After last week’s foray into how the other half live in Westminster, we thought we’d return to a more basic form of dwelling; namely the traditional two-up two-down terrace.

This humble house has been the starting off point on the property ladder for many, and it’s easy to see why. 

They offer more space than your average starter flat – often for significantly less money; they generally have an outdoors area; and there’s something reassuringly grown up about having an upstairs and a downstairs to call your own.

Although most commonly associated with northern regions, these houses can be found throughout the UK – we’ve looked specifically for examples that fall under the increased stamp duty threshold of £175,000.

So, for all you potential first-timers out there, here are five fairly cheap, very cheerful two-up two-down properties for sale:

(Click on pics for more images and property details)

1. Gravesend, Kent
£160,000

2. Cheadle, Greater Manchester
£157,950 (Offers Over)

3. Banbury, Oxfordshire
£139,995

4. St George, Bristol
£139,995

5. Lincoln, Lincolnshire
£110,000 (Guide Price)

Our latest House Prices & Affordability Index (published today) reveals that the average UK asking price is £218,654.

What, you might ask, can you get for that?

Well, in Wales – and apologies to all you Londoners who may be shelling out an equivalent sum for a one-bed basement flat – you can get this beautifully converted Victorian school house.

Click pics for full details

Three-bed detached house, £225,000, Strutt & Parker, Shrewsbury (Tel: 0843 2823 336)

The property was used as the local school from 1872-1995 and is a rare and very early example of the use of concrete in construction (as is the nearby Gregynog Hall, on whose estate this school is built).

The highlight here is the large living/dining room (36′9″ x 18′1″) which features timber beams, a magnificent fireplace, stained glass windows and a fine hand-crafted oak staircase.

It’s all very lovely, and will, I think, arouse sharp pangs of property longing in those of us who live in the pricey South East.

Three-bed detached house, £225,000, Strutt & Parker, Shrewsbury (Tel: 0843 2823 336).

Three-bed detached house, £225,000, Strutt & Parker, Shrewsbury (Tel: 0843 2823 336)

Three-bed detached house, £225,000, Strutt & Parker, Shrewsbury (Tel: 0843 2823 336)

Three-bed detached house, £225,000, Strutt & Parker, Shrewsbury (Tel: 0843 2823 336)

Weary of the high-tech digital age? Nostalgic for a world of brass, wood, iron and steam? For the dials, rivets, cogs and pistons of classic Victorian design?

Well, you’re not alone. The Steampunk movement, which filters the modern world through late Victorian science fiction (H.G. Wells, Jules Verne) and Victorian technology and design, is just as keen on all that boiler plated vintage stuff as you are.

Here’s a frankly fantastic Steampunk house on wheels built by members of the Academy of Unnatural Sciences in Berkeley, California (a “DIY  group of tinkerers, gearheads, and steam bohemians who fabricate steam-powered art pieces out of repurposed industrial detritus”).

Image: Christopher Michel

They describe it thus:

Neverwas Haul, a self-propelled 3-storey Victorian House, is made from 75 per cent recycled equipment and materials, with interiors, operating system, and collections from its travels around the world (i.e., oddities of the Jules Verne era including a Camera Obscura).

The Haul measures 24 feet long by 24 feet high and 12 feet wide and is built on the base of a 5th wheel travel trailer.

They sound a bit like steampunk estate agents, and it is, I fear, only a matter of time before someone suggests this as a low-cost alternative for first-time buyers … though I can’t see the Halifax being too keen to lend on one.

For more Steampunk lunacy get yourself over to the Oxford Museum of the History of Science – they’re currently running the first ever museum exhibition of Steampunk art and design.

Via:  Apartment Therapy.

Image: Mudstone

Image: AlmostJaded

Do you live in a house with a top class architectural pedigree?

If so, listen up, because the conservation body that looks after Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Fallingwater has come up with a crafty way to get the windows replaced: sell the old ones off to architectural relic hunters.

Their website explains that the old windows are suffering from decay (hmmm, wonder if all that falling water is to blame – the owner’s father dubbed the place ‘rising mildew’?).

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater

And this, architecture groupies, is where you come in:

“Naming opportunities range from $500 to $10,000 and up for each window, skylight, glass door, or set of windows, depending on the size and location.

“You will receive a commemorative piece of the old Fallingwater glass, framed along with a drawing of the house, specifying the window that you have endowed.

“Additionally, if you endow a window at $1,000 or more, you will be recognized on a donor wall in the Fallingwater Visitors Pavilion.”

$1,000 for a bit of old glass? Genius!

Here’s a nice video about the house:

Drum roll, please, for our latest list of property hotspots.

The ranking is based on the most enquiries (sales and rent) generated per area, which, we think, is a more genuine measure of actual activity than, say, the number of pages or properties clicked on.

City centres continue to do well, as does Bristol, but the most obvious change this month is the rise of suburban areas in Middlesex and Kent.

I’ve just read an interesting blog post by David Lawrenson over at Letting Focus about a potentially expensive pitfall for tenants in the whole lease option idea.

A lease option basically works like this:

• Tenant rents property in usual way

• Landlord offers option to buy within a defined period (a year or two, for example) at a price agreed today

• Tenant pays lump sum up front (£2-3k, for example) plus a premium on the rent for the privilege

• If tenant buys, he gets some of this back plus the benefit of last year’s house prices;  if he doesn’t buy, he loses the money invested

Now, in theory, there’s nothing wrong with the idea – house-builders have used this ‘rent to buy’ concept as a way to sell when times are tough and it’s been great for struggling first-time buyers.

But what if the landlord is a small-scale buy-to-let investor?  And what happens if said investor, for example, defaults on his mortgage payments or goes bust?

This is especially worth asking since some investment ‘gurus’ are pitching the lease option idea to struggling landlords – see this lease options article, for example.

From the tenant’s point of view, as David points out, the process may be fraught with risk.

Is he right? If any of you out there know more about this, we’d like to hear your views.

Here’s a very clever bit of extension invention in London N1 (Canonbury) – a basement conversion that makes smart use of an existing light well to create a glowing glass lantern that hovers over the new dining room.

House in Canonbury, £1,999,950, Foxtons (Tel: 020 7704 5000)

The extension has a full-height sliding glass door opening onto a fanned staircase that leads up to the garden.

We like!

And so did the judges of the AJ Small Projects Awards competition back in 2006 – they handed out first prize to architect Paul Archer for his efforts here.

House in Canonbury, £1,999,950, Foxtons (Tel: 020 7704 500)

House in Canonbury, £1,999,950, Foxtons (Tel: 020 7704 500)

House in Canonbury, £1,999,950, Foxtons (Tel: 020 7704 500)

House in Canonbury, £1,999,950, Foxtons (Tel: 020 7704 500)

Interesting piece in The Times yesterday about a property that, at 7′7″ wide, may well be the narrowest house in London.

It’s in London SW11 and is owned by singer-songwriter Polly Paulusma – she’s supported Bob Dylan and Coldplay – and comes with an elongated reception room that measures  7′7″ x 42′2″ (Foxtons, Tel: 020 7801 1111).

£450,000, Foxtons, 020 7801 1111

£450,000, Foxtons, 020 7801 1111

Almost as narrow – 2.4m (or 7′10″) – is the Gap House, which recently won the prestigious RIBA Manser Medal, an annual prize awarded for the best one-off house or major extension designed by an architect in the UK.

It was designed by Pitman Tozer Architects to slot between two white stucco villas on Monmouth Road in Bayswater.

However, unlike Polly Paulusma’s house, this one widens out behind the villas into more regular dimensions. Still pretty skinny, though!

This flat in Green Street, Mayfair was the Beatles’ first home in London (1963) – and it is, apparently, the only place where they ever lived  together as a band.

The Beatles, 1963

The story goes that manager Brian Epstein found the top-floor flat so they could escape from their screaming fans -   they’d just had a big hit with  She Loves You, Beatlemania was rife, and their eardrums were at serious risk.

There were only three bedrooms back then (two now) so not sure how that worked out (couldn’t Epstein count?!), but I’m guessing Ringo slept in the bath.

There are some nice pics here of the band in the flat celebrating John Lennon’s birthday in October 1963.

On the market for £1,375,000 via James Taylor Property (Tel: 0843 2822 514).

The Property: Grade II listed barn for conversion

The Place: Bardney, Lincolnshire

The Price: £190,000 (Guide)

The Pain: It’s listed, and in pretty bad shape, so don’t expect this to be easy.

The Gain: It has planning permission for two three-bed houses – but it may also be possible to convert it into one large home (subject to permission).

The agent reckons the two homes option will result in properties worth around £250,000 each, so if you keep costs under control there’s a good return here for a developer.

If you’re a lifestyle buyer, the single option is probably more attractive – that vast internal space and vaulted ceiling could look really spectacular.

It will, the agent thinks, be worth around £450,000-£500,000 as a single home.

Bardney is a popular village which lies to the east of Lincoln (approx 12 miles).  It has a post office, butcher, school, doctor’s surgery, pharmacy, medieval centre and a railway cycle path which is approx 9.5 miles to Lincoln.

The Agent: Savills (Tel: 0843 2821 659)