WHO would live in a house like this?

The clues are that it has been empty for two to three months, has no furniture and does not even have a ground floor.

The answer is simple -- anyone with £2,000 to spare -- for this will be the recommended guide price for the terraced house when it is auctioned next Thursday, in London.

Not only was the two-bedroom house, in Branch Road, Burnley, gutted when the previous owners left after repossession -- but where there used to be a concrete floor and possibly at one time a carpet there is now just dirt and gravel.

The original solid concrete floor has been smashed up and removed throughout the two downstairs rooms leaving a gravel base four or five inches lower than the skirting boards, the fire surround and a set of units. It will be sold to the highest bidder by Winkworth Auctions on Thursday at the New Connaught Rooms, in London.

Business development manager for Winkworth Auctions, Chris Wilsden, said: "It will probably be bought by a builder who will put it back in order and rent it out or something.

"We get all types and sizes of houses so we are used to seeing such things.

"I think this one has probably been empty about two or three months and could go for £1,000 either way of the guide price.

"The previous owners might have been thinking of doing it up and re-laying it in the future so they dug it up a couple of inches but you would think they would have removed the units first.

"It's also a bit smoke damaged but there's not any fire damage to it."

Further details about the house can be obtained from the Auction Team on 020 8649 7255.

Picture: Chris Wilsden takes a look at what little is left of the floor at the house