Can you get a mortgage on an Airey or PRC house?

Not usually on an unrepaired one — lenders class them as non-standard construction and decline. A PRC house can become mortgageable after a full structural repair with a PRC Certificate of Structural Completion issued by a suitably qualified engineer.

Is it worth repairing an Airey house before selling?

It's arithmetic, not principle. A full Airey repair typically costs £40,000–£48,000 and takes five to eight weeks, plus around £995 for the certificate. On a higher-value house that spend can come back in the sale price; on a lower-value one it often doesn't. Get the repaired and unrepaired figures side by side before spending anything.

Do you buy unrepaired PRC houses?

Yes. We buy without a mortgage, so the lending rules that block ordinary buyers don't apply. The offer is made knowing the construction type — it won't change when a survey confirms what the house is made of — and you choose the completion date.

Airey · Cornish · Orlit · Reema · Wates and other PRC types

The rules call it a defective house. You call it home. Either way, it can be sold.

Many of these houses were sold to their tenants by the council — then the same system designated the construction type defective and lenders stopped touching them. The unfairness is real. So are your options, and one of them doesn't cost £44,000.

8 typescommonly named as designated defective — Airey, Cornish, Orlit, Reema, Tarran-Newland, Wates, Winget, Woolaway (Property Solvers)

£40–48kthe typical cost of a full Airey structural repair, taking five to eight weeks (Checkatrade)

£995a PRC Certificate of Structural Completion after repair — the paper that makes lenders say yes again

Why the lender says no — on the drawing

This is a PRC house the way a surveyor sees one. Tap each number: the problem was cast into the frame in the 1940s, and it's invisible from the street.

1The precast concrete columns

The house hangs on a frame of concrete posts cast in a factory just after the war, when bricks and bricklayers were scarce. Inside the concrete are steel reinforcing rods — and over decades, moisture and carbonation can corrode the steel and crack the columns from within. That's the defect: structural, hidden, and impossible to price from the street.

2The panels that hide them

The horizontal shiplap panels are cladding, not structure — but they cover the columns completely. A surveyor can't see the frame's condition without opening the house up, and what can't be inspected can't be lent against. Sound familiar? It's the same logic that blocks spray-foam lofts: the refusal is about what's concealed, not what's confirmed.

3The designation

In the 1980s, after councils had sold thousands of these houses to their tenants under Right to Buy, the construction types were formally designated defective under the housing defects legislation. Lenders responded by classing them as non-standard and declining unrepaired examples as a rule — "cash buyers or nothing," as agents put it. The designation follows the type, not the condition of your particular house.

4The repair — and the paper that fixes lending

A full structural repair replaces the concrete frame with built brickwork, typically £40,000–£48,000 over five to eight weeks. After it, a PRC Certificate of Structural Completion (around £995, issued by a qualified engineer) restores mortgageability — houses on the same street with the certificate sell normally. That's the honest alternative to us, and for some owners it's the right one.

Sources: Checkatrade, Airey house repair cost · Property Solvers, unmortgageable property types · PRC Certificate, certificate cost. Costs and lender policies change — check current figures before relying on them.

Your three honest routes

Including the one where an auction might genuinely beat our price — because you'll trust the rest of this page more for knowing that.

Repair, certify, sell normally

Replace the frame with brickwork, get the PRC certificate, and the house becomes an ordinary mortgageable semi. On a higher-value house the £44,000-ish spend can come back in the price — do the arithmetic with real local sold prices for certified examples before deciding.

£40,000–£48,000 plus about £995 for the certificate, five to eight weeks of major works, and the money is spent before you know what the market gives back.

Auction

PRC houses are auction staples, and for an unrepaired one an auction may genuinely match or beat our price — builders and PRC specialists bid there. We'd rather tell you that than have you find out later.

No guarantee of meeting the reserve, a completion date the auction house fixes rather than you, entry and commission fees, and if it doesn't sell, everyone saw it fail.

Want to try auction first? Ask us for an introduction

We keep a short list of traditional auction houses we rate — no modern-method buyer-fee traps. They pay us a small introduction fee if you sell with them, and we’d rather tell you that than pretend the recommendation is free. If they beat our offer, take theirs. New to auctions? See how auctions actually work. Say “auction introduction” when Sophie calls, or ask on 0191 249 3969.

Sell to us as it stands

No repair, no certificate, no auction room. We buy without a mortgage, the offer is made knowing the construction type, and it won't change when a survey confirms what the house is made of. You pick the completion date; £500 a day on us if we miss it.

The price is below market value — 65–82% depending on the date you choose, judged against what unrepaired PRC houses actually fetch, not against certified ones.

The certain route: a date in writing, a figure that's already absorbed the bad news, and no crowd watching.

Why we can buy what a lender won't touch

A lender is protecting a 25-year loan against a frame it can't see — declining is its policy, not a judgement on your house. We're buying the whole property at a price that already assumes the frame is what unrepaired PRC frames usually are. Our offer is made after the bad news, not before it — so there's no mortgage to be withdrawn at week seven and no buyer to vanish at the survey.

Tell us the type if you know it — Airey, Cornish, Orlit, Reema, Wates — and whether any repair has ever been done, even a partial one. If your house already has a valid PRC certificate, say so: it may well be worth more than our unrepaired figure, sold on the open market, and we'll tell you that on the phone. Every detail you give us up front is protected by our price promise: disclosed facts can't be used to move the figure later.

The questions PRC owners ask

The council sold us this house. How is the defect our problem?

It shouldn't be, and we won't dress that up. Thousands of families bought in good faith under Right to Buy before the designation landed, and the assistance schemes of the time helped only some of them. But the designation runs with the construction type, so the choice in front of you is the three routes above — and pretending otherwise is how owners lose years.

My neighbour sold theirs, so why can't I?

Ask what their buyer was. If the house was repaired and certified, it sold as an ordinary house — that's route one. If it was unrepaired, the buyer was almost certainly cash: an investor, a builder, or a firm like us. Same street, two different markets. Your house sits in whichever one its paperwork puts it in.

Is a partial repair worth anything?

To a lender, usually not — most want a full scheme repair with a certificate covering the whole structure, and "some columns done" typically still reads as unrepaired. To us it's still worth mentioning: it's information about the frame's condition, and disclosed information is protected by the price promise.

How do you price an unrepaired PRC house?

Against what unrepaired PRC houses near you have actually sold for — auction results included — not against the certified house three doors down and not against a repair-cost deduction from a fantasy figure. We show you the comparables with the written offer, and you can take both to anyone you like.

Get a figure for the house as it stands

There's no obligation and nothing to sign. We'll give you a figure in writing, with our reasoning and the comparables, and you can take it to anyone you like before you decide.

Or call us: 0191 249 3969 · 8am–8pm, seven days