A couple who couldn’t buy a house has decided to buy an entire French village for only $17,000.
Landscape gardeners Yip Ward, 47, and Paul Mappley, 47, explained that they couldn’t break into the UK property market so they have purchased the village in Normandy in April 2021.
The property features six cottages, a two-story workshop, a communal bread oven, a cider press, a paddock, and two barns.
The couple was living in a caravan in Tunbridge Wells, Kent when Yip received an offer from a friend who had changed their mind about buying the cottage.
That’s when they realized the potential of the place so they decided to buy the rest of the buildings.
Yip and Paul couldn’t believe their luck in sealing the deal for €14,000 ($17,000), which is less than the house deposit in the UK.
However, there are a lot of work on their hands as the cubbyhole for the stopcock became home to salamanders and snakes, and there was also no electricity.
The couple, who appeared on Channel 4’s episode of ‘Help! We bought a Village,’ were not bothered by the tasks as they had been living in a converted horsebox before this.
“Something like this has so much history,” Paul expressed. “It’s an amazing, amazing feeling. We’re very lucky.”
When they saw the oak-framed barn with a working well, a stone-built bakery with a domed oven, and an antique apple press, Yip and Paul said: “It’s the first day of the rest of our lives.”
They are planning to add a glamping site and turn the village into cottage rentals.
“’I love all the history that goes in with it as well again, you know, how many loaves of bread have been cooked in that for the village over the years, it’s just amazing,” Paul said.
It may take a long time before the pair can turn the Hamlet into a rental business but for now, it is a dream come true for them.
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