A house for £1? What a day at a property auction taught me about the UK housing crisis

Key points

• Amid the high-stakes bustle of numbered paddles shooting up and gavels banging down, an unexpected voice calls desperately from the corner of the auction room.
• “That’s my house,” shouts the woman, watching her home of 20 years up for sale.
• “I live there.
• You can tell the people who are bidding I’m not coming out of my house,” she continues.
• But nothing can halt the cut-and-thrust of this property sale.