A water tower with planning permission to be transformed into a three-bedroom home is up for auction with a guide price of £45,000.
Located close to the commuter hotspot of Newbury, the unusual property is perfect for someone looking for their own Grand Designs transformation project.
“Every now and again we get a water tower come to auction and historically there’s been a good level of demand for these quirky lots,” Savills auctioneer Steven Cane tells Homes & Property.
“I’d expect there to be a good level of interest on the day with interest likely to come from developers, investors or an end user looking to create a distinctive residence.”
Plans to transform this piece of infrastructure into a family home have already got off the ground.
The tower, which pokes above the surrounding tree tops, comes with existing planning permission to turn it into a three-bedroom home with a roof terrace.
Entrance would be via a ground floor hall and the bedrooms would be built on three further floors underneath the existing water tank. The tank itself could be turned into a kitchen and dining room, and a roof terrace perched on top.
There would also be space to park two cars in the undercroft.
The 12.4-metre-high water tower was originally built to serve the housing estate that it sits on, which was originally constructed to serve the American airbase at RAF Greenham Common.
It has a cross-braced metal frame supporting a 3.6-metre-high water tank.
There was previous planning permission to put solar panels and a wind turbine on the roof, but that has now expired.
Water towers were popular in midcentury England to provide mains water to people’s homes. By placing them up high, gravity was used to provide the water pressure during periods of high demand.
Now that the mains water system has been upgraded, several have been sold off to people looking for unique homebuilding projects.
Last year a brutalist-style concrete water tower in Cambridgeshire went up for auction with a guide price of £350,000.
One of Grand Designs most famous projects involved the conversion of a brick water tower in Kennington, London, which underwent a £2 million transformation to turn it into a 10-storey home.
