Council's umbrella-in-ceiling house sells for £83k

An empty house with an umbrella hanging from the ceiling of one of its rooms was among a number of properties to have been successfully sold at auction by a cash-strapped council.

As part of its sell-off programme to make extra funds to balance its books, six Bradford Council-owned assets went under the hammer earlier this week.

Four of them - including the empty house and an office building - sold for a total of more than £600,000, however two of the lots - a 14-acre plot of land and a parade of commercial premises - failed to sell.

The authority has said it planned to sell off at least 150 assets in the next few years in an effort to raise about £100m.

The empty house with the umbrella hanging from its ceiling, located near Peel Park, had a guide price of £45,000, but ended up selling for £83,000 at the Pugh Property Auction on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Salts Wharf office building, on Ashley Lane in Shipley, which had a guide price of £150,000, eventually sold for more than double that at £358,000.

Also successfully sold was a semi-detached property on Stephen Crescent, which had a guide price of £130,000 but sold for £140,000.

Finally, land on Hainworth Road in Keighley, described as being "predominantly grassland and tree cover" and which had a guide price of £15,000, eventually sold for £30,250.

Details of the successful buyers were not disclosed by Bradford Council.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, one of the lots that failed to sell was land on Exmouth Place, off Bolton Road, which was allocated as a future housing site where up to 75 homes could be built.

Described as "a greenfield site in a sustainable location within the urban area", it had a guide price of £225,000 but did not attract a buyer.

The other lot which did not sell was a series of properties on North Street and Bow Street in Keighley currently occupied by commercial tenants.

The parade of properties was said to generate an annual rent of £53,000 and had been given a guide price of £485,000, but went unsold.

As part of a request to the government last year for "exceptional financial support", Bradford Council was given permission to use money from the sale of assets to fund council services.

Councils can normally only use money from such sales for capital projects, such as new developments.

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