Feeling flush? Public loo with a sea view in Cornwall is set to go under the hammer with a guide price of £15,000

It might sound like a stinky offer, but a public loo up for auction in Cornwall could make a profitable holiday home for a determined fixer-upper buyer.

The stone building with a partial view of Newlyn’s picturesque fishing harbour is being sold freehold by the council for a guide price of £15,000, after government cuts made funding its maintenance tricky.

Clive Emson Auctioneers describes the 330 sq ft property as “a fantastic opportunity in a great position”, despite currently – and decidedly less glamourously – comprising “male and female facilities, each with storeroom”.

It’s a dinky dwelling at seven-and-a-half metres long by four metres wide, but there is scope to extend upwards or replace it entirely, subject to planning permission.

Last year, a former toilet in Crystal Palace bought for the same price went on sale for £750,000 having been converted into a modern two-bedroom eco-home.

There is potential for commercial use, too, with plenty of inspiration to be found in London’s toilet-inspired bar scene.

Underground wine and charcuterie bar WC in Clapham (see what they did there?), Ladies & Gentlemen in Kentish Town and Attendant in Fitzrovia all started life as grimy bogs.

Public toilet closures have plagued Cornwall – and the wider UK – in recent years.

Many members of the public have voiced their willingness to pay for use to keep them open, concerned that a lack of facilities may deter tourists and encourage street urination.

Lambeth council sparked gentrification fears (“not another hipster loo bar!”) after putting underground public toilets in Brixton’s Windrush Square up for rent two years ago and a block of Margate loos with planning permission granted for a three-bedroom seafront home was listed for £400,000 in January.

Bidding on the Cornish WC gets underway on September 13 at the St Mellion International Resort in Saltash, where it will be lot 141 of 155.

Graham Barton, senior auctioneer at Clive Emson Auctioneers and often seen on BBC 1's Homes Under the Hammer, expects it to "fly" at auction, especially if the planning office has given a bidder "the merest hint" that permission for a residential use of some kind would be granted.

He said: "If you ring the planning office, the duty planning officer will err on the cautious side because he doesn't make the final decision, it's a democracy. So there's an element of gamble, but this loo is in the area of the village where development is allowed.

"If there is confidence among bidders that it has a residential future, it could easily make twice as much as its guide price."

The Newlyn toilet is far from the first that Mr Barton has auctioned off. "We've sold so many loos I've forgotten how many," he said.

"There's been a dribble of them over the last 15 years but its accelerated recently as councils tighten their pursestrings and try to raise funds. They're looking to make savings in every quarter, and what are deemed by them to be superfluous loos are an easy sale because they always attract attention.

Mr Barton reckons this particular loo has location in its favour.

"It's set on the pretty road from Newlyn to Mousehole, looking across to St Michel's Mount. A lot of people drive past it, making it a great potential office for an architect or someone with a small business premise need as the signage would be very visible.

"Having said that, the vast majority of loos we've sold have gone on to be dwellings. The most famous was in Charlestown, which we sold two or three years ago. We sold it for a beauty queen and the buyer was a beauty queen as well — a very strange coincidence. They turned it into a glorious two-storey, two-bedroom holiday let.

"This is a hot lot, it's not on our worry list at all."