Houses selling for £5,000 in ‘ghost town’ that was once thriving location
Trying to get on the property ladder can be something of a nightmare these days considering there's a cost-of-living crisis going on and the housing market keeps going up.
An expert's opinion on a first time buyer attempting to secure their first home is that you are 'f**ked' unless your parents already own a home or you can live in to build up some savings before buying one yourself.
Otherwise you're cast adrift into paying high rents and having your income squeezed to the point that it can be hard to save up enough money to get a deposit on a house.
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In that case, we might have found just the place for you, if you overlook several considerably challenging downsides in search of the silver lining.
If you fancy moving to the coastal village of Horden, County Durham, then you can enjoy being beside the seaside and buying a house for the incredibly low sum of £5,000.
Some properties have popped up on Rightmove for that low, low price, including a couple of two-bed terraced houses and a three bedroom house.
For that price, you could probably expect them to be the sort of fixer-upper that you might see on some sort of property show where people are introduced to stairs going up the bedrooms and whatnot.
A cheap house, coastal living and a train station which has a surprisingly pleasant array of reviews on Google makes this your ticket to getting a foot on the property ladder, albeit on the lowest rung.
Of course, on the downside you'd be living in what The Independent reports is a 'ghost town', where entire streets are boarded up and there's not much to do since many of the major employers in the area have been closed down.
There's only 6,807 people living in the village these days, according to the 2021 census, with Horden's economic heart having been ripped out when the local coal mine was closed down in 1987, thanks to Margaret Thatcher's government.
These days, the village is beset by drug use, few opportunities and high levels of unemployment, so if you're thinking of somewhere to start a life the place where seaside houses are going for £5,000 might not be it.
The houses were put on auction, with the last bidding process closing at shortly before 1pm today (31 May) so it's possible that someone out there is now the proud owner of a £5,000 house and has plans to do something with it.
Joe Harker