Halloween - Haunted Houses

Friday, 28 October 2011 5:33 PM

By Phil Scullion Follow @PhilScullion

Would you live in an old church, isolated cottage, or spine-chilling chapel?

Perhaps you could just stay one night, to prove it's safe. Mind you, if you know your horror movies then you'll know that might be a bad idea.

It starts with a few creaky floorboards, rattling windows and nerve-jangling noises. Next thing you know there are ghosts and ghouls all over the place and you're in the middle of a low budget Halloween B-movie.

Now we can't promise that the devilish dwellings we've put together are actually haunted (estate agents tend to be a bit coy on that topic), but we have our suspicions.

Take this old country cottage for example:

It has a history stretching back to the 17th century and sits in the grounds of a listed manor house. We're sure there's been at least a bit of spooky activity at some point. Mind you, it has undergone a comprehensive renovation and it's a well known fact that ghosts have an aversion to houses with shiny new bathrooms.

Investing in a new bathroom suite isn't a totally failsafe plan though, sometimes a house is just plain scary. Set behind morose black gates and surrounded by shadowy trees, it'd take quite an interior to persuade us to spend the night at this Grade II-listed country house:

A modern gym, pool, and generally classy interior does save it from being totally terrifying... but we're not too sure if we'll be staying for dinner:

The next house on our list doesn't actually look all that fear-provoking from the outside. Horror film aficionados would barely bat an eyelid:

Mind you, it's not what is on the outside, it's who is on the inside:

Scared? Well we can calm your nerves a little with this, your very own church with graveyard to four sides. It's detached (obviously) comes with stained glass, church pews and is in a picturesque village. Although, best not wake up the neighbours when you wander home from the pub and up to your front door at 1am...

Haunted houses is a market the new builds haven't quite mastered yet. Nothing beats a bit of tradition, which is why this Grade II-listed house, built in 1879 is a pretty petrifying property (sorry – that was one step too far). On the market for a cool £6 million we don't doubt it is lovely... but it's certainly got an eerie exterior.

Driving down the coast looking for a place to stay this Halloween? It's getting late and up pops a guesthouse. It'll be alright won't it? Can't see why not, nobody would ever think to make a movie about that sort of experience.

It's when you get inside and see the red interiors that you might start to get jumpy:

Now some of these houses have been a bit misrepresented. Some aren't actually that scary, but estate agents have just uploaded a few slightly spooky looking pictures. There's only a cast-iron guarantee that five of the six above are definitely haunted. We jest of course, they might all be.

There is no such doubt about the genuine terrifying nature of this final property though. It is so spooky looking we're naming it the AboutProperty Halloween House of the Year 2011 (quite an accolade), even though technically it's a chapel. Pop "detached house for sale" on the advert and we're afraid that's what you'll get.

Without further ado here it is, the undisputed scariest property on the market right now and it could be yours for just £40,000:

Tempting. Here's a few more pictures:

Pictures provided courtesy of Rightmove.

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• halloween