A derelict home left virtually invisible behind a blanket of foliage after being consumed by nature over 20 years has sold at auction for £188,000.

House-hunters were offered the chance to own the Birmingham property for a bargain price - but it came with the slight catch of having jungle-like garden.

The new owners will now have a mammoth gardening job on their hands after trees and shrubs were allowed to grow out of control for more than two decades.

The semi-detached home on Mavis Road, in Longbridge, is now barely visible from the street after the garden was neglected by its elderly owner.

Following his death last year the three-bedroomed address was put up for sale with a guide price of £130,000 and sold for £188,000 last Tuesday (19/8).

Neighbours said the previous owner left the three bedroomed house and "eyesore" garden "to rot" before he died from cancer last year."

One resident, who did not wish to be named, said: "He just never bothered with the garden and it's become a jungle over the last 20 years."

"You can understand him not doing it himself as he got older and ill but you'd think he'd get a gardener in at least and take a bit of pride in it."



"It's not been nice to live near to, it's just a bit of an eyesore and the garden got completely out of control. "

"Whoever has bought that"

now has one hell of a clean up job to do."

Another neighbour added: "It was an old gentleman who lived there."

"He unfortunately died over a year ago of cancer. The family did not really bother with him until after he died. He lived there all of his life."

"You don't realise how bad it had got until you walk up and see it properly."

"The family bothered with him on the rare occasion, then after he passed away, they got involved and it went to auction last week. "

"I used to see him every day. He lived on his own since his mum died, he used to go out every single day though. From 9am to 6pm."

"He was retired, he used to work at the Longbridge factory so he must have had a decent pension to live off. "

"But unfortunately he just left the house and garden to basically rot."

Estate agents Savills described the property as: "In need of modernisation, benefitting from a rear garden and potential for off street parking, with extension potential subject to requisites consents, well located for the shopping and recreational amenities of Birmingham."