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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Sam Elliott-Gibbs

Newbuild estate where you can buy a house for £1 - and first residents love it

The first residents are unpacking their boxes at the newbuild estate where you can buy a house for just £1.

More than 250 of the modern homes are available at Marches estate in Wolverhampton.

Bosses at the £34million complex have placed the three and four bed properties on the help-to-buy scheme.

It allows people to purchase the homes after renting for 25 years.

They have a loyalty premium which can see 100 of the homes go for just a pound and then buy their home for just a quid.

It was set up specifically for hardworking people and families who have struggled to save a deposit to fulfil their dream of owning their own home.

They are building dreams at the the Marches development is in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton (BPM Media)

A couple who were living in a one-bedroom flat have spoken of the "life-changing" opportunity to buy a £1 home under a pioneering scheme.

Aaron Parsons, 32, and Tim Perry, 30, are among 86 people who have successfully applied for the Help to Own scheme in Wednesfield.

Mr Parsons told Black Country Live: "It is life-changing to purchase a house on this scheme.

James Taylor is loving life on a gleaming new housing estate (BPM Media)

"Our experience of finding a decent home to rent has been really tough, we have experienced homelessness, and then moved into a social housing property.

"We were living in a one-bed council flat, with no way of getting onto the property ladder.

"It is too good to be true, so much so we thought it was a scam. We are in here.

"I was just scrolling through Facebook and came across an advert and I thought: 'You know what I will read into that'.

"I thought I might apply for it. I didn't tell Tim and once we got accepted, I told Tim."

They used to live in a one-bedroom council flat, although Mr Perry was formerly "homeless" and was "sofa-surfing" before that, Wolverhampton Council said.

The scheme is also aimed at helping key workers get on the property ladder.

Under the scheme, more than 41 per cent of the homes will have a key worker living in it.

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said: "This makes home ownership more accessible to people and that has got to be a good thing.

"Here, it is about local people, key workers moving into these new elegant homes and actually being able to, in time, own time.

"I think this scheme is needed more. People perhaps starting off in jobs will find it really hard to get on the housing ladder, and that gets more difficult as prices go up.

"This makes it more accessible, it is a good scheme, and I hope we can have more across the region."

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