A DERELICT house in Tredegar which went up for auction with a starting price of just £1 sold for £21,000.

The fire damaged semi-detached house in Brangwyn Close, Cefn Golau, went under the hammer on Thursday, October 29 and was snapped up by a carpenter who travelled from London to take part in the auction.

The new owner, father-of-two Mindaugas Kalon, travelled to the auction after reading about the offer.

“We’re happy to have bought the house but wanted to pay less, maybe £15,000 but there were so many other bidding,” he said.

“We read about the house in the newspapers for sale for £1 and decided to come here to bid.

“We may do the place up and rent it out or maybe put it up for sale – we don’t know yet.”

The house was previously owned by a landlord who intended to let it out, but had been damaged in a fire. Other houses in the same street have sold for an average of £50,000.

Sean Roper of Newport-based auctioneers Paul Fosh Auctions said the firm had received a flood of interest after the house, which was listed with a nil reserve, was advertised as going under the hammer.

“The current owners wanted to get the property sold and listed it with nil reserve to ensure that it went at auction,” he said. “We had phenomenal interest in the house despite its extensive fire damaged condition and very poor state of repair.

“We’re very pleased with the figure of £21,000 achieved for the house at the sale.”

No internal inspections of the property were conducted prior to the sale due the condition of the building.