Episode 20 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello, and welcome to the show.

Now, auction properties come in all sorts of shapes

and sizes, from tiny terraces to massive mansions.

Yeah, and the auction room is often the place to get a very good deal.

Yeah, so why not head down to your local auction

and see what's on offer.

Well, it's at all go at an average property auction.

And I'll tell you what, the bidding can sometimes go at quite

-a frantic pace.

-Yes, you have to keep on your toes to keep up.

But make sure you don't let things run away with you.

Yeah, let's hope today's buyers took that advice onboard.

How did they get on? Let's find out.

In Farningham, Kent,

there's plenty of room on this plot, with a bizarre bonus.

You get a high-end motor too. No, seriously, you do.

In Aspatria, Cumbria, a hidden house with obvious problems.

Big rooms, um...no floors.

HE LAUGHS

Yea... Right.

And in Wallington, London, well, this flat is a tad tight for space.

This is the one room. This is it!

All these properties have been bought at auction. We'll find out who got them

and how much they paid when these homes went under the hammer.

GAVEL BANGS Yours!

Farningham in Kent is a quaint village complete with pretty river,

pub and local shops. With good transport links direct to London,

it's no surprise that this is a sought-after village.

The ducks seem to like it, too.

Slap-bang right in the heart of this beautiful village and

a few minutes' walk from the local shops

is the lot I'm here to see today.

Now, it's in a conservation area

and it is sat right next to this beautiful 13th-century church.

It's gorgeous!

But it's not a house I've come to look at. Nope, it is a plot of land.

And it is right at the back here. And it's huge!

Wow, what an opportunity.

# When I saw you, yeah, when I saw you

-# I said

-Ooh...

# I'm living in a box but I'm out when opportunity nox

# Ooh... #

Well, this is a huge site and I just love this wall attached.

Now I happen to know it's about 300 years old

because one of the local villagers told me earlier.

It must belong to the church.

I mean, how lovely having that church dominating this site?

It looks like some work has already started and as the plot is

just under half an acre, not everything you see here is for sale.

The plot adjacent was purchased a year ago,

so this here, not for sale.

This is. That isn't.

Got it? Good.

Now, the guide price was £850-£900,000,

which sounds like a lot, but it's big enough to get a few houses on.

I did say it was an opportunity,

and even more so because it comes with planning permission.

So, that's good news, I suppose.

Now, dating back to the 2012 plans - they were approved and the

original buildings that were here on the site were then demolished.

You can see the remnants just laying around.

Now, planning permission is for the building of four detached houses.

So, ready to go, I suppose.

# Baby, I'm ready to go

# I'm back and ready to go... #

REWIND NOISE

Wait a minute - hold on, because

there is more to the history of this plot.

And more restrictions than the conservation area.

Let me explain.

So, previously, this site housed a metalworks.

Taking on a plot like this, well, tests

will need to be done before any building can even take place.

There'll need to be a contamination study and a soil report.

That'll need to be done. And anyone taking on this site will be

bound by Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act

which among other things requires

a sum to be paid to the council

and that is based on the projected profits of this lot.

So, it's beginning to seem like the dark clouds are rolling in.

But, hey ho, there's always a silver lining.

With this, you get a high-end motor, too.

No, seriously - you do!

This is part of the deal.

# The best things in life are free

# Now that we've got each other

# The best things in life are free... #

Another thing you can't put a price on is advice.

And we're about to get some from a local estate agent.

I want to know what she thinks about this piece of land.

The plot is a good size

and I understand it comes with planning, which is excellent.

It's a sought-after area, and being a conservation area,

it's very rare that you get opportunities like this one.

I think that this is a fantastic opportunity for whoever

purchases it.

The other development in the area is an old mill,

and all these properties are going to sealed bids, so that

just gives you an idea of the demand

for property in this popular village.

The plans are for four five-bed detached houses.

What could each one achieve on the market?

I think from the plans that I've seen and knowing the area,

how sought-after it is, between £795,000-£895,000.

Well, this certainly is a decent sized plot in a beautiful area,

with planning permission,

all the demolition has already been done for you, and don't forget

you've got that development up the road, apparently in huge demand.

Let's see who saw this as a great opportunity when it went to auction.

Ladies and gentlemen, start me if you will.

Shall we say £800,000? You say

800. Thank you, sir. 800, I am bid.

810, anywhere? Over at the doorway, 810.

820? 820, 830? 830. 840?

You distracted me there, 840. Thank you.

850? 850, 860? 860, 870? 70, 80.

880, 890. Right, new bidder, thank you, at 890. Make it 900.

900, 910, 20. You say 20, thank you. And 30, and 30 and 40.

940 and 50. 50 and 60. And 60 and 70.

There's no. 960,000 sitting down.

He's back at 970. 980. 980, 990.

No?

I'd have said a million pounds at this stage,

just to frighten him off!

First time, second time,

your good self sitting down with the glasses, don't worry. I've got you.

£980,000 then for the third and final time. Yours, sir. Well done.

980. Thank you.

The successful bidder was Mike,

who has bought this in partnership with his friend Steve.

They're full-time property developers who purchased

this lot for almost a million pounds.

But do they have a million reasons for buying it?

I'm keen to find out.

-Mike and Steve, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

What a lovely part of the world Farningham is.

So you've got some exciting plans.

Now, I know this site already came with plans to build four houses.

-Four detached houses, yes.

-Are you going to be going with those plans?

We're not going to go with the original plans,

we secured some land on an option behind the site before the auction,

to enable us to build four bigger houses.

-So, wait a minute, so you've already got the land behind here?

-Yes.

Which is fantastic. And now I can

-see why this was worth so much to you.

-Yeah.

So how long ago did you buy the land?

-We secured it about a year ago, didn't we?

-A year ago, yes.

So really, this was only valuable to you guys in that auction room,

-wasn't it?

-Yes.

-Yes, it was.

-So you had to get this on the day.

-Yes.

-Yeah.

So, has that now enabled you to build some bigger, better houses?

-Yeah, much bigger.

-Much bigger, yeah.

I think the original planning was for 6,000 square feet.

And I think we're going to manage 10,000 square feet,

so it's quite a lot bigger.

So let's talk about what you're actually going to be building here.

-Four houses.

-Yeah, four houses in the form of a courtyard,

with a large house on the left running up the side of the wall,

two more in the middle, and one on the right running up the side.

However, as I mentioned, there were conditions attached to the

building here, including that Section 106, and as it turns out,

the lovely church is going to

be the beneficiary instead of the Council.

As part of this development,

we have to build them a Sunday School which we're quite

excited about and that's in lieu of a Section 106 agreement.

So tell me a little bit more about the Section 106 agreement?

Because that means that you just have to give something back, don't you?

-Yeah.

-A Section 106 agreement on a site like this would be

a contribution to local infrastructure - schools, libraries.

In this case, it's very unusual that they allowed us to contribute

-and build a Sunday school.

-Yeah.

-Wow.

Well, that has to be a win-win.

Conservation regulations mean adhering to strict rules on materials.

Building these houses to a high standard,

that meets all these conditions will not be cheap.

Their estimated budget is, wait for it...

between 1 to 1.2 million.

And how long do you think this is going to take you to build?

-Um...

-12 months?

-Nine months.

-THEY LAUGH

-I LOVE it!

-A year...nine months.

-Yeah, nine months.

-The optimist, the pessimist.

-Yeah.

Well, of course either time scale could face readjustment if those

soil tests for contamination

turn out to be problematic.

In the worst-case scenario, it could mean removing the soil.

As if that wasn't enough, it turns out that house-building goes

back a long way on this site

because there was, once upon a time, a Roman villa here.

Another complication!

We have to have an archaeological report on the site.

So they'll come down and do trial pits

to see if there's any remains, which we hope not. And um...

Well, look at my face, I got quite excited.

I was like, "Wow, you might find something!"

-Well, hopefully not.

-Hopefully not.

-Because obviously, it would slow the progress.

I mean, that REALLY can slow it down, can't it?

Yeah, it can stop us completely.

And of course there is one other relic that did come with this plot.

So what're you going to do with the Bentley, then?

Well, we're going to return it to its original owner

and we're going to get it lifted off the site.

See, I think that would really suit you. I can see you behind that wheel.

-THEY LAUGH

-Thank you!

OK, let's now steer this conversation back on track.

I want to see those plans.

This is the front elevation of the property.

-It shows you what it's going to look like.

-It's quite exciting, isn't it?

-Wow.

-It is.

-Absolutely beautiful, and so traditional.

-I can see that it's really going to tie in with the church.

-Yeah.

The front elevations are all flint with brick quoins which will be

handmade bricks and then handmade tiles on the roof,

so, yeah, it'll be really... It'll fit in perfectly.

Absolutely beautiful building and I am so excited to see this go up

-in either nine months or a year.

-Nine months.

-Nine months!

-Nine months.

-12.

-THEY LAUGH

It's good that you've allowed for 12.

Guys, I'm so excited, it's been fabulous meeting you

-and I'm really excited, well done.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

There is just so much to do in 12 months. Or is it going to be nine months?

I can't wait to see the finished product of this magnificent site.

Join me later in the programme, and you can see how it's all gone.

I'm on the edge of the small market town and farming community of

Aspatria, on the edge of the Lake District in Cumbria.

You've got Carlisle 20 miles away,

the seaport of Maryport close by, and the name Aspatria actually comes

from the Scandinavian and Celtic meaning ash tree of St Patrick.

Well, that's interesting,

but what are the properties around here like?

Well, there are quite a few character houses round here,

for sure. And plenty of the kind of amenities you'd hope for

in an agricultural town in the heart of the Cumbrian countryside.

You've got shops, schooling, a post office, and a train station,

so you can commute to the neighbouring towns,

or even Carlisle from here, fairly easily.

But one of Aspatria's greatest advantages is its setting.

From the top of the town you can enjoy these panoramic views

over acres and acres of farmland and natural beauty.

Well, the properties that tend to come up for sale around here

are generally terraces or ex-local authority houses, which makes

the auction lot I'm here to see really interesting.

Because it is a three, possibly four-bedroom, detached

property in a secluded spot

with its own grounds...

Sounding great so far.

The only negative

could be the words in the auction catalogue

which say that, "it is requiring complete renovation throughout."

Guide price was £45,000 +

and somewhere behind all this...

DOG BARKS

..foliage is the house.

Well, it's worth noting that the Ownership and Access Rights

relating to that grassy route I've just walked up

are pretty vague and even the title deeds don't shed any light.

So, you'd be advised to get your solicitor to clarify your legal

position, as this is the only way in and only way out.

-ECHOING:

-Help!

So what on Earth am I going to find in here?

Well, love the flagstone floor. That's nice.

Going to be a bit of an issue because it's definitely not going to

have a damp proof course. So, unfortunately that is going to have

to come up, to get some kind of damp proof course in.

Big rooms, no floors!

HE LAUGHS

Yea... Right.

So we're getting a flavour straight away of the kind of renovation

project that's going to be involved here.

New joists, new timbers. I mean, THAT is potentially quite expensive.

It's the same story over there, but again a good-sized room

and I like the layout of the property.

In its day, this would have been a very grand house.

And then down as you pass into the property, the area that was

probably used as the kitchen.

This one could definitely do with expanding, for sure.

And, probably needs a new sink.

Let's face it, it needs a new...

basically everything to bring it up to modern habitable standards.

But this place is full of fascinating features

and historical character too that you don't often see these days.

It's like stepping back in time.

Well, up this really lovely wide staircase

onto a nice-sized landing and lots of space.

Good-sized double bedroom there, another double bedroom here.

Very interesting little experience going down some

steps into that little part of the property.

What isn't possibly so lovely,

is the bathroom, here.

Now, if you're eating anything at the moment, you might want to

put it down temporarily or turn the TV off, cos this is the bath.

It's a lovely bath in principle, could do with a bit of a clean.

And can you imagine what the loo will be like? Shall we take a look?

HE CACKLES

Oh, are you leaving? Oh, how surprising.

OK, then. Let's go with the flow, so to speak,

and focus on the lovely old features.

Some ripe for reviving, and some not.

But before you get distracted by the cutesy museum pieces,

there are some more pressing matters.

Well, as you might imagine,

some of the foliage from outside

has made its way into the property, coming through the windows.

Well, I mean you are going to have to budget for replacing all these windows, of course.

And what you're going to have to do with this place

is get your shell sorted out.

Make sure the roof is good, make sure the walls and the windows are all watertight.

And then at least you can start

on the internal renovations.

And the major step in that is to get rid of all the foliage.

I think this place is literally a hidden gem.

Especially when you consider that

attractive guide price of £45,000+.

We asked the auctioneer who sold it to come along and give us

-his assessment.

-Well, isn't this a really interesting property?

This is what you call a full renovation job.

You'll certainly spend a lot more refurbing it than you would

buying it in the first place. It needs everything, of course.

It's certainly not for the faint-hearted.

It's a full-on project.

I'm very interested to see what the end result is.

What kind of value could this old house achieve once it was restored?

Well, I think if this property was done up to a really good

standard, I think it would make a figure in excess of £200,000.

Would it be worth considering renting this place out?

The rental income would be probably £550-£600 per calendar month,

so it doesn't offer a great yield.

So I would expect somebody to buy it to live in,

or to buy it to renovate and flip over and sell on.

Well, you will sit in one of two camps

when it comes to this property.

The "I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole" camp or the,

"Oh, wow, what an amazing opportunity" camp.

Clearly, whoever bought it was in the latter.

Let's find out who that was when it went under the hammer.

Spacious detached property.

In need of total renovation. At £40,000. Anybody here at 40?

At 40, I'm bidding at seats.

At 40, here? 41, 42, 43...

From the start, the auction was between two determined bidders.

We rejoin it as the bidding reaches 66,000.

With you, Sir, at 66.

At £66,000, are we all done?

You're back in at 67, Madam.

68, 69.

Shake of the head at 70. With you, madam, at £69,000.

At £69,000 then, for the first time.

At £69,000 for the second time, I'm selling it.

Third and final time to you, madam, selling away.

-GAVEL BANGS

-Well done.

And so for £69,000, the dilapidated house was

bought by Hazel. Hazel is a support worker helping people with

learning difficulties to live independently.

And this was bought as a family project with husband Ian

and their children Hayley and Thomas.

-Hazel, congratulations.

-Thank you. I think!

Tell me why you wanted to buy this place.

-It's my son and daughter who's actually buying it.

-Right.

-And we're just going to help them out with the work.

-Right.

-So, is it their house to live in?

-Possibly. Could be us.

-All of us.

-What?

-And selling our house.

-Wow.

But we're not sure.

We're just going to wait and see what it's like when we've finished

-and if we want to come in.

-Gosh, was that the original plan?

-No.

They were just wanting a house to get on the housing market and do

one up and make some money, and then they can buy a house each then,

-a bit more comfortably.

-Right.

But then we found this and we all love it.

-We've done a house up before in similar conditions.

-Right.

-So tell me a bit about you and... Is it your husband?

-Yep.

Experienced in this kind of thing, or...?

-My husband's a builder.

-Oh, is he? Oh, right.

-And my son is as well.

Ah. Suddenly it all falls into place.

Phew! That's a relief. Hazel had me worried for a moment.

I thought this was a "heart leading the head" decision.

But she's clearly under no illusion about the task in hand.

She's confident that her husband and son have the experience

to turn this derelict building into their family home.

But where do you begin on such a project?

We'll start with outside first.

Cos we'll need a base to put things.

And then, obviously, we'll start chipping the walls off,

replastering, damp course, and electrics, plumbing.

-Roof, walls, windows.

-Well, the roof we think's all right.

-Right.

Really pleased with the roof. And there's going to be a

single-storey extension downstairs, so it's more square.

So the house is more square.

-So, do you have a budget for those kind of works?

-40,000.

-40.

-And what's the timescale?

-About 18 months, we're hoping.

-18?

Well, it's a weekend job. It's just going to be Saturdays if they're

-not at work, or Sundays, if they don't work.

-How is that going to be?

Cos they're working as builders during the week - are they really

going to want to come in and do this on the weekend, in the evenings?

-Oh, yeah, my husband's done our house twice.

-Oh, has he? So was he happy to get this place,

or was he going, "Oh, no, here we go again?"

-He didn't actually see it until we got the keys.

-He didn't?

-Right. And what did he say?

-"What have we done?"

LAUGHTER

And what about you and your daughter?

Well, we'll be helping as well. Yeah.

I won't be on the roof or anything like that,

-but my daughter was on the roof when we done our house.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah.

-Helping tiling and stuff?

Kicking ceilings in. She says it's very good!

-Really? All right, OK. A bit of therapy.

-Yep.

Well, I don't think there'll be a shortage of opportunities to knock

things out and bash in ceilings in this place.

And it sounds like the whole family will be throwing themselves into the

renovating work, which might make it hard to let the finished house go.

At what point will you decide whether or not you're all going to move in as a family or

-whether they're going to...

-I think it's as we're going along and doing things, I think.

Now, how are they about the thought that on the one hand they've got their own place

and then suddenly Mum and Dad like it so much they're going to move in as well?

Well, we'll probably sell ours and then they'll buy one with our money that we get off ours.

Oh, OK. So it all works out in the end.

-Yeah.

-Well, I'm sure it's going to be dramatically different

-when we come back. Look forward to seeing it. Good luck.

-Thank you.

LAUGHTER

I think we need it! No, it'll be fine.

Well, there you go. Funny, isn't it?

There was a potential that people would absolutely run

a mile from this place, but like me,

Hazel and her family absolutely fell in love with it.

The challenge now is to sort it out, but with two

builders in the family, hopefully it won't be too much of an issue.

But doing it on the weekends and in the evenings?

Never going to be easy. You can find out how it turns out -

can't wait - later in the show.

Still to come, I'm having a very,

very quick look around a studio flat in Wallington, Surrey.

I don't think it's going to take very long.

And there's no pain, no gain back in Cumbria.

Ian actually fell and broke his ribs

while he was putting in the new door.

CHURCH ORGAN PLAYS

Back to Farningham in Kent where we were looking at THIS.

RECORD SCRATCHES

No, next to the church!

JAZZY MUSIC PLAYS

Yes, for a guide price of 850,000 to 900,000, you could have this

large plot of land in a highly desirable Kent village.

Not only that, but the land had planning permission for four

detached houses. So, easy peasy, then?

Of course not! Not on this show.

Previously, this site housed a metalworks.

There'll need to be a contamination study and a soil report,

that'll all need to be done before any building can even take place.

Not only that, the site bore a Section 106,

which meant the builders had to contribute to the community.

There had to be an archaeological report on what had been

the site of a Roman villa

and on top of that, this is, not surprisingly, a conservation area.

So that meant there would be restrictions on style and materials.

Oh, and a classic motor that came as part of the lot, too.

A bit random. None of that put off Mike, on the left, and Steve -

two developers who purchased the land for 980,000.

They were happy to tackle all these obstacles and have found

a very pleasing solution to the Section 106 community contribution.

Section 106 agreement on a site like this would be

a contribution to local infrastructure - schools, libraries.

In this case, it's very unusual that they allowed us to contribute

-and build a Sunday School.

-Yeah.

-Wow.

# Hi, hi, hi

# Beautiful Sunday... #

The budget for building four mews-style houses

and the Sunday School was around 1.2 million

and a timescale of between nine and 12 months.

We're back after 18 months to see if Mike and Steve

managed to make any progress in the face of adversity.

MUSIC: That's Progress by Nik Kershaw

# That's progress, that's progress

# That's progress

# They tell you, they tell you

# That's progress

It certainly is. All four houses are looking great from the outside.

Not only that, but the finished building of what will become

the Sunday School next to the church for the moment is acting as

site office for Mike and Steve's account manager, Michelle.

We dragged Mike away from his desk

to talk us through the exterior layout.

Right, what we've done, we've built four houses, five-bed houses,

in a terraced formation courtyard.

We've got two very similar ones in the middle

and then two completely individual houses on the end.

Each house has got its own double garage.

The bricks are handmade and we've used traditional flint

panelling to fit in with the village setting.

And I think this is going to be one of those projects that

in three or four years, you'll never know it was a new-build.

And that's what we tried to achieve.

And if you think these terraces look a little small to have five

bedrooms, wait till you get inside.

Each is unbelievably spacious, with multiple bathrooms

and several living areas.

-# So much more to you

-Ooh...

-# So much more to you

-Ooh...

# So much more to you

# Than I ever realised... #

I don't have any doubt that these houses are going to be beautiful,

but there still is a bit of work to do, especially in the fourth house.

However, one thing I wonder is if Mike

and Steve feel they've been right to build these mews houses rather

than the original plans for detached houses.

We were very limited on the site space

and we originally had detached houses.

Now detached houses means we had gaps in between,

which was a waste of space.

Someone saying that we've changed it from a detached to a terraced,

they might think we're crazy, but actually it's worked.

Well, I think they've done really well to even get to this point,

because there were a number of obstacles to overcome

such as soil reports and archaeology.

A small amount of contamination from the factory that was here

originally, which we had to clear, which was no problem at all.

-There wasn't really any archaeology problems at all.

-No.

They checked that out.

That obviously all took the initial stages of the project.

-But, no, everything's gone OK. We've had...

-Service problems.

We had some electric wires that were found. There used to be

a substation on site and they were high-voltage and it took a lot of

time to establish whose responsibility they were to remove.

And after all that, then there was our old friend, Planning Permission.

-It's added considerably, hasn't it?

-6 to 9 months.

Sevenoaks is a conservation area.

Very, very difficult to get the amendments we wanted.

And it's caused us severe delays.

But we have got the result we wanted in the end.

So Steve's guess of a nine-month development wasn't quite right.

-Steve always underestimates the time.

-Yes, Steve's an optimist.

-Yeah.

-I think, we didn't realise the amount of changes

we were going to do and we didn't realise how difficult

they were going to be to get through.

I think if the market was not

so attractive, we would've considered making no changes at all.

How did those delays affect their £1.2 million budget?

-I think we going to top out at 1.35 million.

-Mm.

But we have increased the square-footage, which is quite fundamental, really.

And more importantly, we've produced a product that we're proud of.

Add that to the cost of the plot and the extra parcel of land

bought beforehand and the build cost comes to 2.48 million.

A huge investment.

So, what will a local estate agent make of these four houses?

I think these properties are absolutely fantastic.

The two end properties are the special ones,

obviously they're slightly larger. I mean, these houses are obviously

brand-new, but they look like they've been here for ages.

They really blend in with the village and the local church.

We're agreed, they look lovely, but with over 2.4 million quid at stake,

it's the numbers that will decide if this development is a real success.

What could the houses sell for?

OK, price ranges. There's four units here, and I would suggest

that the bottom ones would probably go for 950,000

or something of that order,

with the larger one probably going for as much as £1.3 million.

-Great, Yeah.

-Yeah, reasonable.

We may even get a higher bid on it, but, yeah, it's good.

Yeah, that's great, it's made the changes worthwhile.

A total combined price the estate agent gave us

was a whopping 4.4 million.

That would give Steve and Mike a profit of two million quid,

minus the usual taxes and expenses.

But if you think making that kind of money is easy,

you should probably have a few words with Mike.

Yeah, definitely. We've made more money, but I've gone grey.

THEY LAUGH

Aw! You don't look any different to us, Mike!

Wallington in Surrey was once the centre for the production

of lavender oil.

Although it is still a green area, nowadays, the fields of lavender

have been turned into a busy town centre, a train station,

and plenty of new developments.

So I say Wallington still smells pretty sweet to me.

No pretty purple flowers at this time of year.

But this road is less than a ten-minute walk from the train station,

so THAT is definitely a good thing.

And I'm here to see a property that went to auction with a guide price

of £70,000 and it's just up there on the first floor.

It's a studio flat conversion in a Victorian villa

with off-road parking.

Ooh, well, I really like the nice red front door

and I've got to say, I'm not too disappointed by the communal areas.

Really well kept and the good thing is, with this whole building,

there's only four flats in here, so that door is not going to be

banging every ten minutes with people coming and going.

I'd see that as a real bonus.

Not that I'm knocking this front door,

which closed very quietly, but you get my drift.

Anyway, two flights of stairs later...

Well, let's have a look around inside

and I don't think it's going to take very long.

So, walking straight into the property, you've got a really

nice little bathroom there, and in here, well, this is the one room.

This is it!

It's a studio flat and you just get this.

So, a little bit on the small side. I know you expect that with studios.

Here's the kitchen.

Here's the lounge. That was the bathroom.

So, I suppose you could think about getting a bed that maybe

flips up onto the wall or maybe a sofa bed in here.

You'd need to change the carpet,

but I think you could leave the white paint on the walls.

I'd even leave the kitchen.

So that'd probably cost you 50 quid to change.

There you go. I think that's all you need to do with this property.

I just wish it were a little bigger, perhaps.

Apart from the kitchen, the only storage is this small cupboard in the hallway.

However, the bathroom is big enough to accommodate

the washing machine, but only a shower.

The living-bedroom does have nice, bright sash windows.

# In a small world... #

And a word of warning.

If you don't want to inadvertently end up in a small world...

As well as doing your pre-auction homework,

don't forget that on the day,

there's often a late-announcement sheet, which might affect

the property you're viewing and you must always make sure you read this.

In this case, well, it tells you the flat is actually a studio flat

and not a one-bedder, as it says in the catalogue.

So let's say you hadn't viewed the property before the auction

and you didn't read this addendum sheet.

Well, you might have bought less than you bargained for.

We've asked a local estate agent to give us her opinions.

First, the flat has only a 70-year lease,

but it does have a share in the freehold, which means...

It should be the case that the lease can be

extended for costs only,

without having to pay a freeholder

quite a large sum of money to extend.

That's something that I think is very, very important, because most

buyers will want to know that the lease has at least 99 years left.

Good news. But is there a market for studio flats in Wallington?

There is a market for studio flats and I think it's very up-and-coming now.

Lots of buyers are finding that one-bedroom flats are becoming

out of reach with the rising market,

so studio flats are definitely coming into their own now and prices

are going up, so they're selling way easier than they used to.

But somebody buying here wouldn't be buying a "forever home",

so how's the commute?

Wallington is great for commuters.

There's a few stations.

This flat is very, very close to Wallington train station,

which takes commuters into London in about 35 minutes.

There is also the choice of using Carshalton station, which has

a quicker route and takes commuters into London in about 30 minutes.

What would the value of the flat be,

having been refurbished with an extended lease?

Once this property's renovated,

I would suggest it would achieve in the region of £160,000.

If the owners decide to let the property,

I would suggest it's worth in the region of £750 per calendar month.

Yes, it's small.

Well, it's VERY small, actually!

But the good news is,

it shouldn't take much time and money to turn this place around.

So let's see who wanted it when it went to auction.

Lot 184.

We've got two reserves. It's in the same place as the last one, £80,000.

80 I've got. 85?

I've got 80 down at the front here. Looking for 85,000?

85.

85, sat down at the middle there, 85.

Considering it's lot 184,

'there's still plenty of bidders in the depleted auction room.

'We rejoin the bidding at £99,000.'

99? 100,000. Round it off, 100? 101?

102?

No? Bid's at the back, 101 - 102?

Looking for £102,000, Lot 184.

If not, 101 for the first, 101 for the second...?

102.

102, 103, 104, 105, 106.

108, 108, 109,

110.

110, no? We've got 109 down here, looking for 110 elsewhere.

If not, I'm selling at £109,000.

Lot 184, 109 for the first, 109 for the second, 109 for the third and final time.

If we're all done... Sold. 109,000.

The purchasers were three brothers in the second row.

They'd avoided our auction camera until the end,

but two of them met me later at the studio flat

they'd bought for £109,000.

Lukas and Marcin, lovely to meet you both. Congratulations!

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Now, interesting one, this.

A rather small studio flat.

-Did either of you view this prior to the auction?

-To be honest, no.

It wasn't our first choice.

We were interested in a few other properties,

but finally all of them...

-Yeah?

-..went over our budget,

so we decided to go through the catalogue and we spotted this one

and we thought, it's a nice location, with links to London,

very attractive guide price,

so we started bidding.

-So you didn't see the addendum?

-We saw the addendum, we knew.

-So you saw that?

-So you knew this was a studio flat?

-Yes, yes.

-But you didn't view the property?

-No.

OK. So what's done is done. How do you feel now?

-Marcin, how do you feel, now you've seen it?

-Well, yes.

We walked through the door and then we said,

"Oh, my Gosh! Well, we bought it!"

It's a really, really small area. But, um...

We quite believe that we can manage something with this,

-to do with the place.

-Yeah. So, happy with the price you paid?

I mean, I suppose it all depends on what you get it for

and what you want to do with it.

I mean, how do you feel now you've got it?

-If I could give you £109,000 back, would you walk away?

-Ah!

Not really.

Well... We understood this question,

but I'm just thinking, "How do I answer it?"

THEY LAUGH

Um... Well, no, we'll still try and make a bit of money off it.

-So you're still thinking...?

-Yes, yes, we will still keep it.

So you can still add value?

-You still feel confident that you can add value...

-I think so.

..to £109,000?

We strongly believe that the best investment is to invest with...

..bricks and mortar, I will say,

so it does definitely give us a profit.

So what is the plan with this property?

Well, the chief is to make this property

quite nice place to live for a couple or young professionals.

We've got a few options, actually.

One of this is to change the layout, erm, perhaps.

Erm...

How? I'm really intrigued to know.

Well, we started to think about it today, actually.

-We think...

-We'd like to remove the kitchen from this room.

OK. So, you're going to get rid of the kitchen here?

-So, perhaps we're going to knock down the part of this wall.

-Yeah?

Move this part little bit farther in here.

-So, we change the shape of the bathroom.

-Yes?

Which give us a space for the kitchen behind this wall.

OK. So, you're going to tuck the kitchen away,

-so there's a separate kitchen, a separate bathroom.

-Yes.

Still might be open-plan, but at least we can use this wall for a storage or something like this.

OK, because, at the moment, this is the problem.

One of the walls is taken up.

You can't put your storage and your units...

That's true.

Although, it does lend itself to being a nice, open-plan space,

and I think it is what it is. You know, whoever's going to be

using this property is not going to be coming along

-with loads and loads of stuff.

-Exactly.

I mean, it's quite a big bathroom, when you actually go in there.

I would say that's a luxury.

You could maybe change that and just have a wet room.

Something very small, with a really good shower,

and then use the rest of the space to open the flat up.

Yeah. That's why we are going to do the kitchen over there,

-in the corridor, actually.

-Yeah.

Tell me what your speciality is. What do you like to do?

Do you actually build or do you like to refurb inside?

-Refurb, mainly.

-Refurb insides.

So, we can do carpentry, we can do tiling, we can do plastering, whatever we need.

-Except the electric and plumbing.

-Electrician and plumbing, that's...

So, guys, what do you think you might want to do with this flat when it's finished?

Sell it or rent?

Our priority is to sell it, er,

but depends on the value. If we have to,

we're going to keep it for a year or two and then try to sell it.

-OK. But sell at a profit, if possible?

-Yes.

Yes, absolutely. So, if we're not going to get a profit,

we will rent it out.

So, guys, how long do you think it's going to take you to do what you need to do here?

Well, as you said, we've got a few options.

If we choose to, erm...

the longest option, which is to change the layout,

we reckon about two weeks.

Two to three weeks, something like that.

Do you have any structural walls to deal with?

-It's a partition wall...

-Everything is OK.

So, you don't have to worry about any permissions and RSJs.

Great. Good news. Woohoo!

OK. So, two weeks if you're going to do the layout change.

-To three weeks.

-To three weeks.

-Let's say three weeks, because, you know...

-Just in case.

And if you're not going to do the layout change?

The refurbishment downstairs?

-One week.

-One week.

-Just a week. Just a new kitchen and a new bathroom.

Well, obviously, yes.

New, modern unit kitchen.

New floor.

Well, shouldn't be more than...one week.

-Good luck with it and lovely to meet you both.

-Thank you very much.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you very much.

So, Marcin and Lukas didn't see inside the flat before the auction,

but at least they knew it was a studio -

but maybe not quite how small it actually is.

What will they decide to do about the layout?

Can they really improve what's here?

Join me later on in the programme and you can find out.

Well, we've seen what one of our buyers has managed to achieve. What about the other two?

Yes, will it be a case of mission accomplished or back to the drawing board?

Let's not wait any longer to find out.

MUSIC: Look Away by Big Country

Earlier, I was in Aspatria in Cumbria to see a three-bed,

detached property guided at £45,000+.

That was, if you could find it, with the exterior looking like

something out of a Grimms' fairy tale -

and inside was just as grim.

Especially the bathroom.

If you're eating anything at the moment,

you might want to put it down temporarily or turn the TV off,

cos this is the bath.

It's a lovely bath in principle, could do with a bit of a clean.

And can you imagine what the loo will be like?

Shall we take a look?

# Now look away, look away

# Hide your eyes from the land where I lie cold... #

Yes, avert your eyes, those who appreciate hygiene.

Hazel, though, didn't turn a blind eye when she bid £69,000.

But, with her husband Ian and son Thomas both builders,

this house wasn't quite so scary for them.

And it was definitely a family project.

-It's my son and daughter who's actually buying it.

-Right.

And we're just going to help them out with the work.

Right. So, is it their house to live in?

Possibly.

It was moot whether siblings Thomas and Hayley would actually get

possession of his house, because Mum and Dad had their eyes on it.

One possibility was selling their current house

and giving the kids some of the profits for deposits.

They planned a 40-grand renovation budget,

but they were going to be working on it at weekends and evenings.

Three and a half years later, we're back to see

if the nightmare house has become a dream home.

MUSIC: Back To Life by 3OH!3

Wow! What a difference on the outside.

You can actually see the house now,

and the family took away over 40 trees from the front.

And what a grand exterior it is -

matched on the inside.

# Cos if the party is dead

# We can bring it back to life

# Yeah, we can make it through the night #

The family are builders by trade and you can really see their handiwork

on those original flagstones

that have been recut and reshaped.

Handiwork that is obvious in the two new living rooms.

They have also added to the square footage with a brilliant extension.

By using original materials salvaged from the house and the area,

it's all very in keeping with what was here previously.

Originally, it was a glass lean-to,

tin shed type of thing,

and it's now a single-storey extension.

Luckily, there was enough sandstone in the house.

When we knocked things down, er,

there was enough sandstone there to rebuild, so, we didn't have to buy any sandstone.

We did have to buy some slates.

We got that off a local farmer.

He had some of the slates,

so, we could put them back on

and keep it as original as we could.

We've tried to re-use as much as we could.

The sympathetic nods to the house's history continue upstairs,

where the family have added a fourth bedroom by raising the roof in this room.

They've added two additional bathrooms, with one being an en-suite.

# Whoa!

# We can bring it back to life #

Thankfully, the hideous bathroom has been consigned to history,

and it certainly shows off the handiwork of Hazel's husband Ian,

son Thomas and nephew Ennis.

Obviously, we've all pitched in, but we've had joiners in,

plumbers, electricians.

But everything else we've just done ourselves.

It's been hard, but we've got there.

Or getting there!

Well, we had a lot of health problems in the family.

Ian actually fell and broke his ribs

while he was putting the new door

in at the back there.

He tried to lift the heavy sandstone on his own

and he had a little wobble and

fell and broke his ribs.

Then, he got back to work,

and then he fell again and broke them again at work.

The same two ribs.

Oh, Ian must have got a ribbing at work for that.

Sorry, Ian! We do hope you get well soon.

Between accidents and other setbacks, it's taken them

two years more than their 18-month timescale, but it looks great.

What about that budget?

We were about 40,000. We've hit that.

We're not quite finished yet,

but we've hit the 40,000 spend in money, yeah.

The family fell in love with the house,

but they've decided against moving in

and reverted to the original plan of selling on.

So, they'll be keen to know what value it could attract

on the sales market, which is where two local property experts come in.

First, their thoughts, starting with the auctioneer,

who saw it before the family made a few changes.

Well, a few changes is an absolute understatement.

We see a lot of houses, before and after,

and I think this wins the prize.

I've never seen such a transformation.

It was hard to find, because it was overgrown with trees, you know,

and there were trees going through the roof,

there were no floors and earth floors... And look at it now!

It's absolutely amazing. It's very impressive.

It a beautiful property.

It's kept its original features and characteristics,

but it's also incorporated

really well with the new kitchen and the bathrooms.

I think the standard of finish is very high.

I think it'll appeal to a larger family in the local area.

The family have spent £109,000 buying

and practically rebuilding the property.

So, can they make a profit on the sales market?

I think the owners will achieve in the sales market

between £245,000 and £250,000.

I'm fairly comfortable with maybe an asking price of £250,000,

with a view to maybe negotiating south of that slightly.

I'm happy with that!

No, that's good.

More than good, I'd say.

At 250 grand,

it'd be to the good of £141,000 profit,

before the usual taxes and expenses.

The experts also thought £600 per calendar month

would be the rental figure, giving them a 6.5% yield.

Hazel plans to look both markets

and see which one gets the tails wagging.

Whatever way they go,

it will be sure to get her kids on the property ladder.

It'll get them their first home.

They bought their first home with that amount of money, really.

MUSIC: Hi Ho Silver Lining by Jeff Beck

We're heading back to Wallington in the London borough of Sutton,

where famed guitarist Jeff Beck was born.

It's also where I looked at a first-floor studio flat

in this Victorian villa.

Walking straight into the property, you've got a really nice

little bathroom there, and in here,

well, this is the one room.

This is it. It's a studio flat and you just get this.

109 for the third and final time. All done.

The tiny flat went for a not-so-tiny 109,000,

and it sold to brothers Michael, Marcin and Lukas.

They bought the flat blind,

but at least they had read the auction addendum on the day.

So, Marcin, here on the left, and Lukas knew

they were buying a studio, not a one-bed, as the catalogue suggested.

Well, every cloud and all that...

# And it's hi ho silver lining... #

We walked through the door and then we said, "Oh, my gosh!

"What have we bought?"

It's a really, really a small area, but, erm...

We quite believe that we can manage something with this, erm,

to do the place better for living.

So, you can still add value?

You still feel confident that you can add value...

I think so, yeah.

..to £109, 000?

We strongly believe that the best investment is to invest with

bricks and mortar, I would say.

So, does definitely give us a profit.

But, in such a small space,

I was curious to know how they were going to add the value.

We'd like to remove the kitchen from this room.

OK. So, you're going to get rid of the kitchen here?

-So, perhaps we're going to knock down the part of this wall.

-Yeah.

Move this part a little bit further in here.

-So, change the shape of the bathroom.

-Yes.

Which give us a space for the kitchen behind this wall.

Optimistic, but when we returned four months later...

MUSIC: Nothing Like This by Blonde and Craig David

# I ain't felt nothing like this, like this

# I ain't felt nothing like this, like this... #

The brothers clearly had vision and imagination,

because their changes are nothing short of TARDIS-like.

I have to admit the use of the high ceiling to create a platform bed

is a bit different to my fold-against-the-wall idea.

Personally, although the laminate floor looks great,

I prefer carpet on the first floor.

Much more friendly to the neighbours below in high-heel season.

# I ain't felt nothing like this, like this

# I ain't felt nothing like this, like this

# I ain't felt nothing like this, like this

# No, I ain't felt nothing quite like this

# Ooh, yeah. #

The new door at the back of the lounge takes us

to the new shower room.

Well, hats off to the design of the available space.

A fantastic job. But how did the brothers get on working together?

Ah, always having arguments,

because we've got different ideas, but, finally,

we always get a compromise.

So, that's fine.

We have to go ahead, through the problems.

So, no problems working in such a confined space then, eh, lads?

There was no issue, to be honest.

-We divide the work.

-We handle it!

Everyone stand in a corner and do something, so we handle it simply.

No issue.

The initial plan was for a £5,000 budget to do the

reconfiguration and renovation,

but they did obtain permission

to change the windows from the landlord.

So, how was the budget?

We spent slightly higher, about £6,500.

But,

because of the windows, we wasn't sure

if we going to replace the windows or not.

That was extra cost, but the budget is still all right for us.

The guys reckon they've completed the work - overall - within

a three-week timescale, which was spread out while they waited

for permission to change the windows and took a couple of holidays.

They feel their property development company has only one option

when it comes to cash flow.

Yeah, we're going to have to sell it. Definitely to sell it.

So, hope there will be someone who will love this flat.

Well, let's see if two local estate agents love this flat.

They have all the necessary local knowledge to value the new rooms,

and this lady has seen it before.

I'm really impressed with the changes they've made to the flat.

Um, very surprised about the change of layout,

but I think it works really, really well.

They've utilised the space well, which is very good.

The finish is, well, second to none. It's very, very good.

Erm, yeah, it's a lovely flat that will attract quite a wide market, which is very good.

What about, shall we say, unconventional features,

like the bed platform and the lights?

The suspended bed is probably going to have mixed reviews,

depending on how tall you are,

but again, it utilises the best of what you've got.

Someone could easily change it, obviously, if they wanted to.

I think the finish is very nice. They've kept it bright.

The white is a good idea, cos it makes the smaller space look bigger.

I like the lights under the bed. I think they're a really sweet idea

and just gives it a little bit of something extra.

The boys are in the process, with the owners and with the rest of the flats in the house,

of extending the lease, which is currently only 70 years.

It'll just cost the solicitors' fees to renew.

So, is that something that would have a bearing on the value?

It is important to extend the lease.

Mortgage lenders aren't too keen on lending with a lease under,

probably, around 65 years,

so, buyers would be concerned buying a lease with around 70.

Solicitors would also advise them to get costs on extending the lease themselves,

and first-time buyers are normally quite stretched financially,

with their deposit and everything, so, it's a very good idea

for the sellers to extend the lease.

So, what's it worth, with an extended lease,

in the condition that it's in now?

If we were listing this property today, it would go on the market for £189,950,

but we'd expect to achieve a minimum of £180,000.

If I was to put this on the market for sale,

I would now look at figures in the region of 175,000.

The total spend so far, including the windows,

comes out at £115,500.

Take that from the top figure,

and you're left with 73,500 quid,

minus whatever it costs to lengthen the lease.

We're so surprised with that.

We never expect this value, to be honest.

Well, all we can say, we're so proud what we've done,

and so happy that someone appreciate our work.

Yeah, were definitely very happy with this completion.

That's what we expect, but we're really, really happy.

Aww, happy chappies.

Hopefully, you've enjoyed what you've seen on today's show.

And maybe even learned a trick or two along the way.

Yes, well, there are plenty more auction properties out

there for us to show you.

So, make sure you join us next time here on Homes Under The Hammer.

-Goodbye.

-Bye-bye.

-Goodbye.