Homes Under the Hammer couple buy fire-damaged Welsh farm for £500k over the guide price

A guide price at a property auction is just that - a guide, it is in no way a guarantee of what a lot will eventually sell for. But a guide price does give you some indication of the level of where the bidding may start to slow down and what the property could be worth, depending on how many people are desperate to bid and win.

So when a derelict, fire-damaged farmhouse with outbuildings and land on the Isle of Anglesey went to online auction with a guide price of £320,000 and was sold at a jaw-dropping £825,000, there was surely going to be a good reason why someone was prepared to blast the guide price out of sight?

The farm was first visited by BBC's Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martel Maxwell, who was smitten by the undulating 25 acres of the stunning Welsh landscape but was rather unimpressed with the size of the farmhouse that serviced it - pretty much just a two up, two down.

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Even worse than the disappointing size of the farmhouse was the fact that the home had suffered a fire and although all the walls and most of the ceilings were still in place there was soot damage in almost every room. Stepping outside Martel's mood lifted when she saw the potential in the unconverted stone outbuildings and the space provided by a huge, more modern barn.

The site was bought by experienced property developers Mike and Sarah, who had been featured on the programme before when they transformed a terrace house in Wilmslow, so it was a surprise to discover that the couple from over the border had forked out over half a million pounds over the guide price.

Sarah said: "This one is for us rather than business related. All my childhood holidays were in Anglesey, my parents then retired here as well and we thought this is where we want to be."

The couple thought a timescale of 18 months using permitted development to increase the footprint of the building would be achievable with Mike doing most of the work and bringing in local trades and specialists when required. The budget was around £100,000.

The show returned two years later and the site looked worse than it did before in some respects because the roof was off, ceilings and floors had gone, and one of the main external walls had been demolished. Conversely there were some new walls erected to a first floor level, so what had been going on?

Mike said: "We've knocked the house down near enough, put all the walls up to the first floor level, we're just waiting now to put the joists in to carry on. Instead of going down the permitted development route we went down the full planning route so that takes time."

The new first floor extensions will add a hall with staircase, a bootroom and a spacious lounge, with the core of the original house allocated to being a kitchen diner with seating area around a log burner and a new build section to the room which will have floor-to-ceiling glass to optimise the view.

The budget was up to £50,000 so far but the couple estimated that the total spend would be somewhere near £200,000 - twice their original budget - because they had changed their plans and decided to renovate and build a bigger home.

Sarah estimated the timescale would be 12 more months to get the house habitable so they could move in and then another 12 months to landscape the garden and convert the two outbuildings into a games room and a granny annexe.

Since buying the site the couple had been living in a static caravan with their son and it was a tight squeeze but the horses had got themselves a lovely home in new stables, built inside the more modern barn.

There was one building on site that was new and finished, but also a bit of a surprise. Sarah explained: "We were very rash and we treated ourselves to an Arctic cabin. We decided now was the time as we hadn't got anywhere to get away from the build and to have friends round, so now we can go in there and sit around the firepit in the middle and it's nice just to be able to switch off."

The estate agent returned to the site and thought the land could be rented out to achieve a pre-tax income of around £5,000 a month but it's the property and land value combined that was another jaw-dropping monetary figure revealed on the show - depending on the standard of finish and the conversion of the outbuildings included, he valued it at between £1.5m and £1.6m - wow.

But the family were not interested in that because this was going to be their forever home. Inside the cabin they toast their new Homes Under The Hammer enabled life on the Isle of Anglesey. Mike said: "Here's to the nearly finished project - only another 12 months to go!" and Sarah added: "And here's to living on Anglesey!".

This Homes Under The Hammer story was part of series 27 episode four, currently available to view on BBC iPlayer. For more property stories sent to your inbox twice a week sign up to the property newsletter here and join the Amazing Welsh Homes property Facebook group here. For the latest TV and showbiz news sign up to our newsletter here.

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