp on
it.”
Liane, who had been renting a property just a
few streets away for the last four years added: “I am so much
better off now than where I was before. My mortgage is almost half
of what I was paying in rent. Not only that but my bills are lower
because Riverside fitted a brand new energy efficient boiler and I
don’t need the heating on as much to compensate for damp like I did
in my rented house.
“I feel more at a home in a month here than I
ever felt at the rented property. There is an incentive to stay for
five years but I am so happy here I have no intention of
leaving.”
Liane’s story will be featured in episode 19
of Britain’s Empty Homes to be shown on BBC 1 on Thursday 26
January at 11.45am.