Keith and June Britain's Empty Homes

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

ready for someone to give them a bright new future.

Whether it's a tired semi or a rambling mansion,

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

It's often amazing how quickly a home can lose its sense of homeliness

once it's been left empty for some time.

Once the damp and the cobwebs have crept in,

it often takes real vision to see how it can be turned back into a gorgeous home in the future.

Today, I'm going to pass on my knowledge of renovating an empty property

to show a couple how to do it themselves and create an inspirational home.

-It's beautiful, isn't it?

-I think it's going to age really well.

We meet experienced home restorers who have done it all before.

Although it was in a terrible state, it was just idyllic,

and I thought, I don't care what it's like inside, I want it.

Plus we'll be pounding the beat with Empty Property Officers,

whose job it is to get vacant addresses lived in again.

It's an achievement each time we bring an empty property back into use.

Textile designer June Swindell and sales manager Keith Marsh have been together for three years.

Deciding it's time to get their first place together,

they're looking to leave London for Brighton in Sussex.

It seems like quite a natural move from London to Brighton. There's still loads going on.

It should be really nice.

Keith and June each have a flat to sell, giving them a combined budget of £500,000,

so they're looking for a tired old lady of a house they can turn into a grande dame.

June's good at interior stuff. If I did it, it would look like a bloke's flat.

Between us, we'd end up with a really nice place.

The couple have absolutely no renovation experience

but they've come up with a rather unorthodox approach to financing the process.

My thought is that we get a place that's beyond our means

but rent some of it out for holiday lets.

I'd like somewhere with outbuildings or somewhere else where you could potentially rent out.

It could be a very clever idea or a total disaster,

depending on the property they choose and what they do with it.

Hi, June, nice to see you.

I want to find out how committed June and Keith are to taking on and renovating an empty home.

So, £500,000 is not just to buy this property

but also to have some money within that £500,000 to do it up.

But you're also thinking of something of a holiday let

to try and offset the cost. How is that going to work?

Well, hopefully, if we can find somewhere

that's got either additional quarters or outbuildings,

maybe we can stretch the budget a little bit more and it can start to pay for itself a little bit.

We could be leasing them out as offices, studios, B&B.

Wow! And how do you see this working in terms of your careers at the moment?

For Keith it's definitely got to run alongside,

erm, but I can be a bit more flexible, so I'm thinking semi-retirement.

Oh, nice. You're going to be a lady that lunches, aren't you?

Yes, perfect.

It's an attractive package if it can be achieved.

We hope so. We've met later in life so it would be nice to do something together where we can move forward.

To give Keith and June an idea of what their project may involve,

I'll be introducing them to experienced homeowners who have done it all before.

But, first, I want to see if they can spot the opportunities a vacant house may offer.

Keith and June clearly have the enthusiasm to take on an empty property,

but I can't tell whether or not they have the vision,

so I'm sending them off without me to have a good look

at a great example of the sort of property that they could buy.

To the keen-eyed buyer, this four-bedroom end-of-terrace in Brighton,

on the market for just shy of £450,000, is a real steal.

Especially as there's a surprise thrown in - a separate one-bedroom basement flat.

This place was rented out for a while,

but it's been left empty for months.

The separate flat would make an ideal holiday let,

while, above, the three floors of seemingly endless empty rooms, all painted white,

could be turned into a stunning period home.

It's a real blank canvas,

but will June and Keith be able to see beyond the bland and envisage a unique home?

Oh, my goodness, it's huge!

A lot of property for £450,000.

Even from out here, it's screaming for an update.

-Perfect.

-Loving the net curtains(!)

-Let's have a look.

-Hey!

-Small kitchen for a big house.

You're knocking walls out already.

What's...peering out the kitchen window.

-That's quite exciting. Nice little outdoor bit.

-Is it ours?

The beauty of an empty house is that there are surprises around every corner,

so, continuing their detective work, June and Keith set off in search of the entrance to the flat.

It's just a cupboard, but from the kitchen window you can see something downstairs.

So what's the downstairs and is that here?

There's definitely a separate downstairs.

It must have a separate entrance,

which means you can rent it out as a separate flat

-and create a further income.

-Give that man a prize!

Vacant places are often presented without furniture,

so you need to use your imagination to work out how you'd use the space.

Strip it and paint it white.

June does seem slightly overawed by the number of rooms and options available.

-I...erm, bedroom!

-Bedroom one.

-Obviously.

-Well, no, lounge...no, lounge.

-Lounge now? Office?

-I don't know.

-Let's go and see what else there is.

With June and Keith's ambitious approach to funding

their perfect pad by renting out part of the property,

the basement is where the real bonus lies.

Oh!

Down here there's a galley kitchen,

a good-sized living room and a double bedroom.

As far as an extra source of income goes, this place could provide rental revenue.

It is a self-contained flat. Brilliant.

We could rent this out in its entirety or we could sell it.

It's great that Keith's looking at the flat in a business-like way

and that's what will pay for the renovation upstairs.

But I'm worried June's creative side is taking over.

Look at the finishes there. It's really badly done.

-It's all right.

-No, it's horrible.

-We wouldn't be living in it. We'd rent it or sell it.

It's too horrible to rent to somebody.

I think it's ready to go.

It's got the beige carpet, magnolia wall, white ceiling, it's fairly recently done.

I think it would rent easily.

This is exactly why you were single when I met you.

OK, this might not be the place for them,

but I want to broaden their horizons by inspiring them with examples

of what other people have done with their empty homes.

Let's have a think about that property in Brighton that we sent you to without me.

-What did you make of it?

-It was nicely run down and empty and had potential.

You have the opportunity to let it, which is why it was worth you looking at it.

It would have made great student lets. It was more of a business than a home.

You'd live in the smaller part and the bigger part would be the business - student lets.

I think the trick now is to get you to look at a couple of properties

which go more to the heart of what you're after -

properties which are in the process of being renovated and that have been renovated,

-but which have incorporate a second income along the way.

-Fantastic.

-Let's have a look at these.

I'm not convinced that Keith and June have the ambition required

to tackle the renovation of an empty property.

They'll need passion to propel them through the tough times -

something the owners of this formerly derelict house

in Worcestershire know only too well.

They took it on in 1996 and began a long journey,

transforming it into a sensational home.

Although it was in a terrible state, it's a magnificent looking house

and I think it was the windows that sold it to me,

and the setting, with the church and down a little quiet lane. It was just idyllic.

I thought, I don't care what it's like inside, I want it?

Jilly and Cliff's renovation was carried out in several stages

over five years, but not everything ran smoothly.

The most difficult part was the first few months here

when everything was in a terrible state

and we had teams of builders in doing work all over the place, and yet, several months later,

having spent goodness knows how many thousands of pounds, it didn't look any better.

Starting with the bare bones of the house, they have been able to incorporate unique features.

In our daughter's bedroom,

we thought it would be fun to have a Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe idea.

So, the original wardrobe frontages which were here when we moved in, we decided to keep,

so when you open the door, it's a complete surprise.

It's fun to walk through a wardrobe every time you need the loo(!)

As a way of bringing in extra income,

Jilly and Cliff converted outbuildings into holiday lets,

much like June and Keith hope to achieve.

One of the other attractions of the property

was that they had these beautiful old coach houses in the grounds.

We decided to develop them into a range of luxury holiday cottages.

14 years ago, they paid £235,000 for the house

and spent £300,000 transforming it,

as well as turning the outbuildings into holiday cottages.

If we were to have it valued now, for the whole site, including the cottages,

it would be in the region of £2 million,

so hopefully it's been a worthwhile exercise.

The couple are clear that only by taking on a disused property

have they been able to create their amazing abode.

How else were we going to ever live in what most people would consider to be a dream home?

There's no way we could have afforded it. It would have been beyond our wildest dreams.

It's not the sort of project that anybody should go into light-heartedly.

Having said that, if you do have the passion, then absolutely anything is achievable,

and there's a sense of pride that we have brought something back to life

that could well have tumbled and gone forever.

And it will be here for generations to come.

With property prices now being so high,

houses are too precious a commodity to leave empty for months on end,

which is why many local councils now employ Empty Property Officers

whose job it is to try and get them occupied once again.

Zainul Pirmohamed is employed by Stoke City Council

and has saved 141 houses from falling into rack and ruin in the last four years.

She heads up a team of three empty property officers.

One of the main reasons I do this job

is because of the difference that I do make to people's lives.

It's a real, real sense of satisfaction

and it's an achievement each time we bring a blighted empty property back into use.

Her team get around ten new houses per month to look into

and, today, she's checking up on an investigation which has got local residents quite spooked.

We're heading for a property which is 15 years empty.

Because it's been empty for so long, the locals have taken to calling it the ghost house.

This three-bed semi is on a quiet residential street

and is a nightmare for its neighbours.

The children, a few years ago, used to call it the spooky house

because they used to dare each other to come into the back garden

but I told them about the rat problem and that soon stopped that game.

I'm on friendly terms now with the rat man. His name's Dave.

Zainul's dogged determination to contact the owner has been met with silence,

so the council has taken legal steps to make a compulsory purchase of the house

and, today, Zainul is making one final check to ensure no-one or no thing is living there.

We've got an open window up there.

Having said that, I think that's been open for the last three or four years,

since I've been visiting the property.

Oh, goodness me!

It's absolutely full and it looks like somebody has ransacked the property.

This property has been an eyesore, it's been a pain to the neighbours,

so, for me, the quicker we can get this through the auction,

the quicker we can get somebody who is keen on bringing it back into use,

the sooner we can get it back into what it used to be - a lovely family home.

After satisfying herself the property is empty,

Zainul is keen to update the lady who lives in the adjoining house and allay any of her fears about it.

I know it's been a bother to you for many years now.

-He's not responded to any of my correspondence.

-Right.

Once it's in our ownership, we'll make sure it's all secure,

so you will see black metal sheeting to the front and back on the ground floor

and boarding to the top.

A temporary measure, so don't be alarmed, purely so we can make sure that it's safe and secure.

With Zainul on the case, this blot on the landscape will soon be home to a needy local family.

It's an absolute travesty, really,

when there are so many people looking for this kind of family home.

The plan is to get the property secured,

get it cleared and then market it for sale.

If you think you've found your dream wreck or doer-upper

that you could turn into your perfect family home,

odds are you'll have to act pretty quickly to beat the developers,

but be sure to do your homework before completing on the sale and parting with your hard-earned cash.

Get a builder round to give you an estimate for alteration costs.

Book a meeting with the Planning Office to discuss how feasible your ideas are.

And be realistic about what you can afford.

Once you pick up the keys, there's no going back.

Keith Marsh and June Swindell

plan to make one of the biggest decisions of their lives - investing in a property together.

They've seen an empty, tired town house in Brighton

which offered them the opportunity to create a substantial home for themselves

and a holiday let to bring in extra cash.

But with no experience of renovating dilapidated houses,

I want to show them how others have financed their projects to give them more confidence.

Guys, we're here in Selsey and we're going to start with what I can only describe

as an extraordinarily ambitious project behind this hoarding.

If you want extreme, this is it.

This beautiful Grade II listed 17th century cottage in Selsey, Sussex,

was one of the town's most important historic buildings.

But, four years ago, something tragic happened.

A fire ripped through the building, destroying the roof,

leaving the house empty and open to the elements ever since.

Then, Sylvia Marshall heard local developers wanted to knock it down

to make way for new housing.

I always loved Selsey as a child and the idea a beautiful house as Sessions

could be left just to fall down or be developed,

I think it would simply be heartbreaking. Someone, somewhere had to do something.

And Sylvia did do something. She bought this pile of charred timber.

-Right, in you come.

-OK(!)

Let me introduce you to this lovely lady here, to Sylvia.

She's now undertaking a mammoth restoration which could cost her an eye-watering £1 million.

In bringing you here, it's not just to frighten you with this project,

but the key thing is that Sylvia is considering turning half of this into a holiday let.

The plan is...it was originally two homes,

it will go back to being two homes, one I will live in and the other half to be a holiday let

which will offset some costs in actually doing the project.

I want Sylvia's enthusiasm to inspire June and Keith.

-Look at this!

-It's like a haunted house.

This is extraordinary. My goodness...wow!

-That's what it used to look like.

-That is stunning.

-That's chocolate box.

-You can see the two doors.

Your choice of homes or lets.

-When you see that, how could you not restore it?

-That's fair enough.

Sylvia's dedication led her to give up a career as a management consultant

to devote herself to the project.

Any designs June has on being a lady who lunches,

it could be more like butties with the builders.

I'd done my day job for 20 years but always had an interest in old buildings

and when Sessions came up, I burnt the suit and this became the day job.

I think it's amazing. Absolutely amazing.

My entire life is now doing this.

I live it, I breathe it. You have to.

She's only six months into the transformation and costs are already more than £500,000 and rising.

It's a lot of money and it's still open-ended as to the final bill.

But I can see that incorporating the holiday let

will clearly bring in a tidy sum, one would hope.

I think that's so important, whether it's a new property, an old property.

I need the comfort blanket of knowing there will be an income stream coming from somewhere.

It's an extraordinary project. Well done.

Seeing it on the chocolate box is all the reward I need.

Good luck. Good luck.

We often say that many renovations are not for the faint-hearted.

This is probably a classic example of that.

I'm not suggesting for one minute that it's right for Keith or June,

but the thing I like about this one is that it's not a renovation

that's just aimed at making extra space or making a few quid.

This one is driven by a relentless passion

to see this building returned to the state that it was once in.

I have to say, although Sylvia is about to start the rebuild,

along the way there will be many doubts and troubles,

if anybody can see this off and finish it, she can.

Later, I'll be taking them to meet a pair of renovators

who found another clever way of funding their project.

But, first, back in Stoke-on-Trent, Empty Property Officer Zainul Pirmohamed

is heading to a house that will soon be a family home once more.

I've been involved with a long-term empty property

since, erm, roughly, October 2008.

The previous owners of this two-bed terrace tried to renovate the property

but hit problems with their building work and were forced to abandon it.

They then failed to carry out work to bring it up to a livable standard

and when threatened with a compulsory purchase order, they put the house on the market.

It sold and, today, Zainul's catching up with the new owner.

Hi. Good to see you again.

The previous owners removed a chimney breast on the ground floor

-without properly supporting the upper floor.

-Goodness me.

So Zainul's first concern today

is to check if vital structural work has been carried out to make it safe.

What is it that your workmen have done so that that scaffolding can be taken away?

The chimney wasn't supported at the top.

They've put some supports at the top, have they? Brilliant.

It's not just Zainul who wants the house lived in.

Living next to this empty property has been an absolute nightmare for two years.

It's been a dumping ground in the back garden.

We've had damp.

We just want it finished

and people living in it so it's back to normal

because everybody up this street seems to take care of their houses.

Goodness me, look at the state of that!

Your workmen better be quite strong men.

-All those bricks, where are they from?

-The chimney.

Of course, yeah.

So it's the full works, isn't it?

It's literally new windows, kitchen, bathroom, central heating, doors.

It's absolutely everything. Everything brand new really.

A grant from the council means he can carry out major works to bring the house back into use.

With a time-scale of 12 weeks to complete this,

the house will then be rented to people on the council's waiting list.

There's a lot of work required here. A lot more than I realised.

I think we need to consider extending the time you would normally be allowed.

Usually, we give 12 weeks.

Having looked at the property, we would be willing to give extra time.

Although Zainul's given the owner more time to complete the work,

she'll be keeping a close eye on this case to make sure it's back into use as soon as possible.

Thank you very much for your time.

The main thing here is we have a responsible owner now.

I don't think we have to do a lot, other than monitor the case.

And with families in the area in desperate need of homes, this place is a valuable commodity.

We've got over 9,000 people on our waiting list, with many thousands of families there.

It's important we bring a lot of these properties back into use

to provide families with young children a nice, steady home to grow up in.

Hopefully, in the next few months, this will be another successful case closed for Zainul.

Keith and June have a clever plan to renovate a disused dwelling

and turn it into their first home by partially funding the move

through renting out part of the building as a holiday let.

They've seen how brave Sylvia is funding an incredibly ambitious restoration in this way.

I want to show them the final piece of the puzzle

which I think will give them the confidence to go ahead with their project.

Now, then, as promised we are going to show you something that's been completed.

You can see the other end of the process.

Six years ago, carpenter Ben Halsey and his wife Lindsay

bought a rundown cottage and stable that hadn't been lived in for years.

We weren't really interested in the cottage.

As lovely as it is, we saw this place and it just lit us up.

Ben and Lindsay have converted the stables

into an impressive two-bedroom home

with a bespoke kitchen and a unique mezzanine level.

In order to be able to carry out

this outstanding conversion of the stable block

they renovated the cottage and sold it off.

-Fantastic.

-Yeah?

I think this is a really nice one, actually.

Let's go and meet them.

I hope this smart financing will convince Keith and June

they can apply a similar principle to make their dream home affordable.

Come and meet these two clever owners and the dogs.

-This is Keith.

-Hi.

Ben, you've done a lot of the work, helped by the fact you're a very accomplished joiner.

-It's beautiful.

-Yeah?

We are all suitably impressed, guys. It's a terrific job.

You started with two properties, didn't you?

We had to buy the two properties.

This came as an outbuilding to that property next-door. We did that property up.

We sold that to finance the doing up of this one.

Ben and Lindsay have created a beautiful home

with every detail finished how they want it.

I do like my Nigella cupboard which Ben made for me.

It's good for inspiration.

Like Sylvia earlier, Ben put his day job on hold,

focusing his carpentry skills on creating their home,

but it wasn't all plain sailing.

We did employ builders at one time.

It was clear to me that they didn't grasp the build very quickly or easily,

so we got rid of those as soon as we could.

We had to take the tiles off the roof and start again.

In November, on my birthday, in a north-easterly,

we were both up there retiling the roof.

It seems June's designer eye for detail has got her excited about this place.

It's going to age really well, which is lovely.

I also found it interesting that you did the other property first.

We came in this building and we saw the view and this was for us,

we could vision it straight away... visualise it.

We bit the bullet. It was more money than we thought we could afford,

so we got a big mortgage and Ben had to have time off from work

so we had to finance him not working and working on this.

A large oak balcony gives them a fantastic outside space

with beautiful views.

This is the life, isn't it?

-This works.

-This is brilliant.

When the sun is shining it's great to have a drink here in the evening

and watch the sun go down over there.

Can we talk about the money? That goes to the heart of whether it's been worth it or not.

You bought the two together. This building, let's say, was worth about £200,000.

You've spent £300,000 on it. £500,000 all in.

We wouldn't sell it for less than £850,000.

So you're sitting pretty on £350,000.

That's the effort, I suppose, and six years of no wages.

As Keith and Jean have seen, it takes passion and dedication

to take a vacant building from disused to desirable.

But I hope I've given them the inspiration to go for it.

Well, guys, here we are at the end of our pretty busy day, I think you will agree.

Have we inspired you or put you off the idea of taking on an empty building?

You couldn't help but be inspired by Sylvia's place, but be daunted as well.

I'm pretty sure that's way out of our spectrum.

Ben and Lindsay's place is stunning. Perfect. And achievable.

What were the key things you'll take away from those two properties? Two extreme examples.

Definitely, they both felt passionate about what they were doing.

The end result was obviously something they want to keep and hold on to.

Now, both of the properties we've seen have cost a lot of money and are going to cost a lot of money.

Have you taken anything away about the financial implications?

Ben and Lindsay's opened up a new idea of buying two -

fixing one up, selling, using that profit to support the other one.

Have we ignited your passion to go forward and find an empty property?

Absolutely. It's definitely time to start hunting, I think.

-Brilliant, guys. Very best of luck. Let us know how you get on.

-We will.

I learn something new from every renovation I look at.

I've been particularly inspired by Sylvia.

In that case, fortune will favour the brave.

But the overriding theme is passion,

and I'm pretty sure Keith and June will take that away in spades

and when they find their dream home they're going to set about it with real gusto.

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