£300k house owners stuck in ghost town
Credit crunch leaves rural idyll crumbling
WHEN Billy and Shannon Bigham spotted homes being built in an idyllic location, they moved fast.
They snapped up a detached four-bedroom house boasting spacious apartments, stylish fittings and salmon fishing rights for the river at the end of the garden.
Ten years on, they are trapped in a crumbling ‘ghost town’ of unsold homes on overgrown plots in Sorn, Ayrshire, unable to sell after the developer pulled out.
The property they paid nearly £340,000 for is valued at £280,000 – if only they could find a buyer.
Mr Bigham, 68, said: ‘When we put the house on the market we had more than 3,000 hits online.
‘But when people came to view and saw the state of the rest of the development, we didn’t have a single person over the doorstep.’
Mr Bigham, a retired painter and decorator, and his wife were attracted by the build quality and spectacular setting in Woolmill Place in the conservation village.
Only three of the 16 properties have been bought and occupied since being constructed in 2007. The remainder are derelict and becoming a bigger eyesore every year, with stained roughcasting, collapsing ceilings and weeds that reach chest height.
Mrs Bigham, a retired education officer, said: ‘My sister saw them being built so we bought one and moved in during November 2007. That was just when the credit crunch started to bite.
‘Five of the homes had a deposit put down on them but the people couldn’t sell their old properties because of the crash.’
The couple, who paid £325,000 for their house and another £12,500 for the garage, were relieved when McLaughlin Construction of Irvine bought the 14 remaining homes in 2010 for a reported £2million. Mrs Bigham said: ‘One of the bosses came out with a squad of men and started to play around with the designs of the houses, and still they didn’t sell.
‘They refused to do any further work then emptied the showhouse, presumably because they didn’t want to pay council tax.
‘Then a year ago the private gas company – we don’t get mains gas – disconnected the meters to the unoccupied houses.’
The couple said a gardener hired by the construction firm had not been seen for a year.
Three potential developers, including a businessman who
‘Builders refused to do any more work’ ‘For four years we had no road’
visited from Australia, expressed an interest but nothing came of it. One speculator planned to buy the houses for rental due to the shortage of social housing.
Mrs Bigham added: ‘Looking out at this every day wears you down, whereas going out on the balcony and looking down on the River Ayr is beautiful. There are trout and salmon in there and the title deeds say we have fishing rights.’
The Bighams were confident they would sell last year and paid a £1,000 deposit on a two-bed flat in nearby Ballochmyle, but lost the money after receiving no offers for their home. Mr Bigham said: ‘People loved the inside of the house when they saw it online but when they came out to look, no way. Our postman used to call us the Woolmill Two.
‘We pay £2,610 council tax but for three or four years we didn’t even have a road or lighting.’
The Bighams say they have written, emailed and phoned McLaughlin Construction without receiving any response.
The house next door is rented and the third occupied property is owned by Jim Baines, 68, and his 66-year-old wife Ann, who bought their home in 2013.
Mr Baines, a music teacher, said: ‘It’s very sad because the homes are first-class but it’s sad that it’s going downhill. When visitors come you feel embarrassed. They say, “Oh my goodness, what happened?” We wonder about what will happen when we sell but it probably won’t be our problem. It’s our daughters’ inheritance.’
McLaughlin Construction did not respond to requests for comment.