Owning your own home

But surely as it's had the HMO licence people have been living there so it must be to a certain standard?

LOL!

Cripes spenceey, no offence but you ain't half green sometimes :)

HMOs are often some of the worst, have a read of this if you're interested:
http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns/evict_rogue_landlords

They will typically be in crappy areas you wouldn't want to buy in, because this means the landlords can pick them up cheap.