Abandoned estate where £300k homes lay empty after building firm goes bust

23 August 2023 , 12:15

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The few residents who moved in to the housing complex say they are still 'outraged' it was never completed (Image: Katielee Arrowsmith SWNS)

Chilling pictures show inside an abandoned estate where £300,000 homes lie empty after the firm that was building them went bust.

The sixteen homes at Woolmill Place in Sorn, Scotland, have been left to rot after work began on the site in 2007 and came to a halt. Half painted and plastered walls, unfitted toilets and baths tossed to one side litter the rooms inside the houses.

The few residents who moved in to the housing complex say they are still 'outraged' it was never completed. Following the building company's bankruptcy in the 2007 credit crunch, the site was bought by another construction firm for £2million.

However, residents claim the company have done nothing since and have left the homes to be reclaimed by nature. "Nothing has been done for years," one woman said. "We were promised that it would be a great community. If they don't want to build anymore then fine - but sell it to someone who does."

Homes have been left to rot (Katielee Arrowsmith SWNS)

This comes after it was revealed in July last year that residents of a 10,000-home development near Cambridge were outraged after their prized local area was turned into a building site. The villagers had no medical facility, no shops, no library, no pub, no library and just one bus an hour, forcing them to rely on the services of the surrounding rural communities.

Spooky abandoned house in woods left full of creepy dolls and forgotten dentures

And then over in Horden, County Durham, three-bedroom houses went on the market for just £5,000 because of the 'ghost town' the area had become. The successful mining village was once a lively community, but it suffered heavily following the closure of the local colliery in 1987.

New build houses have been under construction since 2007 and they remain unfinished and empty. (Katielee Arrowsmith SWNS)

Four homes were put up for auction with a starting price of just £5,000, one of which was a three-bedroom terrace property. A two-bed with a garden overlooking a park and church was also up for grabs.

Many neighbouring houses appear to be boarded up - reflecting a decline in the town's population from 15,000 in 1951 to just 6,807 in the 2021 census. 

The estate sits virtually empty (Katielee Arrowsmith SWNS)

The property's £5,000 guide price is less than two per cent of the cost of the average UK house. The average two-bed would set you back £255,172. Horden grew up around the colliery, which opened in 1904, and by 1964 it had cinemas, sports pitches and a bowling green.

Hannah Kane