Residents fume as whole highway of 24 properties is put up on the market for £1.6m

An entire street has hit the market, including 24 homes – which come complete with shocked residents.

Dock Road in Sharpness, Gloucestershire, will be auctioned off next week with the guide price of £1,575,000.

The homes include 12 terraces, eight semi-detached houses and two detached properties. They also come with tenants, many of whom aren’t happy about the move.

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Although tenants have been assured that there “would be no change to the residents’ tenancies” by current landlords the Canal and River Trust charity, many are concerned the new owner will increase the rent and potentially price them out.

Currently the single lot, which has been described as a “rare unbroken street” by action house Allsop, banks around £168,000 a year in rent for the trust.

Resident Amanda Cawston, a 54-year-old who has lived in her Dock Road home for the past three years with her husband and 19-year-old son, said: “We thought we would be here forever and now we don’t know what the future holds.

“It is a shock – we have spent a lot of time getting the house the way we like. We might not be able to afford this home in the long term.

“We may have to move again. We are not in a position to buy and rents are expensive – we really don’t want to leave if we don’t have to.”

Dave Morse shares Amanda’s fears. The 78-year-old has lived on the street for 25 years and said he would be “sad” if he was forced out.

He said: “I would be sad to lose it here because I have done a lot of work inside and outside the house and I would be disappointed if I had to leave..”

Meanwhile, Zoe Walker, 45, said she has “nowhere to go” if she was forced to leave her home, which she’s lived in since 2006.

She said: “I have been on the council list for a long time but if you have a roof above your head you can’t do anything about it.

“There is a lot of uncertainty – how much is (rent) going to go up by, if we are actually going to be kept as tenants. Nobody knows, we just got to wait and see.”

A Canal and River Trust spokesperson said: “Our charity is in contact with residents about the sale of the properties along Dock Road. The sale will be via an auction at the beginning of November.

“Our intention is that all the cottages will be sold together as a single lot to a single buyer.

“We understand that a change of ownership might seem unsettling, but in practice, whilst there will be a change of owner there won’t be a change to our resident’s tenancies i.e. nobody is required to leave their home and the properties will be sold on the same terms as the tenants have in place.

“We’ll keep in touch with our tenants as the sale process progresses.”

Along with the residential properties, the buyer would also own two semi-detached mixed use buildings, a single-storey workshop, three garages and 1.7 acres of vacant land. One of the buildings used to be the Sharpness Post Office.

Dock Road is due to be auctioned on Thursday, November 7.

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