From million pound homes in plush Hampstead to £35,000 bargains in Scotland, this new website helps house hunters find ex-council homes to buy
Once shunned by prospective buyers the homes are now growing in popularity as they can often be 15 per cent cheaper than conventional housing stock and larger too
A BOOM in demand for ex-council homes has seen the creation of the first website dedicated to selling the properties.
Ex-Council.com features stock from across the UK including million pound homes in Hampstead and bargain £35,000 flats in Scotland.
Once shunned by prospective buyers the homes are now growing in popularity.
They can be as much as 15 per cent cheaper than conventional housing stock and are often larger too.
Mal McCallion, business development manager of Ex-Council.com, said: "Former local authority homes have spent years being unloved and under-valued.
"From our point of view however, ex-council housing is actually the 'Cinderella Sector' of the property market.
"There is something for everyone from our £1m houses to are very cheapest ones.
"We sell three and four bed houses and we sell small apartments.
"About a year ago we looked at what types of properties were not getting the attention they deserved and were pretty shocked at how much ex-council properties were slipping under the radar.
"Since then we've been really kind to utilise that and have been stealth mode really. We've got a tight team and we've been working really hard doing our research on the sector.
"We've been focusing our research down to really localised levels so we can even know how prevalent these properties are in specific postcode areas.
"We've had a lot of interest from estate agents who are interested in getting involved and that is because it is a really wide market.”
The website's research shows there are 2.7million ex-council properties in the UK – equating to more than one in ten homes.
The most expensive on the website is a three-bedroom end of terrace in Hampstead, north London, which is valued at £950,000 and the cheapest a two-bedroom first floor flat Girvan, south Ayrshire for just £35,000.
The firm found that Harlow in Essex is the ex-council house heartland, with 29 per cent of its available homes from former local authority stock.
Meanwhile, Crawley, West Sussex has a total of 5,296 ex-council homes - the highest number in the country.
Mal added: "The homes are usually larger than their non-council counterparts because they were built in the 1960s and 1970s when land wasn't the priority it is today and investors like them because they return high-yields.
"They can sell for between 10 per cent and 15 per cent less than other homes – which means that they are an affordable alternative for first-time buyers, and for some people, their only way into a desirable area."
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