Hello all!

I have a couple of questions I was hoping somebody could help me with. I'm not in the property game yet, but am considering my options. I'll be trying to find out info myself, but any of your expert advice would be gratefully received...

My parents are living in a council owned house in Runcorn, Cheshire. It's a 3 storey 4 bed house in the town centre. They've were offered the chance to purchase the house about 3 years ago for 23k. I didn't know about this until just recently. My parents are not in the position to get a mortgage, but I am.

A similar house in the same street recently sold at auction for 80k. It was in a terrible state due to an error by the council, which meant it had been unoccupied for 10 years and was literally falling to bits. The owner spent another 20-30k getting it up to scratch.

I'm thinking this has to be a great investment opportunity! The area is currently undergoing quite a lot of re-generation, there are lots of new properties being built, an ice rink, cinemas, retail units, the largest inland freight company in the UK has just set up site there, and a new bridge is being built across the river Mersey. My parents home is right next to the site of the new bridge.

Would I be crazy not to buy the property? If I was to purchase the house as an investment, would I be able to re-mortgage the house in order to purchase another property?

Thanks in advance!

Think the Council would have 1st charge on the property for 1st 5 years. But not sure if this is at current market value or at the discounted rate.