What it is: On the edge of the Forest of Bere, which supplied the timber to build Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s country retreat on the Isle of Wight, Keeper’s Cottage has been unoccupied for more than 50 years. The Forestry Commission is selling off the mid-19th-century house, set in 1.6 acres and with planning permission for conversion into a one-bedroom property with a study, a living room and a kitchen on the ground floor.

The house is two miles from the village of Wickham, which has two pubs and a shop, four miles from Fareham and 10 from Portsmouth. The M27 is close by and London is a 90-minute drive away. The property goes to auction at Droxford Village Hall at 3pm on November 4.

The problems: Refurbishing the cottage — which reveals its history with a part-cobbled floor, horse stalls and a ladder up to the first floor — will include installing mains services (electricity, gas and drainage) and replacing the windows and much of the timber that has been attacked by beetles over the years.

If you want to invite guests, you may be able to squeeze a sofa bed into the study, but it is unlikely that planning will be granted for an extension or a further bedroom in the near future. The new owner will also need to do quite a bit of work outside: landscaping the land for a garden, upgrading the access and fencing the boundary will cost up to £5,000.

The advantages: More than 300 sets of details have been posted out since the property went on sale last month — a quarter of them to London addresses.

You could pick up a pretty, period one-bedroom bolt hole with a normal sized garden for about £160,000, the selling agent believes, but the rare acre-and-a-half of land with Keeper’s Cottage, giving added privacy, means the property, when renovated, could sell on for almost double that, starting at £300,000.

Graham Thorne & Partners, 01202 684 004

Explore Property

• Buying & Selling

• New Homes

• Overseas

• Interiors

• Investment

• Gardens

• Cool In Your Code

• Specials

• First-time buyer

Times recommends

• Second homes: credit crunch casualty or money-spinner?
• How I built my own sliding house
• Top 10 incentives for house buyers