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Brookside Close falls victim to crunch

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Catherine Deshayes

Would you want to live on a street famous for murders and messianic cults? Before you shake your head, read on - you could snap up a slice of TV history when one of the most famous addresses in Britain goes under the hammer today...

Home to the fictional Liverpudlian soap Brookside for 21 years, the thirteen houses making up the cul-de-sac of Brookside Close are being sold at auction today.

Mersey TV (now called Lime Pictures) purchased the Close, in the West Derby area of Liverpool, in 1982, specifically for use in the soap.

Six of the properties were home to the street's famous residents and the rest were used for wardrobe, makeup and offices. The cul-de-sac has lain empty since the Channel 4 soap ended in 2003.

Developers initially hoped to fetch £2 million for the semi-detached houses and bungalows, including the infamous number 10, where wife-beater Trevor Jordache was buried under the patio.

But, like the soap, those days are over and, with the credit crunch crippling the housing market, Auctioneers Allsop have listed the 1980's red brick properties with a total guide price of between £550,000 and £600,000.

Setting a new benchmark for the tumbling property market, the new valuation - which has collapsed from £2.4 million a year ago to just £500,000 today, reveals a drop of almost 80 per cent.

Even by Liverpool standards, where some city-Centre apartments have lost half their value and repossessions are three times their 2007 level, the drop is steep.

It puts the value of each house at just over £38,000, compared to the £25,000 Brookside's creator Phil Redmond paid for them in 1982.

Former Brookside star Ricky Tomlinson, who played Bobby Grant, said, "It doesn't surprise me they're going for that. They've been knocked about a bit and they were a place of work, after all."

Successive owners have tried to sell them individually to fans for a premium and the latest owner, Andrew Currie, a shoe salesman turned property developer, tried in vain to sell them for £250,000 each last November.

Mr Currie bought the close in September 2007 for £2.4 million through his company Marblespire, but couldn't meet the repayments and administrators were called in in February this year.

Nick Hancock of Hacker Young, which is now the administrator of Marblespire, said, "We've had lots of interest but people simply cannot raise the finance.

"The last offer we had was £900,000 but that fell through just before exchange of contracts, so we're now putting them in an auction through Allsop, with a reserve of between £500,000 and £600,000," added Mr Hancock.

Former Brookie stars have called on the council to buy them up as affordable housing to help families trying to beat the crunch. The council said it would hold talks with its registered landlords to seek a buyer.

Gary Murphy, Partner and Auctioneer at Allsop told TheMoveChannel.com, "With base rate currently at three per cent, capital values at seriously affordable levels, relative stability in the rental market and the absence of debt driven competition, prudent buyers with cash to invest are now facing real investment opportunities.

"For occupiers, and first time buyers in particular, there is a great variety of property at our auction, including ‘Brookside Close' that is ripe for improvement," he added.

Picture by Channel 4

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