Rebecca and Martin Britain's Empty Homes

Across the UK there are nearly a million homes lying unloved and unlived in,

ready for someone to come along and give them a bright new future.

So whether it's a tired semi or a rambling mansion,

we're on a mission to rescue Britain's Empty Homes.

Now, the ever-rising cost of buying a house today

is making it increasingly difficult to move up

the property ladder, but if you're clever

there is an affordable way of getting onto the next rung -

buy yourself an empty property.

On today's show, I'll be passing on my renovation experience

to a couple who are very close to buying their dream home.

This is the sitting room and really this is probably the room that

we're not too sure what to do with.

I'll introduce them to other homeowners who have tackled similar projects.

What a fabulous kitchen!

And we'll be joining an empty property officer, working hard to bring disused houses back to life.

I thought we'd be kind of finished.

Well, we're nearly there, not quite.

It's human nature to want things that are just that little bit out of reach.

Often our dream home is thousands of pounds over budget,

but if you're prepared to take a risk on a property that

nobody else wants, it's surprising what you can affordably get your hands on.

And that's exactly what Martin and Rebecca Kaye thought

when they spotted this empty former pub in the Buckinghamshire village of Tingwick.

Getting an empty property and having the ability to put your own stamp on it gives us

that financial viability for the project, which we wouldn't have if we were buying a house already done up.

It costs so much money to move doesn't it, Martin?

I think really we want to make this house our forever home,

it's going to be our dream home.

The Kayes have had their offer of £475,000 accepted on the place

and plan to renovate it within a strict budget of £160,000.

As it was once a pub, it is going to need quite a lot of work doing to it

to turn it into a cosy home and on a tight budget, that's not going to be easy.

-Hello, Martin.

-Hello.

-It's nice to see you. Hi, Rebecca.

So I'm going to help advise Rebecca and Martin on the best way to go about any transformation.

Well, this is our potential house.

Well, there's a lot needs doing though, guys. I mean, the windows at the front clearly are all gone.

-This is clearly going to have to happen in stages.

-Yes.

We're hoping to do a lot of work ourselves. That's how it's going to have to be.

-I suspect you're going to have to.

-We are, definitely.

Well, show me around, let's see what you are going to do. After you.

Empty for three years, what this place lacks in kerb appeal

it more than makes up for in space with seven bedrooms,

outbuildings, and a three-acre paddock.

-Come in.

-A lot of junk mail, isn't there? Crikey!

This is the sitting room. You come straight into the sitting room area,

and really this is probably the room that we're not too sure

what to do with, isn't it, Martin?

Yes, essentially the beams, the staircase, it makes the room feel

like it was two rooms and we'd like to make it into one room.

-Yeah. Presumably, as a pub, it was divided up?

-Possibly.

The other problem is the fact that the door is there,

which really interrupts the flow of the room.

Yes, that's why this room is so difficult.

I've contemplated all sorts - should the door be in the centre of the house?

Out the front it doesn't look symmetrical, so should the door be moved?

But you're at that exciting stage now where it's all ideas.

It is, yes. We've got many thoughts and we keep changing our plans

for the rest of it.

Although they're uncertain of what to do with the sitting room,

they are clear on their plans for the kitchen.

-What we're thinking of doing is the lean-to there...

-Oh, just that little glass thing through there.

That will go and an extension put for the full width of the house.

-Push that whole wall out?

-Push it all out.

There's a huge amount of space. As much again, almost, from here to there.

-It is, yes, almost doubles it.

-That's pretty bold but I think a nice idea, because it's not...

the huge kitchen that you really want at the moment, is it?

And it gets rid of that damp under there, look.

Upstairs on the first floor are five bedrooms and two very dated bathrooms.

You're not missing anything by taking those out, are you, really?

-No.

-What was is about green bathrooms?

-Goodness me. There's a huge amount of work here.

-There is, yes.

-There's no two ways about it.

-We're excited about it though.

Be excited, but I am slightly anxious about your £160,000.

And there's still a lot more renovation work for that budget to have to cover.

On the second floor there are two further bedrooms

and outside, there's even more development potential.

Ah, the barn. That's a project in its own right, guys.

-It is huge.

-It's a big, big barn.

Here we've got the back of the house. This is the old lean-to thing

-that's going to become your extension footprint?

-Yes.

Yes, that will go and just extension across the back of the house.

And what are you going to do on the roof? Slate roof or...

Probably slate to keep it in line, or I'd have a look at glass, a nice conservatory style.

But we'd have to think, see what the money can stretch to.

Your 160 grand, mate...

We are definitely talking phases because to be perfectly honest,

£160,000 could go on that tomorrow.

I do think that when approaching a big project like this,

staging it one phase at a time is the only sensible way for Rebecca and Martin to proceed.

Crucially, they need to be aware of their own limitations.

What are your big worries, have you done this before?

No.

I've done a little project, I've not done anything as large as this.

I think what would be helpful is if we show you a couple of projects,

one of which is halfway through its renovation,

one of which is finished.

We'll meet the owners, listen to their stories and hopefully,

you'll come back to this one with your eyes wide open

knowing what you have indeed let yourselves in for.

-Excellent.

-Fantastic.

In order to give Rebecca and Martin a good idea of how phased renovations can work,

I'll be introducing them to some homeowners

who are successfully tackling their own build in this way.

Unconventional empty buildings can make great homes,

but often it's the existing architecture

that will determine the scale and shape of that conversion.

This is something Maria Dench and her husband carefully worked out

when they put in a tender to convert this old West Sussex schoolhouse

into their dream home.

It was a bright sunny day, we saw the building and we had

a walk around it and we just got this gut feeling of excitement.

Having been a school from 1876 right up until 2007,

the interior was mainly a large open structure

that needed dramatic reconstruction

in order to create the comfortable five-bedroom home they wanted.

We bought the school because of the beautiful architecture, and we made

a decision very early on to build a home that was sympathetic to that.

The windows were a huge challenge because not one of them was consistent.

The first floor was actually put in in line with the windows, so that from the outside you couldn't see

a floating floor, you couldn't see a floor at all.

I wanted a porch but also I wanted something that was imposing,

because the building is imposing, it's very high. So we built a porch

and that goes from the ground right up to the apex,

and I think that just sets off the house in its entirety.

The most difficult part of the project was actually obtaining the financing for it.

We had a decision in principle before we even bought the property and then with the market crash,

the mortgage company tried to withdraw the funds from us and that really was a very scary time.

But despite the worry and uncertainty, Maria was able to keep the project on track.

I'm certainly not an architect, I'm certainly not a builder, but what I have got

is excellent project management skills and that's what I did on this job.

I pulled the experts together, I learned to ask the right questions because I didn't know

what the solutions were, but at the end of the day the buck stopped with me.

When I sit on my bed and I look out of that magnificent window

and I look out at the trees and I see the countryside beyond, and every day

I try and take five minutes out just to look at that because that has made it all worthwhile.

The complete renovation has taken two years,

but Maria now has a beautiful family home.

I've sworn to my husband that I will not be leaving here, but if something really special,

and it would have to be something very special, came up,

then I would do it again.

Houses that become abandoned can attract the attention of squatters,

vandals, and other sorts of antisocial behaviour

but it's the job of somebody called an empty property officer to prevent

these buildings becoming a nuisance to neighbours,

and with any luck, to get them back into use again.

In the London Borough of Southwark,

there are an estimated 3,500 properties lying empty.

The challenge of turning them into homes again is down to officers Celia Esimaje

and Michelle Williams who between them tackle an active caseload

of around 900 long-term empties.

My job is to bring back as many privately owned empty properties back into use as possible.

Today, they're paying a visit to a property in Peckham.

We're going to see a property that's been empty for ten years now,

one of the longest on my books,

and I just want to see how the owner's getting on.

There have been a few problems, I just want to make sure that

he's been able to iron them out and see what he's doing.

The house is in a street that has benefited from Southwark's regeneration scheme

to spruce up the area and, until recently,

the house lay abandoned and neglected

in this row of otherwise loved and cared for homes.

Over the years, it descended into dereliction but in 2008,

it was sold at auction to its new owner, developer Chris Worth.

There was subsidence on the whole of the property with actually cracks

that you could put your hand through, and inside it was completely derelict

with nothing, just rotten wood, rotten floorboards. Pretty ghastly state, to be honest with you.

And now the whole of the property has been rebuilt and we're starting

the interior of the property, so it's probably 60-70% of the way through the project.

Chris bought the house for £285,000 and is spending £350,000 converting it into three flats.

Because the building was in such a derelict state,

he's been given a grant of £45,000 to help towards its reconstruction.

-Hi, Chris. Thanks for meeting us.

-Hi, Celia.

But the build is behind schedule, so Celia and Michelle need to find out what's causing the hold-up.

-So this is the ground floor flat.

-This is the ground floor flat.

You're looking at one bedroom here,

one bedroom in the back there with the bathroom in the middle.

And then down here, this brings us into the kitchen

and the living area of the flat downstairs.

That at the end leads out, it's covered in plastic at the moment,

double doors that will go out there onto the garden area of this flat.

Obviously because of the extent of the repair here, I know that

we'd programmed that it would finish a bit earlier than it has,

but we've had to extend that programme.

Unfortunately we had to rebuild. Basically, all the walls in the house have been rebuilt.

Each section with taken down, new foundations put down and then rebuilt up section by section.

And Chris has taken great care to keep and restore many original features.

I notice you've used the original London stock brick.

When we took the walls down, we reclaimed as many of the originals as we could.

We cleaned them all off, took all the pointing off,

and reused as much of the original ones as we could,

which is, of course, very time and labour intensive doing something like that.

We've done all the other regeneration work on this street,

so it matches in perfectly with that.

It's looking really good, you know. Well done for getting to this stage.

But it's not only Celia that's happy, the neighbours are too.

It's pleasing because it means, from a slightly selfish point of view,

the whole street looks better for it.

It's nice to see that the developer has actually taken on board

restoring it to its original style using the old mouldings,

which from his point of view is probably a more expensive option,

but it's nice that they've done that.

It's good to see it come so far along.

I know it's been an extra lot of work for the owner,

because often what you find with buildings like this,

works that you didn't anticipate to do,

like having to take down walls, but he's made up for it, he's making quite good time.

But there's still the little matter of completion.

The pressure is now on Chris to meet a deadline.

On top of this, the council must also approve the finished work

before they release any of the grant money.

With the clock ticking, we'll discover later if Chris was able to hit his target.

Martin and Rebecca Kaye are hoping to transform

an old Buckinghamshire village pub into their ideal home.

That whole thing will go and just extension right the way across the back of the house.

They have ambitious plans but don't have the cash to do all of their renovation at once,

so I want to show them what other homeowners have achieved by doing the work in stages.

Come and feast your eyes on this.

Oh, it looks beautiful.

-Wow.

-Wow!

-That's gorgeous, isn't it?

-Isn't it?

It's a big project this one, make no mistake, but I think the parallels

with what you're trying to achieve and what the owners here are trying to achieve are very similar,

in that it's something that's going to have to be staged.

In an earlier episode of Britain's Empty Homes,

we featured this 15th century manor with its adjacent coach house.

Overall, the renovation process has been a lengthy one,

but from the very start, owners Pippa and Scott Peyton

approached it in carefully planned stages.

I didn't really want to be living in the main house

while we were doing that up,

and we have two young children as well, so I felt it was better to do

the coach house up first and actually live in it

while we tackle the manor house.

A year on, Pippa and Scott have completed stage one

and moved into the next phase of their project, the main house.

-Hi, guys.

-Nice to meet you.

I think they've just fallen in love with your house.

-We have.

-Great.

Give us a broad outline of the stages that you've gone through with this one, Scott.

Well, we started with what we call phase one,

which is the coach house which we've turned into a cottage, and then

with the main house we've divided it into two pieces, literally divided the house in half.

A huge project.

It is a huge project but taken in those bite-sized chunks,

it has become more manageable.

Pippa and Scott have taken time themselves to peel back the years

and expose many of the manor's original features.

So this is how the house was when we found it.

-This is lovely, look at that.

-Look at that beautiful fireplace.

-Yeah, no wonder you fell in love with it.

-An amazing find.

We found doorways where we didn't think there were doorways,

which we've now incorporated into the plan. We found a well in our boot room.

Once we found these things, we wanted to expose them

so that you can see what it would have originally been like.

It's really important to take those bits slowly,

not just race into it and have it all in a skip in five minutes.

That's a good point that you've made there, Scott.

You just need to find the bare bones and see what you're up against.

I hadn't thought about that, the idea of going in yourself and just taking time out

of just of dismantling the interior and finding it, rather than saying, "Right, builders, in you get."

Otherwise, it's plastered over before you've blinked, you know, it just happens.

Upstairs is a great example of how staging a build can work really well.

-This is staging writ large, isn't it?

-Yes.

Tell us about this panel.

This is a temporary insulated wall that allows us to separate

the piece we've been doing from the piece we have to do.

We can basically live in the house and feel like it's done even though there's another half to do.

In the other half of the house where the work is nearly finished,

they've pulled off a fantastic transformation.

This is the bit that we've almost finished, not quite.

Wow, what a fabulous kitchen.

Now this is actually something like we want to do with our kitchen.

-Is it?

-Yes, we want to open up the back, put windows in so that it's really nice and light.

In fact doors exactly like that was what we were planning.

I have to say I love that, I think that's a really interesting solution to getting light in here.

I think that's fantastic because from the outside you have no idea it's there.

You've got that lovely glass area giving you the airiness,

but from the outside I didn't even know that was there.

And Rebecca is clearly inspired with Pippa and Scott's approach to the build.

I think the whole project,

seeing the old part to it at that stage and the exciting part,

finding things out and what's behind walls.

It's all about making the right decision for the house, and if that means

we have to stage it or do something slowly or we have to wait,

getting it right is more important.

I think our view is the same that essentially we've got the budget

to get us a good start and if we don't get the outbuilding done yet, so be it.

But the main thing is we've got a good fund to get going with.

I'm really pleased that Martin is seeing the sense in staging the renovation project,

and whatever your budget, there are always ways of saving money.

Well, there's no doubt that Martin and Rebecca have been rightly inspired by this

extraordinary renovation, it is a fantastic building.

And this lot is what Scott likes to call his own reclamation yard,

making good use of materials you find is often a really important

and money-saving way of getting the best out of your chosen project.

As you can see, there's a long way to go.

Later I'll be taking them to see a finished project

to give them a taste of why all this hard work is well worthwhile.

Back in Southwark, where under the watchful eye

of empty property officer Celia Esimaje,

the pressure is on developer Chris Worth to meet

a deadline to turn a previously derelict house into three flats.

The renovation project has been aided by a government grant

of £45,000, which was a big motivating factor for Chris.

The grant was definitely an incentive

to taking on the project.

We wouldn't have taken it on otherwise.

But he won't see any of the money unless the renovation meets stringent council standards.

It's two years since Chris first took the place on

and Celia is anxious for it to be ready to house people again soon.

She's brought along council surveyor Roger,

who will be responsible for signing off the work.

How are you getting on, I thought we'd be kind of finished?

We're nearly there. Not quite, as always, but yes, it's nearly finished.

-Shall we go in and have a look?

-Yes.

This is a ground floor flat, which is pretty well complete.

There's the bathroom there which all the pipework's in,

none of the fittings yet and there's no electricity in there.

This is coming down into the main living area of the property here.

-Still quite a bit to do, isn't there?

-Quite a bit, yes.

But on the first floor, things are looking a little more finished.

The third flat is also nearly completed.

This is the smallest of the flats.

There's still lots to finish off.

Yes, the appliances are coming next week.

-Some mastic, are you going to box in this?

-Yes, we'll fill it in, yes.

Nothing is left unexamined, and things get tense as Roger inspects the quality of the roof.

I need to talk to you about the roofing material.

-Yes.

-As to who the manufacturer is to ensure

-that it's been fitted in compliance with the manufacturer's recommendations.

-OK.

If you can let the contractor know that I need those.

-But while there's still work to do...

-There's still some grouting.

Celia can see that the attention to detail indicates that this is a considered renovation.

I like the little detail on the door, this little routing detail.

Yes, it just takes the plainness off the doors and it's on the skirting as well.

Yes, it follows through here.

And while the work can't be signed off today,

Roger seems happy with the standard so far.

The million-dollar question, when will you complete?

We're hoping to complete at the end of the month,

there's the obvious things to do downstairs, the kitchen,

the bathroom, and the tiling to put in.

-Right, so hopefully in a month's time it needs to be completely finished.

-Yes.

We'll do our final inspection and we say up to 21 days for payment.

OK, that's fine.

Thank you, very nice to meet you.

We're 95% there, the devil's always in the detail, so I'd like to think

that in a months time, we'll be able to sign this off and the owner can get his grant.

It's great to see it taking shape, we've got three flats there

for residents in Southwark.

So we be back here in a month and we'll sign off, owner gets his money, job done.

Well, a month later and the work has finished.

Chris has already got tenants in all three flats.

Martin and Rebecca Kay have set their hearts

on a seven-bedroom tumbledown former pub in need of

major work, but they don't quite have all the funds

to carry out a complete renovation all in one go.

I've already taken them to meet experienced homeowners

who have shown them how a big project can be done in stages.

We want to open up the back and put windows in, so it's really nice and light.

Now I want them to see why all that hard work is worth it.

Right, what do you think?

-It looks lovely.

-Isn't it just?

It's only just been done, but it started out looking like that.

Wow.

-How long ago?

-Five years ago.

When Ben Gristwood bought this old barn in the Oxfordshire village

of Pusey in 2005 for £343,000,

he thought it would be a fairly straightforward conversion.

Instead, it turned into an epic rollercoaster ride after disaster struck.

It took me about a year and three months to build it

and then it caught on fire, which was devastating,

it completely burned down to the ground, it did.

With nothing left of his grand project, Ben was forced to start

from the ground up again and completely rebuild it.

You never have two chances to build your dream house

so I built it the first time, it was a nice house then.

There was a few little odd mistakes so the next time I just wanted

to make sure it was perfect second time round.

In his quest for perfection, Ben enlisted his mum to help with inspiration.

My mum, she went out buying the tiles, the doors, the wall colours.

My mum was down nearly every single day making sure everything was spot on.

She did a real good job, my mum did.

I love the open space, you've got the kitchen

and living room and dining room just all in one, it's really nice.

-Hello, good to see you.

-Hello.

-Hello there.

This is Rebecca, this is Martin.

-Hello.

-Come on then, show us around and let's see what you've done.

Downstairs, Ben's conversion consists of a vast open plan kitchen living area.

-Oh, wow, this is beautiful. Lovely.

-It's gorgeous, isn't it?

-It is.

-It's lovely,

-I showed you guys the picture of the original barn.

My mum kept telling me I should have kept the crosses on.

Oh, the wall supports, because they're not on the new build.

This is a beautiful barn and I can see why you fell in love with it and wanted to do it.

It's a fantastic spot, beautiful views.

It feels like the middle of nowhere, but it's close to everything.

It's just so nice and peaceful.

Yes, it is brilliant.

Off the open plan area is a wooden butterfly staircase

leading to four luxury double bedrooms upstairs,

all but one of which are en suite.

-But Ben still has more he wants to achieve.

-It looks like you're not finished.

-I've still got a garden room to build.

-A garden room?

Well, I've built some of it but with funds getting a bit tight,

you know, that room is going to be brilliant.

-What kind of, is it going to be slate?

-Oak trusses

so when you're looking up it's going to be really nice, it's all...

that's why I can't afford to build it.

This is a really good point for Rebecca and Martin to take away,

that a renovation really is something you have to be into for the long haul.

If you had one parting tip, what would it be?

Just to don't rush into anything, just spend so much time

looking through the plans, just design it so right.

It's all tying up with what Scott said at the previous house,

which is live in the place,

learn how you think the space might want to be before you get stuck into doing it.

I think you'd agree, guys, it's a gorgeous renovation this, I think lots of ideas for you to take away.

I'm hoping that both of our projects

have given Rebecca and Martin the insight to confidently

proceed with the transformation of the pub they want to make into their next home.

I suppose the key thing here really is staging.

-Yes.

-The extraordinary manor that had been split into two

for the sake of getting the work done,

I think that's what that first property particularly illustrates.

It's funny because actually in driving round today,

I've thought about that idea they had about blocking it off

and making part of the house liveable in.

Do you think you've come away from today with a sense that

-it's going to require far more planning than you thought?

-Yes.

Definitely.

I think in both cases, the thing that came across is the thought

you need to put up front, not only for the broad ideas but into the detail.

That's things you're not going to find out until you've been in the house for a little while.

I enjoyed seeing your project.

I think we would like to actually find out what's there,

rather than a builder knocking it all down, I want to find out what's behind those fireplaces.

I'd love to come and see it when you've finished,

because it will be a really beautiful home.

-Yes.

-So good luck and here's to plastering and knocking things down, and learning new skills.

-Cheers.

-Thank you.

You know we tend not to give out medals for renovations,

but I'm pretty sure that both of today's properties

that I've shown Martin and Rebecca most certainly qualify for them, but what are the key lessons?

Well, I think it's one of pace, to be honest with you.

Plan it well, don't rush it, and above all else enjoy it,

because, unlike Ben, we don't all want to have to do it twice.

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