Dad regrets auction purchase as Homes Under the Hammer project costs him fortune

A dad who bidded a plot of land to build a stunning house said he "will never do it again" after selling the property with a loss.

Property developer Justin went on BBC's House Under the Hammer programme and bought a plot of land along with a council storage depot in Milton for £79,000 in 2015.

He told presenter Dion Dublin that he wanted to build two detached houses and named it after his daughter, Amy Rose.

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Justin projected six to eight months to finish the properties with the help of only one bricklayer and estimated a cost of £100,000.

Six years later when Dion visited Justin at the site again, he said: "What a magnificent-looking house! It's got lots of space outside, a big double garage, security gates.

Inside the two houses, Justin fitted modern open-plan kitchen with high-spec finish, a utility area, dining and living room, as well as four large bedrooms.

He revealed: "The original budget was a lot less than we ended up spending but I was anticipating about £200,000, and we ended up spending well over £300k."

The house has been sold for £361,000, but with the bidding cost of £79,000 calculated, the properties would see a loss of £18,000 at the very least.

Dion added: "But Justin still has got the large storage shed and depot area. Should that be sold, they would probably see a small profit overall."

Justin reflected on his auction purchase and shared: "I've never built a new house before so I wanted to do this because I had the land available when I bought the big shed at the back from the council.

"So that's why I built a new house and I've learned from this never to do it again."

During the project, the dad had difficulties getting approvals from the council and said the council didn't like the idea that the houses were not facing the road in line.

"They were talking about the frontage needed to be the same all the way down the road, so they told me that they wouldn't allow it," he added.

"But we went ahead anyway [with the application], it got refused, we went to appeal, and it got refused again, so now we're back to square one and looking at a single detached house, four bedrooms."

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