It can be hard to get on the property ladder or to find a house that you can truly add value to, and so the property auctions have always been a hunting ground to root out a building that can provide a solution to either scenario at maybe a more reasonable price.
But with climbing plants eating this three-bed semi alive on the outside and acrow props keeping the house up in some areas on the inside, the new owner of this house in Skewen is going to have to have vision to see past the damp and the faded interiors and clearly see a smart and special family home that could be reborn from the rundown state it currently languishes in.
The garden is so overgrown you can't get outside to see it. But the auction house selling the property ensures anyone tempted to dive in and save this once loved family home from drowning in plants that the property does actually have a garden hiding under the wilderness outside.
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As you wander down this residential street lined with period properties and the occasional shop, this house stands out as an empty home desperate for attention and deserving a second chance.
The house can be found hiding behind the foliage in Skewen, a village within the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, once an industrial village and old top-loading blast furnaces can also be seen at Neath Abbey. To the south of Skewen lies the village of Llandarcy, the site of the country's first oil refinery.
The site of this former oil refinery is now being developed as an urban village called Coed Darcy, a development which was promoted at its start by the Prince of Wales' Foundation for the Built Environment. So the area is attracting investment, but will this forlorn former home attract someone to reawaken its soul starting with some serious weeding?
To say that this house needs a bit of work and some serious attention is perhaps a major understatement when you are standing outside. Climbing plants totally eclipsing part of the front of the semi-detached property gives a clear indication of the heartache and renovation project headache that may be in store once through the front door.
However, Angie Davey, of Newport-based Paul Fosh Auctions who are selling the property, says the renovation project, in singer Bonnie Tyler's home village, needn't be the heartache that the internationally-acclaimed artist is famous for singing about.
In fact, property investors, developers and even brave first-time buyers who can see through the current condition of the property, will probably fall in love with the home as they gently revive it back to a full life - full of potential profit, as the house is listed with a guide price of only £32,000.
Of course it could sell for more, but the amount of work needed at the property will put some people off, leaving the bidders with vision, and hopefully experience too, the chance to bag it and bring it back into use and in doing so bag themselves a profit for all their hard work.
Angie says: "The front is encased in climbers and inside the ceiling is jacked up in various places. Paint is peeling and wallpaper is hanging from the walls. Having said all this there is real potential in this large, semi-detached home.
"Make no mistake, this is a major renovation project but with money and imagination it could be turned into a lovely family home after a complete refurbishment."
The large property retains many original features and has a lounge, dining room and kitchen plus three double bedrooms and a bathroom. The attic also offers scope for conversion, subject to planning permission.
Angie also points to the garden as a selling point but it is currently inaccessible and in need of a digger as well as a strimmer, but it too has huge potential hidden under the jungle-like undergrowth.
The project is being sold with vacant possession, apart from the foliage and the damp that currently resides there, but for a new owner with vision and a healthy budget it's being sold with potential too.
The next Paul Fosh Auctions sale, when this property will be offered for sale with a guide price of £32,000, starts on Tuesday, August 30 at noon and ends on Thursday, September 1 at 5pm. And don't miss the best dream homes in Wales, renovation stories, and interiors, join the Amazing Welsh Homes newsletter, sent to your inbox twice a week.
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