Grotty bungalow fetches £535,000
A grotty bungalow defied the credit crunch by fetching £535,000 at auction, proving buyers would still pay a premium for a room with a view, an estate agent said.
The three-bedroom, timber-framed bungalow has sweeping views across Lyme Bay in Dorset and is yards from the famous Cobb.
The 13th-century seawall has inspired artists and writers such as Jane Austen and was immortalised in the film The French Lieutenant's Woman
.
The bungalow plus the quarter-acre site sold for almost double the £300,000 guide price at auction in Sherborne.
Ross Willmington of estate agents Symonds and Sampson said: "It's a pretty grotty bungalow, it's simply location, location.
"It sits high above the Cobb looking over everyone's rooftops with totally uninterrupted views of Lyme Bay, the Cobb and the harbour. One-off properties like this will always attract interest.
"Quite simply they don't come around every day and people are still willing to pay a premium for them."
It was owned by West Dorset District Council which paid £335,000 for a pair of bungalows at Marine Parade because it needed to carry out vital land stabilisation work.
The money raised from the bungalow will offset the cost of the conservation work.
Mr Willmington added: "The council bought it because they needed to take a piece of the garden from the property to do some coastal protection work at Lyme."
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