West Wycombe Road house bought at auction given makeover

Sarbjit Singh and wife Baljinder have spent the best part of a year completely overhauling 21 West Wycombe Road, which was dilapidated, boarded up and falling apart when they snapped it up at auction on March 30 last year.

The brave pair bought the house, which had been empty for years and was up for auction with a guide price of £195,000, for £416,500 at Auction House London and have now turned it into four one-bed flats after months and months of hard work to make it liveable.

The stairs used to be dangerous and full of rubble

Sarbjit said it was the first time they had ever bought a house at auction – and they were thrown right in at the deep end with 21 West Wycombe Road.

It was boarded up, covered in rubble, and had parts of the walls, ceilings and floors missing, with rickety and dangerous flights of steps.

The rooms were dark and falling apart

How it looks now

They went straight in and started the epic task of clearing the mountains of rubbish and rubble before getting to work ripping everything out and starting again.

Now the semi-detached building has been given a sleek makeover, Sarbjit and Baljinder invited the Bucks Free Press inside to see the transformation.

Parts of the walls, ceilings and floors were missing

They have spent around £200,000 bringing the building back to life and Sarbjit would visit the site every day, travelling to Wycombe from their home near Staines.

“We had to do everything from scratch,” Baljinder said. “But now when people go past, they say how pleased they are that we’ve done something with the building.”

The whole building and the outside space now just need a jetwash and a final deep clean before the flats can go on the market to rent unfurnished.

Sarbjit said: “It’s the first time we have bought from auction. I was sat at my relative’s house and they said this building was up for auction.

“The price started low but it kept going up, and we kept saying ‘okay just a thousand more’.

“We started out with the cleaning, getting rid of all the rubbish and clearing it all out. We went section by section, secured the building and put scaffolding up.”

The top floor apartment

One of the new bathrooms

Although the pair live in Surrey, they are hoping to move to High Wycombe in the future and say a string of different building projects along West Wycombe Road are helping to improve the look of the area.

Baljinder said: “It’s a nice area and it has good grammar schools. It seems like a lot of effort is being put in to make the area nicer.”

They all have outside space

Now that the hard work is done, will the couple be buying any more houses at auction to make over?

“No,” Baljinder joked – but Sarbjit was optimistic: “It’s a weight off our shoulders now it’s done, but it was good fun, an experience for sure.”