Episode 6 Best of Homes Under the Hammer

Hello and welcome to the best of Homes Under The Hammer!

Yes, we're taking a trip down memory lane.

Today, we've got two of the more interesting properties

to show you again.

Yes, a glimpse into the Hammer archive!

What was memorable about this top-floor flat in Eastbourne?

Certainly not the architecture!

And in Devon, this old shack wouldn't win any design awards, either.

But things were about to change.

We think these are two of our best stories from the first few series.

Here's what happened when they went under the hammer.

The Swinging Sixties was a time of musical awakening but unfortunately not for architecture,

as our next property in the seaside town of Eastbourne in Sussex aptly demonstrates.

If you look behind me you'll see an ugly, Sixties purpose-built block.

I've come to look at a flat on the 4th floor, but it has got a lift.

The good news is, there's scaffolding up outside, which means they're up grading

the property and let's face it - a lick of paint could work wonders for this lacklustre building.

# Once I had a dream that made me sad

# How so many people

# Can be bad... #

It may be lacklustre, but it's located in one of Eastbourne's most desirable areas

so it's quite sought-after and a top flat with a guide price of 70,000 isn't that bad,

so let's go up and have a look round.

Well, if you're a bit claustrophobic about lifts, you've got four flights

of stairs to climb, so you'd better be fit.

Now, this is a rather large hallway.

All the rooms lead off of here.

The first thing I notice is the Sixties detailing.

We've got this wonderful lampshade here, some groovy panelling down here, this lovely bobbled glass

and look at this - this chunky old phone intercom.

You've probably seen lots of these in properties this age, but you won't have seen one of these.

Now look at this. It's not a trendy coat hook, it's our rubbish chute -

perfect for a 4th floor flat.

The sitting room is a good size with a wonderful view to distract you from those awful lampshades.

But just look at this shiny electric fire.

Very Sixties, but on reflection, I'd get rid.

The bathroom is also very dated, but again, a good size and like the rest

of the flat, it's a case of out with the old and in with the new.

What you lack in character with these properties, you certainly gain in space.

All the rooms in this flat are huge and if you look behind here, look,

in this wardrobe, you've got at least another two foot in both of those.

Now, all the rooms have got brand-new double glazing, but sadly,

there's no central heating in the flat.

Just these old electric storage heaters.

Aside from the lack of gas, this flat has lots of potential, but what I haven't mentioned

is the flat only has 51 years left on the lease, meaning obtaining a mortgage could be difficult.

With a guide price of 70,000, there's good profit to be made on this retro property.

Let's find out what happens when it goes under the hammer.

Lot 38. 60,000 anywhere?

I've had good interest in this.

£60,000.

Can't do it without you, ladies and gentlemen. The gentleman at the back.

I have 60, thank you.

Now looking for 61,000.

Need a second bidder at 61,000. Thank you, gentlemen towards the front.

62? 62 at the rear.

63.

63 I have. 64?

64 at the back.

65? 65.

66? 66.

67?

No, he is saying no. I have £66,000.

I'm looking for a new bidder to come in at 67.

66 I have. I'm looking for 60...

67? 67. We have the new bidder. 68?

68 is bid. 69? 69 I have. Thank you.

Make it 70? 70 I have, back left. 71? Shaking their head.

I have 70 at the back and I will be selling, ladies and gentlemen.

£70,000 I have.

Make no mistake, I'll sell.

70 thou... New bidder to the left.

71. 72? 72 at the back.

73? No, he's saying no.

72 I have and the same warning. I'll be selling, ladies and gentlemen.

£72,000 for the first time,

£72,000 for the second, 72, are you all done for the third and final time? Sold.

For just £2,000 over the guide price, the new owner of Southfields Court is David.

I met him back at the property to hear about his plans for the flat.

-David, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Guide price 70,000.

-You bought it for 72.

-Just over, yes, that's right.

-Are you a property developer?

-I am now, yes.

I do it all the time. I have to.

You say you are now. What did you used to do?

I used to be a press photographer, chasing around for everyone else.

Now I get everyone chasing around for me, so it's quite nice.

-Why did you want this property?

-This one?

I'm not particularly interested in purpose-built flats.

I came in the door, looked around and I thought it was a spacious place and I was taken with it.

I'm going to put most of the impact into the kitchen and decoration,

-flooring, and a bathroom makeover.

-But it's impact that you after?

Impact in the kitchen and the initial impact when you come in the hallway, yes.

So who is going to do all your work for you? Have you got a team of builders?

Yes, I have a team of makeover people. My wife and her best friend,

and they do a very good job.

-Really?

-I'm really looking to them to get the wow factor into here.

And the Cagney and Lacey of the interior design world are David's wife Jane and her friend Leonie.

And they've already started their detective work on what colours and styles they want to track down.

Jane and Leonie, it's great to meet you. I've been talking to David.

You've got grand plans for this flat, haven't you?

David wants some wow factor, so I don't know how we're going to do it.

No, but we're going to rise to the challenge.

-Now, what David wants and what David gets are two different things?

-Well, yes, I think so.

Often a disagreement about the exact technicalities

of how it'll look at the end, but we've got a fairly good idea as to what we're going to do.

-We know what we'd like in the bathroom.

-OK.

And we know what David wants in the bathroom.

I think we need to look at the bathroom seriously.

We could spend a lot of money in there. I think the bath as it is will do OK, but we need to add a shower.

-So you'd like to keep the bath? You can save some money there?

-I think we can.

So David would like to save some money by keeping the bathroom suite, but what do the girls think?

He actually wants to keep the bath, which is a bit old and grim,

and he wants to put the shower at the wrong end, so we've got to talk him round to our way of thinking.

-So what's your way of thinking?

-A whole new suite. New bath as well.

So how much do you think you're looking at spending on this place?

One, two, three, four... £5,000?

We look for good bargains and we spend time considering what's going to be the best value.

I know you've got some fab stuff with you today.

I particularly like this.

You were saying this is the flooring that you want.

We see a nice maple kitchen, perhaps with modern stainless-steel handles

and we've got some doors which we're weighing up.

We were deciding which one.

We thought it will be quite nice, all close and matching.

See, that will look fantastic in here. Really light reflective.

-That's right.

-Fabulous. But all this for three, four, £5,000?

-Oh, yeah.

-It can be done.

Well, they're certainly confident, but will they be able to transform this flat for five grand?

We'll be back to check on their progress later in the show.

# In the summertime When the weather is high... #

Summertime in the West Country is like a magnet for people all over the UK.

But I've come to Teignmouth, in Devon, out of season

when the crowds have gone but the charm remains.

Well, lot number 20 isn't some pretty cottage or seafront dwelling,

it's a single-storey workshop or boat store.

But if you're looking for storage space

a stone's throw from the town centre,

then the £19,000 guide price could make it very good value indeed.

This building is a single storey

and was last used in the 1970s for storage.

And it hasn't been touched since then.

There's not a lot to show you, really.

It is what it says on the tin -

an open space, a storage area, a workshop,

whatever you want to call it.

Not in very good condition.

The walls, basically, falling to pieces.

The roof, as you can see, leaking.

But the key thing about this is, it's 11 metres by 4 metres.

That is a reasonably-sized space

in a town where space is at an absolute premium,

and that is the intrinsic value of this place.

# Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket

# Never let it fade away. #

I'm keen to find out the history of this falling star in Sun Lane

so I invited along a local expert.

Do buildings like this come up for sale very often?

We get very few properties like this coming onto the market in Teignmouth

and whether it's garaging or warehousing

or boat stores, in this case,

it's nice to get your hands on something like this.

We've got lots of little streets.

Has that meant things like garages are pretty much few and far between?

Yes. That's right. Lots of houses don't have any parking or gardens

or storage areas, so when something like this comes on the market,

everybody's interested.

Any speculator who bought this at auction would obviously be planning

or hoping to change the use of the building.

But would that be a feasible option?

-The fact that there used to be a cottage on this hundreds of years ago...

-Did there?

Yes, that's right. It was condemned around 1962,

and therefore pulled down and then made into a warehouse,

that could've set a precedent that there might be possibilities of putting something back up on it.

It certainly needs a lot of work,

but could this be the dawn of a new beginning for this shed in Sun Lane?

Let's find out as it goes under the hammer.

So, 9A Sun Lane. It's a store.

It had consent for a store and electrical workshop in the '60s.

So, who's going to say to us, it's 25?

What can you get? £25,000? Nice and simple. 25.

Young man, 25.

25. 25. Half if it will help.

At 25.5.

At 25.5 on my right. I'll look out again.

At 25.5 on my right. 26.

It needs to be a half now, in the middle. 26.5?

26.5. 27. 27.5. Looking for 28 somewhere.

At 27.5. I've got 28.

At 28. 28.5?

28.5. 29. 29.

29.5. At 29.5, I'm going to ask it.

30 I've got.

I've got to ask you for a half. 30.5 I've got.

OK. 31.

At 31. 31.5. 32.

At 32. At 32.5.

33. 33 I have in blue.

That's 33. 33.5.

34. At 34 I've got. Half maybe.

34 I've got.

35. At 35.

36. 36. At £36,000 then.

At £36,000 once.

Middle it is. 36 second time.

36,000 third and last time.

Going to be sold now at £36,000.

Sir, well done. Second row back in the denim shirt.

The successful bidder for our shed in Sun Lane, Teignmouth, is Ken.

It's a great buy for him because he lives directly opposite.

He's an ex-boxer from London

and he's hoping this won't turn out to be a ROCKY investment.

MUSIC: "Eye Of The Tiger" by Survivor

I met up with him to find out about his plans.

-Lovely to meet you.

-Thanks.

Congratulations. You've got yourself a shed.

A barn, that's what it is to me.

-You're going to call it a barn.

-Yeah.

-Why have you bought this?

-To make it into a boxing gymnasium.

-Sorry?

-To make it into a boxing gymnasium.

-How much boxing goes on these days?

-Not as much as there used to be

but there's still plenty of boys who want to train.

Teignmouth had a good boxing club once.

Henry Cooper came down and opened it.

It ran for a few years and it finished.

I've been here for years and I've been trying to open another one.

-This place came along, I bought it.

-To turn it into a boxing club.

-That's right.

-If I'd put money on what it would end up being, it wouldn't have been that!

-Tell me about yourself, then.

-I used to fight a few years ago, when a younger man.

I started fighting professionally in 1949 through to 1954.

I had 35 fights, lost six - six I want to forget.

MARTIN LAUGHS Yeah, I mean...

# In the clearing stands a boxer

# And a fighter by his trade And he carries... #

After he retired, Ken and his wife Linda moved to Teignmouth

and now live in the house opposite.

Ken has had his eye on this building for years,

but it's been used for storage and wasn't for sale.

All the work needed to get this place up and running

is going to keep Ken very busy.

I wondered what his wife Linda thought about the whole project.

Well, I've got to take a deep breath and think about it hard and, well...

you have to go with the flow, don't you?

If that's what he wants to do, I'll back him to the hilt.

Were you surprised when it came up for auction?

Yeah. We've been trying to buy it for several years

and when it came up for auction he went along

and when he came home and told me the price,

after I picked myself up off the floor...

SHE LAUGHS

She said, "How much did you pay for it?" I said, "Too much."

B-B-Bang. Hit me on the chin. BOTH LAUGH

-Cos you knew how to take the punch.

-Oh, definitely.

There's a lot of work for Ken to crack on with.

-How long does he think it will take?

-It's really hard to put...

If I could put a date and say...

Four months' time. I think I'd be lucky if... I want to try and cut it down to six months.

There's no pressure on me. No pressure.

I've got it and now all I've gotta do is just get it together.

-Can we return in a few months and see how you're going?

-Pleased to see you whenever you come back.

It's a fantastic end to the story. Lovely to meet you.

# Eye of the tiger... #

We'll be back later in the programme

to discover how many young Rockys have been signed up

to Ken's boxing academy in Teignmouth.

Well, we gave our buyers the chance to do some work

before we went back for a second look.

Yes. And they certainly didn't disappoint us.

Here's what happened.

Southfields Court in Sussex was bought for £72,000 by photographer turned property developer David.

He planned to renovate this '60s-style flat with his wife Jane and her friend Leonie.

So after a few weeks, is this place ready for its close up?

It's four weeks to the day since you came last time.

The transformation is amazing.

It's just now ready for letting.

Whoever walks in hopefully has nothing to do

except move in the furniture and carry on paying the rent.

David has an eye for a good picture and it seems an eye for a good property.

With Jane and Leonie doing the makeover, this flat has gone from '60s fashion disaster

to modern chic, and is ready to hit the property catwalk.

Well, it's been hard work.

Leonie and I have been over every day painting and filling and decorating.

I think we've both learnt new skills.

I lost Jane in the bathroom for a week, she was spending a week in there.

I put the tiles up and Leonie did the grouting so it was a real team effort because I hate the grouting.

And then we painted...

One of us painted the tops and one of us painted the bottoms.

We had great fun on artexing the ceiling.

We did it once.

Then we did it twice.

It looked such a mess that we paid the decorators downstairs to come and do it and never told anybody.

Nor me!

Well, you certainly know now, David.

Jane and Leonie have worked very hard to try and keep the costs down,

but one area they weren't going to scrimp on was the bathroom.

They wanted a new suite and they got a new suite.

As you'll see, the bathroom has been replaced and the end result is the effect.

The effect is fantastic.

I was persuaded to get rid of the old bath and we lashed out for a new one.

The end result is very nice.

So those interior design detectives targeted one of the usual suspects

of property improvements and got a new bathroom suite after all.

I think we were a bit worried about getting the other tiles off, we thought we might damage the bath.

That swung it when...

We probably deliberately damaged the bath!

We didn't need to in the end, did we?

No. That made life a bit easier.

So we were all talking.

So David lost that one.

But though the girls wanted laminate flooring, David succeeded in having the lounge and the bedroom carpeted.

But the girls seem happy enough and they are certainly pleased with their work.

In here we filled all the cracks in and painted the ceiling white.

It's a good idea to paint the walls cream cos they were green.

We've kept the original wardrobe doors but we've sanded them down and got rid of the mouldings.

And to match them in with the kitchen, we've put the same handles that we used in the kitchen.

We've got a new light fitting, curtain pole, we made the curtains.

The curtains look good. Exact colour. It took ages to choose!

New sockets and switches.

New carpet. Pleased?

We did it.

The girls certainly make a great team but have they managed to keep the bank manager on side?

Well, someone's paying the bills eventually,

and that is me, but Jane's got a very good eye for bargains

and she has done extremely well in cutting down the costs.

There are a few more bills to add up but we'll just tip over the 7,000 and that's really the limit we had.

7,000 to turn the flat from this to this.

I'm pleased to see they've kept some of the more interesting details, which add to this flat's appeal.

When you walk in, there's a real sense of light and space

and it's that effect I'm aiming at because, obviously,

although we're not selling this property, we're renting it and it has to compete with others.

Hopefully when the tenants come through the door this will be the one that they rent.

After spending 79,000 on this flat, David is not planning to sell it just yet,

but he has applied to extend that 51-year lease for when he does.

But will he make a profit? We asked two local estate agents for their opinion.

We were talking around 105,000.

Seeing it today, I'm definitely confident of that sort of figure,

they've definitely got it up to that standard. It could possibly be more.

We could be looking between 105 and 110.

The rental... We've got another flat in the road at the moment

that's also one bedroom, although a little bigger, it lacks the facility of having car parking.

So I would say you are looking around the 525 per calendar month.

An excellent rental value, and if David decides to sell, a profit of around 25 to 30,000.

So it's a definite success and for doing so well, wasn't there a promise of a holiday?

We're supposed to be going to Barbados and I think David's going to be buying

the cocktails and the drinks for us because we're going with friends.

We're going to lie by the pool and the men can do what they like.

We're just going for the sunbathing and the rest.

Yes, definitely, we need a rest after this.

I think they've earned it. They have really done a good job so Barbados, here we come.

And with just a few more finishing touches, they can all go off and enjoy cocktails under the sun

and concoct the next project.

We're back in Teignmouth, in Devon, where this dilapidated building

had gone to auction with a guide price of £19,000.

It was eventually bought for £36,000 by Ken,

who's a local antiques dealer.

He's an ex-boxer from London and he planned to convert the building

into a boxing academy for kids.

Don't need a ring. That is for the big boys.

You know what I mean? Don't need it when you're amateur.

If you start off with nothing, you get to be something.

Three months later and the training has really paid off.

Things have definitely progressed. The walls have been cleared right back, ready to be plastered,

new windows have been put in and a roof's been put on.

So, how's the work been going?

First thing we had to do was strip the roof right off,

which was practically falling down anyway,

but we had a couple of boys here, they stripped the roof off one weekend, got it all off.

Then we had a carpenter come down next.

He put all these beams in for me.

Then he laid two layers of board on top and then laid asphalt.

Ken has done a ring-round of his contacts to enlist a bit of muscle.

When they heard that I was going to start doing this project,

they were only too pleased to come down.

They put new windows in for us

and then we got a couple of painters come down afterwards.

They done the painting on the outside.

Now we've gotta do the inside, which will be the floor,

do the cementing on the walls, and then we're practically there.

His wife Linda did have some reservations about the project,

but now that work's progressing, she's been won over.

Well, it's been absolutely great.

As you can see, it's now finished on the outside

and I'm really, really pleased that no longer does it look a dump

as I open my front door.

She said, "As long as you get the outside

"so it doesn't look dirty down this lane any more, I'll be satisfied."

And so I had to get that done first, any case.

Ken's really enjoyed it. We've had a great time doing it.

The boys that did it were absolutely fantastic.

We're really, really pleased.

MUSIC: "Eye Of The Tiger" by Survivor

There's been a lot of help for Ken from his fight friends

but the budget's got a few more rounds to go.

We've gotta buy the equipment, as well. It's the most expensive part.

You're talking about punchbags, punchballs.

You're talking about hundreds of pounds.

Boxing gloves come to £40 a pair.

So when everything is done, if you've spent £2,000,

you're looking at another £1,000 for equipment.

Remember, Ken paid £36,000 for this building in Sun Lane.

So is his budget standing up or is it on the ropes?

We're almost skint...but... HE CHUCKLES

we'll get the money from somewhere cos we can borrow the money.

People always come up with money. We'll get it from somewhere.

Not too worried about that.

At 77, he may be skint, but he's fit and ready for the challenges ahead.

But has Linda forgiven him for splashing out £36,000 on his dream at auction?

-SHE CHUCKLES

-I'm still thinking about that.

She'll never get over that. HE LAUGHS

She'll never get over it!

So, is this building in Sun Lane as fit as Ken?

It's going to be a judges' decision, so let's call in two local experts.

The sort of price I think he'd be getting for it now

would probably be something in the region of about 40,000.

I would suggest offers over £45,000

and I would expect to achieve close to £50,000.

I wouldn't want to sell it, anyway. You've got no idea...

I didn't buy it to sell it, to make a profit on it,

I just wanted it for a project, as a boxing thing.

So what are Ken's plans for his boxing academy?

I'd like to see some kid come down here, start training,

maybe a year or two,

and then go to a club

and go and win an APA title.

Beautiful. Beautiful.

And who knows?

Maybe one day someone WILL climb into the ring in Madison Square Garden

and their title aspirations would have all started

in Ken's boxing academy in Sun Lane, Teignmouth.

Join us next time for more action from the auction archive.

-We'll see you then.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.