Brit who bought three bed house for just 85p reveals difficulties of huge project

Usually, when it comes to buying a house, most of us will save up our pennies for a good while before being able to place a deposit.

And even then, that’s only the start of it. You might end up splashing out a small fortune on all the extra costs, let alone pennies.

Although, it literally did cost this Brit pennies as he bought a three-bed house for just 85p.

George Laing was looking to buy a place when he released he needed to drop 'at least £50,000' on a deposit for a one-bed flat in London.

So, while he frustratedly searched for cheaper spots elsewhere, he 'stumbled' across a little town in Sicily running a €1 (85p) scheme.

He told The Times how ‘beautiful’ the house is he bought, although: “There’s no running water and no electricity, but it has three storeys, plenty of space and the original marble stairs.”

While it did cost just pennies for the freehold, Laing explained the agency fee cost about €500 with €2,500 for the transfer of the deeds a few weeks later.

“After that there were fees for the energy certificate and floorplans, so all together it came to about €5,000 (£4,300),” he said. “That money is going to get you bugger-all in London, not even a garage.”

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And to save more cash, he’s decided to do the renovation himself, watching YouTube videos and taking electrical and plumbing courses to learn how as he’s ‘never done it before’.

“The idea is that I’ll learn the entire process of how to renovate a house so that, next time, I’ll pay someone else to do it but by then I’ll have an understanding of what they should or shouldn’t be doing,” he explained.

While Laing knows others in the neighbourhood ‘have spent €50,000 to €60,000’ on their renovations, he’s decided on something much smaller.

“I have set a budget of £10,000 to £15,000 to turn around the entire house, top to bottom,” he revealed.

The bloke added to The Sun that it’s ‘not without its challenges’.

“It’s taken me six months to get the electric switched on,” the Brit admitted. "There are occasions when I wonder if I've bitten off more than I can chew."

And as he heads out to Sicily every month for ‘five to ten days’, he added to The Times that he walks 10km up a 610 incline each time to get to his house, taking about two and a half hours.

Now that’s dedication for a cheap gaff.