'I bought a house in #Liverpool for £1 - it still feels surreal that I live here'

The £1 house scheme is now closed.

I spoke to one of the residents who bought through it when it first launched. In 2013, Liverpool City Council launched their first Homes for a Pound initiative in the Granby Four Streets area of Liverpool. This was followed by a second phase in Anfield and Picton and then another - which was the focus of a Channel 4 documentary - in Garrick Street, Bird Street, Richardson Street and Webster Road.

With more than 216,186 empty properties in England, the Council's aim was to bring 6,000 empty and severely dilapidated houses back into use to turn them into homes once again. Since 2014, they say they have brought 1,500 homes back into use. Last year they established a new housing company with the aim of building or refurbishing a further 10,000 homes over the next 10 to 15 years

Liverpool Council weren’t just giving away (let someone have something free, provide someone with your possession) these homes. They came with strict conditions and stipulations. To qualify for a £1 house you had to live and work in the city. More than this, you had to bring the home up to a “decent standard” in order for the purchase to be completed. Buyers had to complete house renovations and move in within 12 months, or be at risk of the council repossessing the property. And, to stop people buying houses cheaply for £1 and then flipping (buying low and selling high) them, the conditions also stipulated that new owners could not sell them for at least five years.

The scheme is now closed due to oversubscription (lacking places for all people wanting them). But 30-year-old events co-ordinator Ibby Alasaly managed to get in quickly. She is now living in the Granby Four Streets home she bought for £1 with her husband four years ago when the scheme first launched. They live there with their children. Here, Ibby explains how buying a house for £1 changed her life.

“My partner and I were living with my mum to save money and it was my mum who told me about the scheme. I didn't ever think I would get onto it when I applied but she just said ‘come on! What have you got to lose?’

That was about four years ago now. I applied for one of the Granby homes because I wanted to be near mum. But, by the time we heard back from the council all of the Granby houses had gone so they offered us the one I’m sitting in now as I talk to you, in Garrick Street.

I was taken aback (if you are taken aback by something, you are surprised or shocked by it and can not respond at once) - I didn’t expect to be offered anything at all. When we came to see it, I fell in love straight away.

I just knew that this was my house. This was my home. I wanted this one. So, after a year of fighting, battling over the restrictions and a lot of emailing back and forth, we finally got the keys.

That was when the real work began. There were a lot of renovations that we had to do. It was June 2018 when we got the keys. We came in and had a proper look at the state of it. At first, it didn’t seem that bad, but once we stripped all the old plaster off and took it back to bare brick we saw the extent of the damage to the building.

We’re living here now after moving in July 2019. We have spent about £40,000 on doing it up (to make someone or something attractive; to decorate or ornament someone or something). We got that money from everywhere and anywhere; we had saved some but family and friends also helped out. Every month we put money towards our home. We don’t earn much so it was literally (used when something is really true) every penny we had. To be honest, it cost a lot more than we expected, but we needed a completely new gas supply and a new electricity supply.

By Vicky Spratt