A woman who says she was ‘effectively homeless’ while doing up a home she bought for just £1 has shared pictures of the stunning transformation. Maxine Sharples put in a bid at the extraordinary rate in 2015, under a scheme which sold dilapidated houses off cheaply in exchange for homeowners’ agreement to use their own money and resources to bring it back to life.
She revealed that she “couldn’t have been more naïve” about the process of upgrading the home. Starting the renovations during the pandemic, she was forced to take on a lot of the labouring herself - with astonishing results.
“I applied in 2015 as a postgraduate student at LJMU. I lived locally in L7 at the time and heard about the scheme through the grapevine,” said Maxine, who lives in Liverpool. “Although initially I didn’t have the funds, I applied anyway and thought, ‘I’ll cross that bridge’ if I was shortlisted. In 2019, four years later, I got a phone call to ask if I was still interested in a home for a pound.”
