The Greater Manchester house transformed on a £10,000 budget

It's no secret that buying a house can be incredibly costly. From the deposit and your mortgage repayments right down to your legal fees, it is no wonder people look for ways to cut costs when it eventually comes round to renovating.

More and more homeowners are now taking on DIY in a bid to transform their homes on a budget. The notion of decorating, building and doing repairs yourself rather than paying a professional to do the job can reduce your spends by thousands, as one couple in Prestwich have proven.

Drew Wilby and Eddy Tan spoke to the Manchester Evening News as part of our Where I Live series. Each week we chat to different homeowners about their buying journey and the costs involved; whilst taking a look inside their home to see how they've renovated.

READ MORE: First-time buyer transforms dated £225,000 Victorian terrace into Instagrammable pad

Drew, 30, originally from Wakefield and Eddy, 35, from Southampton, both moved to Manchester around 10 years ago and met in the city in 2017.

Eddy initially moved into Drew's home which he owned in Higher Blackley before the couple decided to buy their first home together. They began house-hunting in 2020 during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It was very difficult to get a viewing. People were jumping in with offers before we’d even get chance to view somewhere. It was very competitive," Drew told the Manchester Evening News.

"We found one house that we liked and we put an offer in for it, but we got outbid for a crazy amount. I think there were about six or seven other people wanting it so it was chaos.

“We then realised that the estate agents were putting lower prices on their adverts with no intention of selling anywhere near the asking price."

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