If you’ve ever dreamed about retiring to Vancouver Island on the cheap, now’s your chance. The City of Langford is giving away seven homes -- for free.
But there’s a catch: the homes’ new owners will have to find someplace else to put the 1970s-era properties.
The city purchased the homes to complete the Leigh Road Interchange Project which opened to traffic last year, and city officials would rather see the properties reused than demolished.
“Houses on the blocks were in the path of the road, others weren’t but they were too close to the road,” Matthew Baldwin, Langford’s director of planning, told CTV Vancouver. “Council has re-zoned it for a business park so the homes can’t stay.”
Baldwin says the city is accepting offers on a first-come first-serve basis, and is asking the new owners to move the properties themselves.
Leif Pridy, of Pridy Bros. House Moving, said transporting such properties can cost approximately $15,000. Besides that expense, he told CTV Vancouver that other factors to consider include the “foundation costs, re-wiring or new hookup costs, any renovations you want to do.”
They may be relative bargains, but neighbours say they don’t understand why anyone would want to live in the run-down homes.
“They’re garbage,” said one Langford resident.
“They’ve been sitting there for so long, they’re derelict,” said another.
While some homes may prove to be a hard sell, Baldwin says he’s already received a “tonne of phone calls” from potential owners.
“The city can’t provide any warranty or make any claims about the conditions of the houses, but for free that seems reasonable,” said Baldwin.
