A terraced house by the Welsh valleys that went up for auction with a guide price of nothing has sold for £50,000.
The three-bedroom, burned-out shell in New Tredegar, Caerphilly county, had 15 people bidding on it.
Before going under the hammer, it was described as being “in a very sorry state of repair”, but that did not put off potential buyers.
Andrew Kidd, a 58-year-old landscaper from Newport, had the winning bid of £50,250 after the bidding closed on Saturday and said : “I would have liked to get it £10,000 cheaper but I thought it was worth £50,000 all day long”.
Andrew Kidd first saw the property through Paul Fosh Auctions and has not even visited yet.
He said he and his wife Victoria chose it as a “doer upper”.
“We are looking forward to doing it. I said I would go up to £50,000 and my missus said ‘oh just put a little extra’,” he added.
“So, we put £50,250 and it was bang on the money.”
Andrew said he and his son-in-law, who has a carpentry background, were taking on the challenge.
When asked about his plans he said: “We haven’t decided, we might sell it then go back to the auction sight to get another one.”
He said he hoped to sell it for about £125,000 and get all the work done in less than four months.
But Victoria, 55, joked “it will take seven to nine”.
Sean Roper of Paul Fosh Auctions said: “The state of the house and the price really seemed to grab people’s imagination.
“We had interest from all over the place and bids placed as soon as the auction went live”.
He said there were a total of 136 bids on the property before Andrew’s winning bid.
Houses on Jubilee Road, where the property is located, had an average sale price of £83,000 over the past year, according to Rightmove.