Ali Marsh Britain's Empty Homes

There are nearly a million homes abandoned in the UK,

waiting for someone to come along and breathe life back into them.

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

we're on a mission to rescue Britain's empty homes.

The tell-tale signs of an empty property are easy enough to spot.

Peeling paint, boarded-up windows, overgrown front gardens,

junk mail sticking out the front of the letter box.

But next time you go past a property like that, consider this -

it could make somebody, maybe even you, a fantastic new home.

Today, I'm helping a novice house hunter learn the ropes of renovation

to give her the confidence to take on an empty home.

-Oh, this is interesting!

-Bigger than you think, isn't it?

Along the way, I'll be introducing her to other homeowners who have tackled major projects.

It's a labour of love but it's so worth it.

And we'll be hitting the streets with an empty-property officer,

whose job is to find abandoned buildings and get them turned back into homes again.

You can see where the whole roof has just collapsed. Completely rotten.

Beautifully decorated and furnished houses often fly out of the estate agent's window

but they don't necessarily offer you the best value for money.

If you want to buy clever, buy an empty property.

You'll often get it for a bargain and you can use the money you save to turn it into your perfect home.

Which is just what freelance marketing consultant Ali Marsh dreams of doing.

I'm really looking for a rural location.

I really like the peace and quiet and tranquillity.

Character is very important to me and something with a bit more space, really.

Armed with a budget of £300,000

but with little renovation experience,

Ali's been combing the estate agent windows of Leicestershire

for an empty stone cottage to transform into her dream home.

I am looking for a property with potential, definitely.

It doesn't frighten me to actually start from scratch, rip everything out.

I'm more than happy to try and put my own mark on something.

I might be mad, but it doesn't frighten me at the moment.

Full of enthusiasm, but with absolutely no experience,

what first timer Ali needs now is a little friendly advice to help her on her way.

Hi, Ali!

'I'm meeting Ali, along with her best friend, Max,

'who's helping her with search, to see if I can assist.'

In many respects, I think you are typical of many people taking on an empty property,

-in that you're prepared to get your hands dirty on the things that you know you can do...

-Yes.

I expect, at the end of the day, in will be a builder/contractor job,

which you'll project manage.

Yes, that would be the ideal, someone who really knows what they're doing.

But, er, small little things, such as the painting and anything like that,

I'm more than happy to have a go.

And, Max, are you going to get roped into this redecorating?

Oh, no doubt, no doubt.

I'll make the tea and bring the wine in, things like that.

Even a relatively small property, it does become all-consuming.

-Are you prepared for that?

-Er, yes, I am. I think so.

I'm at this stage where I can put more time into something.

So I'm more than...

I want a really good home

and something that I can see the end result.

Are you feeling daunted by the idea, or excited?

No, I'm actually... Maybe it's because I don't know what's ahead...

-Ignorance is bliss.

-Ignorance is... Definitely ignorant, yes...

Later, I'm going to be introducing Ali to a couple of very different types of renovations,

that I hope will give her an idea of the range of possibilities that an empty building can offer.

But first, I want to set Ali and friend Max something of a challenge.

I want see if Ali can spot the potential in a property

that's currently been rejected by other homeowners and left sitting on the market.

So, without me there to guide her, I've sent her and Max off to have a look at an example of a place that,

with a bit of imagination, could really suit her needs.

Ali's looking for a three-bedroom stone character cottage with space,

something cottages are usually pretty short on.

So I'm hoping she'll see the hidden potential for expansion in this vacant blacksmith's cottage.

It's in the pretty Leicestershire village of Sewstern.

Formerly a rental property, it's been empty for a year now

and it's on the market at just under £200,000,

which would leave Ali 100,000 for renovation.

-There's a good feel to it.

-Yeah, I wonder how far back it goes.

With its original workshop and outbuildings,

I think this place could be spectacularly transformed to create Ali's ideal home,

but how obvious will this be to her and Max?

Interesting size room.

It's quite a nice size room.

Viewing empty properties is all about the visualising what could be done to improve the existing layout.

-The kitchen...

-It's a bit small.

-It is, isn't it?

Very, erm...compact, I think.

-You wouldn't want to eat in here.

-Won't get four around that for dinner.

-No.

-Could be a bit disappointing.

-Barbecues on the lawn.

The kitchen may be small, but what about knocking through the wall to create a roomy kitchen-diner?

I don't see the potential. I think these walls are too thick.

I don't think you could knock through there.

It'll make it hard to make the room work.

The size it is now, I'm not sure that it would work as well.

Come on guys, it's all about letting your imagination run riot at this stage.

Don't dismiss anything out of hand without consulting a builder.

There's a lot of space up here, probably wasted space in a lot of ways.

Yeah, you really want the size in the bedrooms, don't you, rather than here.

-Very small...

-Oh, dear.

-Gosh!

That's just not going to work, is it?

-You really haven't got any potential in here at all.

-No.

I think the obvious solution to expand this room

would be to knock down the wall and use the wasted space on the landing.

Well, let's see what the bathroom's like.

Gosh, that looks very blue.

Oh, dear, this is awful, sorry.

I don't know where you'd start.

Hard to know what to do with this one.

Don't be put off by decor.

It's one of the easiest transformations to make to an empty property.

The trick is to see past it and imagine your own impeccable taste there, instead.

But it's outside where the real possibilities lie.

The roofless old workshop could transform into a stunning extension

and could be the key to creating the space Ali craves.

Actually, if you cleared it out, you would have a bit more room here, wouldn't you?

It would really work if you were able to use this area and build out here as well.

You're getting the hang of it.

It depends what you're allowed to do, doesn't it, and that is what we need to check.

And checking things out needn't be difficult, once you've learnt what to look for and who to ask.

I met up with them later to assess how they got on.

Well, guys, you had a look at that little cottage, what did you make of it?

It was interesting, a lot of work to be done on it...

-Yep.

-But the initial bit, when we walked in, was sort of,

"Oh, fairly small rooms."

But when you saw the outside of it, definitely potential, wasn't there?

I thought that was the exciting part of the building actually, that outbuilding,

I mean, that's really what's going to make that property work in terms of space.

-Upstairs, there was a bit of wasted space on the landing, there.

-Yeah.

-Yes.

So you could have made that secondary bedroom a lot bigger.

And we've have had a builder look over it.

Any idea of costs to move that wall and make it a bit bigger?

No, I wouldn't know one that one.

-About £2,000.

-Is that all?

-Yep. It's surprising isn't it?

-Yes.

-Yes.

Now, the kitchen perhaps wasn't the big farmhouse kitchen you were dreaming of

but the wall, you did say, "Oh, maybe that wall's so big, we can't move it."

-We did wonder.

-It's all possible and I think the key thing is

that you have to look at these properties and think, "What would be the ideal?"

Then you work with a project manager, an architect, a builder, to see what you can achieve.

I think the key thing now is to get you into a couple of examples,

one that's half-built and one that is finished.

You can meet the owners and pick their brains as to what is really involved. Come on.

'Novices like Ali all have to start somewhere

'in order to become experienced renovators

'and even then, it isn't always straightforward.'

When seasoned renovator Mike Westfell

took on what he thought was a Victorian copy of a traditional hall house in Penshurst, Kent,

he knew he had something special

but quite how special was yet to be revealed.

It was such a gem of a house, but in such terrible condition.

In fact, more of a gem than I realised

because underneath this rather shabby exterior was a 13th-Century cottage.

This actually was a traditional hall house

but beyond saving, frankly.

And we've rebuilt it like a traditional hall house.

Hall houses were the homes of minor landowners in medieval times

and Kent would have had a high percentage of these timber-framed buildings

a few of which have survived.

After a six-year battle to get planning permission,

Mike had to take apart the old building and start afresh.

Using the footprint of the original hall house, he rebuilt the property

using a mixture of new timber from his nearby woodland and some reclaimed from the original house.

We managed to rescue a lot of timber from it,

even though most of the building was pretty dilapidated

and some of the timbers were the original 13th-Century timber.

So it's not as if it's a completely new house, it is really the same house remodelled.

As the house was effectively rebuilt from scratch,

Mike was able to stay faithful to their original look of the house,

but also include some modern touches.

Well, the advantage you get when building virtually from new is that

you can include insulation under the floor,

you can include heating under the floor.

I mean, this place has centralised vacuum cleaning.

It's got an efficient, modern heating system,

so the great thing is, you get that chance to rebuild.

If you build to modern standards, it will last forever.

So after years of patience and hard work,

Mike has ended up with a beautiful - and fairly profitable - family home.

Well, the house in '91 was valued at 117,000.

When I renovated it, we spent about a quarter of a mil'.

It's about a million and a half now, so...

it's an improvement, definitely an improvement.

There is definitely a huge chasm in the middle of the UK property market.

On one hand, there are thousands of people struggling to find affordable homes to suit their needs

and on the other, well, hundreds of thousands of empty properties lying empty,

whose owners have either disappeared or simply neglected them and left them to rot.

It is a huge problem, but many local councils now employ empty property officers,

desperately trying to find a solution.

And one of those empty property officers is Dave Carter,

whose beat is Enfield in north London.

At any one time, Dave has around 200 vacant properties on his books that he's trying to get reoccupied.

Today, he's heard from neighbours of an empty terraced house with unfinished building work

that is causing their own property structural problems.

It looks like the owner of the empty property has started works,

but never quite finished them

and that's why there's a problem with water getting into the house every time it rains.

As a result of the recession, reports of abandoned building work is on the increase.

Well, bit of a messy job, by the look of it. Um...

It's difficult to tell what's been going on here.

It just looks like a bit of a bodge job all round

and the fact that everything's just been left, allegedly, for 18 months,

or for maybe even longer, does indicate that there may have been money problems.

With no-one in at the property, Dave has a bit of sleuthing to do.

It can take years to locate an owner and initial inquiries begin with the neighbours.

-Hello there.

-Hello.

-I'm Dave Carter. I am from Enfield council.

-Oh, right.

I've come to find out what I can do about the house there.

Do you know about the owner?

The owner? Yeah, he's got a restaurant up the hill.

-OK. When did you last see him?

-He stopped living there some time back.

Oh, he was living there himself at one point?

Yeah, he lived there and he also took in lodgers, I believe.

When did you last see him, roughly?

I actually saw him, saw him this week.

OK. When did you actually see him at the house?

Not...No, he's not been living there for ages.

I'll pop to the restaurant and try to catch him there.

Be a good idea, yeah.

All right, nice to meet you. I'll do what I can to help you.

Right. Thanks. Thanks a lot.

It's a stroke of luck that Dave's got an immediate lead,

so he pays a visit to the restaurant on the off-chance that the owner might be there.

Unfortunately, he wasn't, but Dave was able to get his phone number and gave him a call.

I had a very quick chat with him.

We agreed that we'd meet again tomorrow at the house.

Hopefully, tomorrow, we'll start by at least getting an explanation about why he's left the property empty,

why he's causing a nuisance to the neighbourhood, um...

and then we can start talking about solutions.

Dave has since had the meeting and the owner has now recommenced the building work.

Over the next weeks and months, he'll keep an eye on progress until it's satisfactorily completed.

If you're considering buying an empty property,

the chances are you'll need a builder to help you transform it into your dream home.

Finding the right contractor can be tricky

but there are a few golden rules.

Ask to see examples of completed work that they've done

and make sure you talk to the people they've worked for.

On anything other than the smallest jobs, hire an architect to help come up with the best design.

And give the builder clear instructions on how to implement it.

Finally, whatever you do, make sure that all the detailed work as to what you're going to do

is laid out in black and white on paper before you start.

It could well save you an awful lot of confusion later on.

Marketing consultant Ali Marsh has set her sights on finding an empty property to fully restore,

but, as a newcomer to the renovation game, she's struggling to see past her first impressions.

The size it is now, it's going to make it hard to make the room work, isn't it?

So I'm taking Ali and her best friend Max to meet a couple of experienced renovators

who took on what looked like a rather unpromising place and turned it into a stunning home.

I hope it'll help Ali and Max see what a little vision can do.

That is the subject of our first visit. Any idea of what it used to be?

-Erm, textiles I would guess?

-Absolutely spot-on.

It was a knitwear factory.

This is what it used to look like, before the current owners bought it.

-Good grief!

-Wow! What a blank canvas.

When Antony Matters and Rosemary Fitton first saw their home, it wasn't a home at all.

The building, in the old industrial heart of Leicester, used to be an 1920s knitting factory.

The couple fell for this empty shell and have spent the last nine years

painstakingly turning it into a contemporary home and workspace.

We weren't looking for anywhere like this originally and we didn't like the building we'd gone to,

so we just had a walk around the area and we came across this building and just thought

"Wow! That would be so exciting."

We could never afford to buy this kind of thing finished

because we haven't got a lot of money and we've been doing it on a kind of a shoestring budget over the years.

You know, we love living here, we love the atmosphere and the character of the building,

you know, we had to buy it in the state it was in.

The project is a genuine labour of love for Antony and Rosemary and although they are far from finished,

the results to date are really impressive.

What a transformation!

I can't believe it!

Were you not expecting that?

Not at all, but it's fantastic what you've done.

It has a lovely, warm feel to it, it really does.

We just didn't want it to look like a box, just plasterboard everywhere and painted.

We would have lost the character of the building and that's what drew us to this building.

Years of meticulous renovation have transformed this former shop floor

into a large open plan living and work area

with a stylish, contemporary kitchen and there are also three bedrooms

and a couple of bathrooms in varying states of completion.

Nine years of experience means they've got some important insight to offer Ali.

I would say don't be afraid to have a go.

Although we work as designers, we'd never really done anything hands-on

and actually now I can look around and I've done most of what you see,

so I've made the window frames, Rosemary's tiled the bathroom,

I've laid the concrete floor.

I would say if you are willing to have a go and get your hands dirty

and maybe make a few mistakes, anyone can do pretty much anything.

I think you're prepared to have a go. You said you were prepared to knock things down

and clear things out and so forth.

You've got Max to muck in and help, who I'm sure might have a go at plastering, you never know.

But I think on a serious note, that is the point.

Have a go, what's the worst that can happen?

It's a labour of love, but it's so worth it to get an unusual building

that you can dictate how you're going to live in it.

And Antony's and Rosemary's plans for their perfect home don't stop here.

Upstairs, they aim to create a whole new floor

along with what I can already see is an impressive roof terrace.

What we want to do is build on another floor, but have an open courtyard garden in the middle.

-Yes.

-So with all glass walls surrounding it...

-Sliding glass...

Aww... I mean, it just goes on, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-How long is that going to take?

-I was just going to say...

-Phase two, yes.

I think it's wonderful. I can certainly see why you were attracted to this. Do you kind of get it now?

I do, I do get it, I do. Honestly.

I think what you've done is opened my mind up

to the potential of the properties that I have been looking at, so it's great to see that.

I might need your help, though.

THEY ALL LAUGH

For me, the obvious pleasure that Antony and Rosemary have taken from rescuing this building

is infectious, a building that does literally contain their entire life

and while sometimes it is hard to quantify inspiration,

this building and what they've done here, to me, gets to the heart of it.

Inspiration, I hope, has now rubbed off on Max and, importantly, on Ali.

Later, I'll be showing Ali a finished product,

which I suspect will be very close to the house of her dreams.

But first, back in the north London borough of Enfield,

empty property officer Dave Carter is following up one of his ongoing cases.

It's a 1930s semi that was at the centre of an unresolved inheritance issue.

Empty since 2005, the house has deteriorated badly

and the council have placed a compulsory purchase order on it.

The owners couldn't resolve the problems, the council stepped in, saying,

"Sort it out or we will."

In the end, they said,

"We'll never sort out our problems,

"we're never going to be able to get this property back into use, you may as well do it for us."

Having rescued it from dereliction, the council will temporarily own the house

until they can sell it at auction.

Neighbours are concerned about squatters moving in

and it's Dave's responsibility to ensure that the property is secure against break-ins.

Like any old house it's very vulnerable to people breaking in, the locks are very old,

the frames are wooden and rotten and the glass is not always most secure.

It only takes five minutes for someone to break in.

Dave also needs to check the actual structure of the house to ensure it's not a hazard to passers-by.

You can see where the whole roof has just collapsed, completely rotten.

I don't think it's in any immediate danger unless somebody was to go in,

which is unlikely, but my main concern is this a bit round here.

It seems, um...

stable enough but I think we'll get someone down here to check it.

Satisfied that it's secure, the next call is to update the neighbour on how things are progressing.

-Good morning. I'm fine, thank you, how are you?

-Not too bad.

-Good.

-So, um, house next door.

-Yes.

I've been made aware by, sort of, police and other people

-that they had concerns about squatters.

-That's right, yeah.

Any house like this is vulnerable.

-So I would advise you and all your neighbours just to be vigilant.

-OK.

Because from a selfish point of view, in the not too distant future, it is going to belong to the council,

albeit hopefully for a short period and we don't want the trouble of having to evict squatters as well.

-From your point of view, you don't want...

-No, I don't want squatters.

-That's the last thing I want.

-You don't want them as neighbours.

Sharing a party wall with an empty property can mean sharing structural problems, too.

-When I first met you, I think there was a tank that had burst?

-Correct.

Probably pipes too and your house was a state.

-It was.

-Have you managed to get that sorted out?

-I have.

The insurance have now dealt with it but I did have a big battle because,

unfortunately, the gentleman that owns the house did not have insurance

-so, I had to claim on my own insurance.

-Oh, God.

And they're not that happy about insuring my property being next door to an empty property.

I suppose your premiums have...

My premiums have gone up and I have to a report every quarter to them on the state of the house.

Hopefully, we can, I can see light at the end of the tunnel, anyway.

Once the house is the council's, they'll put it up for auction.

Whenever the auction is in the next few months,

we're hoping that it will go to someone who is going to take care of it, love it

and it might be that it'll be a lovely family home for somebody

and the neighbours will hopefully have a nice, new neighbour to deal with.

Ali Marsh wants to throw herself head-first into a major renovation project.

With best friend Max in tow, she's already seen a run-down, empty cottage

that had all the potential to be a perfect rural village home.

It would really work if you were able to build out here as well.

But with no experience in the game,

I've been introducing her to seasoned renovators who can offer her advice.

Now I want to show her a project that I think will really inspire her.

This is the sort of environment that you really want to be in, isn't it?

-Definitely. It's beautiful.

-I have got the house for you.

Sadly, it's not for sale but, hopefully, it will give you a few ideas.

When Jean Denya first saw this 300-year-old stone cottage in Rutland

back in 1974, she dreamt that one day it would be hers.

34 years later, when she heard it was up for sale

after lying empty for two years, all she had to do was persuade husband Terry to take it on.

We decided that, although it was a cottage that you could live in,

it wasn't big enough, so we've put an extension to make it into more of a family home.

By extending it, they've increased the size of the cottage by a third, creating a light and airy home.

I still come home and can't believe that I actually live here.

And it's a compliment that people in the village have said to us,

how pleased they are about the work we've done.

Now this is what I want you to feast your eyes on,

because I think this is what you're after.

It's absolutely gorgeous, yeah, it is very, very nice.

I think it's stunning. And the teapot, I want that teapot.

So, we might all get a cup of tea later on, then, if we play our cards right.

-Sounds good.

-Now, in many respects I think, guys,

your gorgeous cottage here is very similar to one that we showed Ali some time ago,

which is completely empty and in dire need of restoration, but it is quite similar, isn't it?

Very much, the main bit is really the same size and there is an area to the side

that could be added to and would very much give the size of house that we're looking at now.

But that one isn't listed, this one, of course, is.

To be honest, I don't think it's affected what you've been able to do, has it?

No, no it hasn't.

There are certain restrictions of that they put on it when you're doing the work,

but if you talk to them first, you can find out what you can do, what you can't do.

And you work together to blend it all in and get the end result that we've got,

-which is exactly what we wanted.

-It's beautiful.

The extension has enabled them to create a charming farmhouse kitchen

along with a double bedroom and en suite upstairs.

Ah, look at this.

-Fabulous. This is...

-Now, this is an extension. This is fantastic.

This is what you could do with the other place, isn't it?

Precisely. And the size of this is pretty much what you'd get.

-Yes.

-I think some of the key things here are you talked to the planners before you bought it.

-Yes.

-That's a top tip.

Any others you can think of that will help Ali go forward?

Be very clear on your tender that you send out to builders

and definitely get more than one quote,

about what you want them to do and in what time frame,

so that the expectations are very clear before you take a builder on.

Having bought the house for £313,000,

Jean and Terry spent a further 120,000 transforming it into their dream home.

But has their experience convinced Ali that a similar project is for her?

Well, guys, this is the end of our little foray into empty properties and how to renovate them.

Are you feeling inspired?

I am. They've given me some very good insights.

I mean, like, the planners, to go and sit down and talk to them.

Definitely key to get the right builder and hone in on actually what the brief is.

And in terms of that earlier property that you saw, seriously now, would you reconsider it?

I can see more the potential now, erm...

and, yes, you could lift everything here and put it on that extension.

My only reservation is the parking.

And, in fact, if there was a little bit more room for parking,

um, but otherwise, you're absolutely right, this could be exactly what I could do there.

-So the search goes on?

-Hmm.

-Will you still go for an empty property, is my final question?

-Yeah, I would do.

Yes, I'd love to find an empty property, definitely.

Brilliant. For the budget and what you're after, it's the way to go and you'll get what you want.

-Best of luck with what happens in the future and keep on looking.

-Thank you.

You know, whatever kind of property Ali ends up buying,

whether it's a derelict cottage,

an old barn or even an old factory complex,

the rules and tips that she's picked up today do, I think,

remain pretty much the same.

A good eye, plenty of imagination, and lots of hard work

mean that pretty much any space can

be turned into a fantastic family home.

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