Stately home on sale for just £75,000: what's the catch?
Have you ever had the Downton Abbey-inspired dream of one day owning your own stately home? However much we love the property we live in, it's not a patch on being Lord or Lady of your own manor. However, until we win the lottery, we'll just have to make do with a handful of bedrooms and our dreams. Unless of course an incredible stately home goes on the market for just £75,000.
That's exactly what has happened in Staffordshire. Patshull Hall, a Grade-1 listed historic property, has gone on the market at this incredible price. It ticks all the vital stately home boxes - having been built in 1730 and being set in 340 acres. So what's the catch?
The catches
Unfortunately there are three of them. The first is that you don't get the entire property. You get a fairly decent chunk of it - with four bedrooms - but yours aren't the magnificent rooms at the front of the house, they're the smaller ones round the back. If you wanted a chunk of the ornate and dramatic front section of the house it would set you back substantially more. The w{C}est wing is currently on sale for £1.45 million.
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The second issue is that the property is in the middle of being developed. The price reflects the fact that you couldn't move in at the moment, because there's no kitchen or bathroom to speak of. You'll need to spend a good chunk of change completing the project.
And the third is that this property is being sold at auction: so the price is only a guide. If there are enough people with the dream of living in a stately home, then the price could rise significantly higher. And with this kind of property it's impossible to predict until the day of the auction itself. It goes under the hammer on 11 December, so any prospective buyer will have to wait until then to find out whether £75,000 will secure them a stately home.
However, before anyone gets too downhearted about the drawbacks of the property, it's worth considering the incredible bargain on offer. Staffordshire is an affordable part of the country in which to purchase property, but for this sort of sum you would be more likely to pick up a 2-bedroom terraced house in Stoke-On-Trent.
Elsewhere it's a drop in the ocean - buying a one bedroom flat in Salford, a shoebox in Bristol, and little more than the entrance porch of a property in inner London.
But what do you think? Does it appeal? Let us know in the comments.
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