Sell a Non-Standard Construction House for Cash
Airey, Cornish, Wates, BISF, Woolaway: the names of post-war housing systems that mortgage lenders treat with suspicion. If your home was built outside the usual brick-and-block tradition, your buyer's lender may simply refuse it. We buy non-standard construction property for cash, whatever the system.
- Written offer
- 24 hrs
- Survey required
- No
- Any type
- Yes
- Completion
- 7 days
Britain built a lot of housing quickly after the war, and much of it stepped outside the familiar brick-and-block tradition. Concrete systems, steel frames, prefabs, timber frames: sound homes that people have lived in happily for decades. The trouble comes only when it is time to sell, and a buyer’s mortgage lender sees the construction type and hesitates.
We buy non-standard construction property for cash, as it stands, whatever the system and whatever its condition.
The construction type is a lending problem, not a living problem. Plenty of these homes are perfectly sound. What holds them back is the mortgage behind your buyer, and that is exactly the thing a cash purchase removes.
What “non-standard construction” means
It is a broad label for anything not built the conventional way. The main families are:
- Precast reinforced concrete (PRC): post-war systems such as Airey, Cornish, Wates and Woolaway. Several were designated “defective” under the Housing Defects Act 1984.
- Steel-framed: BISF houses and similar, structurally sound but unfamiliar to many lenders.
- Prefabricated: temporary post-war housing that quietly became permanent, mostly well past its intended life.
- Timber-framed: some lenders are comfortable, many are not, particularly with older or unknown provenance.
- Cob, thatch, and converted buildings: where materials or change of use raise questions.
Why mortgage lenders back away
A lender is really asking one question: if we had to repossess and resell, could we? For an unfamiliar or designated-defective construction, the honest answer is “not easily”, so they decline. That refusal is what turns a perfectly liveable home into a “cash buyers only” listing, no matter how happy you have been in it.
Repaired, certified, or as-built, we buy it
It makes no difference to whether we will buy:
- A concrete home with a PRC certificate from an approved repair scheme, which may even be mortgageable again.
- One that is unrepaired and close to unsellable on the open market.
- A steel or timber frame that is structurally fine but lender-shy.
The condition and the specifics shape the offer. The construction type alone does not put us off. See our wider page on selling an unmortgageable property for how this fits the bigger picture.
How we price a non-standard construction home
We start from what the home would be worth as a standard, mortgageable house, then account for the system and its condition:
| Situation | Typical effect on offer |
|---|---|
| Concrete, certified repaired (PRC certificate) | 5–15% |
| Concrete or prefab, unrepaired | 15–30% |
| Steel-framed, sound condition | 8–18% |
| Timber-framed, sound condition | 5–15% |
The ranges depend on condition, location, and any certification. We set out each part in your written offer, and you can read how we calculate a cash offer for the full method.
What we need from you
- The postcode and address.
- The construction type, if you know it, or just what a surveyor or estate agent has told you.
- Any paperwork: a PRC certificate, structural report, or repair records.
- What a previous buyer’s lender said, if a sale has already fallen through.
Start an offer
If your home’s construction has scared off buyers or their lenders, tell us about it. We will come back within 24 hours with a written, no-obligation offer and a plain explanation of the figure.
Frequently asked,
plainly answered.
01 What counts as non-standard construction?
02 Why won't lenders touch it?
03 My house has a PRC certificate. Does that help?
04 Will you buy an unrepaired concrete or prefab house?
05 What about steel-framed or timber-framed homes?
06 Do you need a structural survey from me?
07 How fast can it complete?
Other situations
we take on.
Subsidence
A crack in the wall, a door that has started to stick, a surveyor's note about 'movement': subsidence is one of the fastest ways for a sale to fall apart. Lenders and insurers grow wary and buyers vanish. We buy houses with subsidence, historic or active, and price the movement in proportion to the facts.
Read more →Short lease flat
Once a lease drops below about 80 years, mortgage lenders grow wary. Below 70, most step away altogether, and your flat becomes cash-buyer territory almost overnight. We buy short lease flats with the lease as it is, so you do not have to spend months and thousands extending it before you can sell.
Read more →Unmortgageable property
'Cash buyers only' is a line that narrows the market dramatically: for some properties, almost to zero. We specialise in the properties that mortgage lenders reject. If a bank has declined your property, or your estate agent has warned you to brace for a 'cash buyers only' listing, we're often the answer.
Read more →