Two former guesthouses in Douglas could have a new lease of life if plans for flats are approved.

The Wyndham and the Pitcairn, on Church Road Marina, were sold at a joint auction last year for £100,000.

The application (19/00324/B) by Alan Macracken is to convert the two buildings into 10 flats.

If approved, Mr Macracken’s plan would see the buildings have five flats each.

The basement and ground floors would be combined to create a ’deluxe’ three-bed flat.

The first, second and third floors in each building would have two flats, each with two bedrooms and the top floor would see the creation of a two one-bedroom flats.

Due to their location, the new flats will not be able to have any associated parking.

Under transport policy seven, new builds require one parking space per one-bedroom flat and two per two-bedroom flat.

As such the plans would require 18 spaces for its 10 flats.

However, in his application, Mr Macracken sought to explain why the plans should be exempt from that.

He said: ’Whilst these spaces cannot be achieved on site, we feel flexibility should be given due to the application site being in the town centre which is within close proximity to primary public transportation links and is also no increase on the car parking requirement if it continued to run as a guest house.’

To the rear of the property, Mr Macracken said 10 bicycle parking spaces would be provided by way of wall-mounted brackets.

Before the purchase of the buildings, they had fallen into a state of disrepair after closing as guesthouses a number of years previously.

This had led to attempts by Douglas Council to issue an enforcement notice on the owners of the buildings.

However that had proved more difficult than first envisioned.

In 2013, the previous owners sold the business to an off-island investment company before the previous owner’s company dissolved.

But the then new owners failed to register ownership at the land registry that would have detailed transfer of title.

The former owners are an offshore shell company based outside of the EU.

As a result the council could not then issue an enforcement notice, as under the regulations, notices could only be issued to owners, not buildings.

However, before that action was carried out, the buildings were sold as a pair London-based Allsop auctioneers. After a £100 bid nearly secured both buildings, a winning bidder eventually paid £100,000 in July last year.

Since taking over the buildings, the new owners have completed some structural work on the buildings.

This has included the removal of an overgrown tree from an upper floor window and replacing the single frame wooden windows with double glazing.