Do you qualify to buy a £1 house in Stoke-on-Trent? Twenty-five are up for grabs from today.
First-time buyers with a job are being offered the chance to get on the property ladder – by buying a house for just £1. It follows the authority's successful 2013 scheme which saw 33 council houses in the area sold for £1 before each buyer took out a £30,000 loan with the authority to renovate the property. This latest scheme involves privately-owned houses with the council spending £1.5 million to buy the empty properties from absentee landlords and then refurbishing them. Buyers will typically take out a £60,000 loan to be repaid over 15 years before then becoming the outright owner of the property. The £60,000 is expected to cover the cost of buying the home and the renovations. It is part of attempts to bring empty houses back into use and help increase the number of homeowners. The council has already bought 12 of the properties and will consider using compulsory purchase order powers to get the remaining 13 homes.
Applicants must have been in continuous work for at least a year to qualify for the scheme. They must also live or work in the city or have family living in the Potteries. Applicants must have a maximum income of £27,000-a-year if single, up to £33,000 if single with children, up to £54,000 for a couple, or a maximum of £60,000 for a two-parent family."It helps to regenerate rundown parts of the city – adding to a sense of community for residents and helping to tackle social issues.” Existing residents have welcomed the scheme. One of the properties in the new scheme is in Rutland Street. The Portland Street houses in the first scheme were bought up under the Renew North Staffordshire project and were due to be demolished and replaced with new properties. But Renew was abolished before any homes could be built. Civil servant Gavin Pierpoint, aged 29, who was one of the first £1 homeowners, said: “Improvements to the surrounding area have been brought about because of the scheme.”
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