Episode 10 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello and welcome to the programme.

Buying property can be a long, drawn-out process,

but not when you buy at auction.

And you get the keys to the property you want in just 28 days.

Yes, it really can be that quick, buying your home under the hammer.

Sometimes, buying at auction can be a bit of a gamble,

but not if you do your research first.

So are today's buyers on a winning streak?

Here's what they put their money on.

This Lancashire property has problems on every floor.

If you were hoping that it gets better upstairs,

you are going to be disappointed.

There's a bungalow in Kent with small rooms that could stretch your finances.

Look! I can touch the walls almost.

And how to get more from this first floor London flat.

You can't go out the front, you can't go out the side, you can't go down.

Maybe you could go up.

All of these properties went to auction.

We'll find out who bought them

and what they paid when they went under the hammer.

For the first property that went under the hammer,

I've come to Lancashire to the heart of the Pennines.

This is the Rochdale Canal in beautiful Calderdale.

I'm about a mile outside Todmorden

and the property I am here to see is just round the corner.

Nearby Todmorden was once an industrial mill town,

but since the local mill ceased production in the late 1960s,

it's become more residential.

It's popular with commuters travelling to nearby Manchester, Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield.

This is the property I am here to see.

It was described in the catalogue as an inner terrace,

but basically, it's a section of a big Victorian house

that was once owned by the local mill owner.

The guide price was £70,000 plus. Let's take a look.

The property was split into three smaller units in the 1960s.

One unit makes up half of it

while the second half is split into two other units.

It's the front half with three floors on the corner of the property that I am here to see.

Crikey! Well, good and bad news, I'm afraid.

The good news is, look at the size of this room.

The ceiling height especially. Fantastic!

You've got this big bay window.

The bad news though, is that it's in a right old state.

We've got buckets collecting water,

we've got bits of building materials.

The project has been started and not actually completed, which always worries me a bit.

In general though, I'm excited to see more.

Although, I'll have to watch my step.

There are floorboards missing everywhere and a real danger

that I could fall right into the large cellar below.

# Hey daddio

# I don't want to go

# Down to the basement. #

Like a lot of the house, it's got great potential

but will require more expertise than that of a keen weekend DIY'er I suspect.

The access is through a trapdoor in the porch area.

Next to the living room, there is another shock.

Through to what I think was the kitchen.

But all that's left is the sink.

Piles of bricks, reclaimed doors.

This is more like an architectural salvage yard.

I wonder what's in store upstairs.

Well, if you were hoping that it gets better upstairs,

you are going to be disappointed.

In some ways, it is actually worse.

Originally, I imagine two bedrooms here,

but it looks like someone's had a go at sticking a dormer up there.

It is actually a massive space, but my guess is, it hasn't been done properly.

So get some architects in here,

take a look at what you might be able to do, plan it out

and you could, theoretically, after a lot of work, have a really, really amazing house.

I am beginning to see why the guide price was set at just £70,000 plus.

The two bedrooms have no ceilings and there are holes in the floor.

There is a bathroom but apart from the loo,

the fittings have long since gone.

Outside, there is another problem.

The garden is not directly accessible from the property.

You have to cross the shared drive to reach it.

But you do have the bonus of lovely canal side views.

# Where peaceful waters flow. #

Time now to find out what a local estate agent thinks

of this Victorian villa.

It's had many years going to rack and ruin.

It was bought by developers about three years ago

and been badly done.

So it's now in a dreadful state but there's lots of potential here.

So what refurbishment is recommended here?

I would start at the top and work down.

I think we need to replace the dormers,

put two extra bedrooms upstairs, maybe an ensuite,

and put the kitchen down into the cellar.

What could the value be if you did turn this into a three or four-bedroomed home?

If it was converted into a four-bedroom residence,

it would fetch somewhere in the region of £200,000.

How much rental income could it generate?

As a three-bedroom, I would say somewhere around £575.

As a four-bedroom, somewhere around £650 per calendar month.

Well, what you've got here, obviously,

is a major renovation project and not one for the faint-hearted.

But it's a good house with amazing potential and a lovely location.

Let's find out who wasn't daunted by the tasks ahead

when it went to auction.

Lot 88, the vacant inner terrace property in need of renovation.

We'll start the bidding at £45,000.

Here to sell it. 45. Thank you, sir, at the back. 45. 46? 46.

47. 48. 50,000.

52. 54. 56.

58. 60,000.

62. 64. 66.

68. 70,000.

72. 74. 76.

78. 80,000.

82. 84. 86.

Just too far.

£86,000 then. Strong bidding.

86,000. 87,000 anywhere else?

All finished at £86,000. Then, I am selling.

For the first time, second, third and final time at £86,000.

Well done. Thank you.

That final successful bid was made by Bradford-based Dan.

He bought the Victorian villa along with his wife, Alison,

to make into a family home for themselves and their two children.

Dan works in marketing at the local council,

which is also where Alison was contracts officer

before she took maternity leave.

I met the couple back at their new property to find out about their plans.

Dan, Alison, lovely to meet you both. Congratulations.

You're smirking. Why are you laughing?

You've seen the property. It is going to be a lot of work.

So why did you want to buy this place?

We want to buy it for a family home.

It's very important that it's a nice big family home for our two children.

-How old are they?

-Two and three months.

-Chaos ensues!

-We like a challenge. Two young kids and a house to re-do.

-Why not?!

-So this is going to be your main family home.

Why this particular house?

It's got a lot of potential. We can start from the beginning.

As you can see, there's nothing here. Everything is gone.

We can put our plans in place and say, this is how we want it to be. So it'll be truly our home.

It's one we actually looked at two years ago when it was up for sale.

We really liked it, really like the location, but at that point it was just too expensive to buy.

We were just fortunate to stumble across it while it was up at auction.

-How much was it when you first saw it?

-£185,000.

-Wow! So you basically got it for £100,000 less.

-Yes.

It was almost something that was meant to be.

I don't know if it's the right way of putting it,

but we did stumble across it a week before it went to auction for the second time.

It had already been up for auction a month before that.

It was just almost as though it's come back for us.

# This is where we were meant to be

# This is where we were meant to be. #

Goodness, what a result!

Two years ago, the house failed to sell at £185,000

and just two months ago it went to auction guided at 100,000

and still no-one bought it.

Now, Dan and Alison have paid just 86 grand. Nice one!

-You must be thrilled to bits.

-Yes.

Thrilled and scared in equal measure at the moment.

It's a lot of work to undertake, especially with two small children.

Tell me what you're going to do.

Get the professionals in is a definite.

We've never finished decorating our own house because we tried to do it ourselves.

We know that's not the route to go for this.

We've got builders and tradesmen coming over in the next two or three days to start quoting up for us.

There's a dormer roof on the top which shouldn't be there

but we've got the plans to convert that into two bedrooms

so we'll have four bedrooms upstairs, an ensuite, family bathroom.

Down on this level, we'll try and create an entrance to the house

because it's currently lacking an entrance.

It's very much the side of a Victorian villa.

Into the basement we'll put a dining kitchen

and open the front of that out so we've got access outside.

How much money have you set aside to do the work?

Between 60 and 80.

OK. It's a healthy budget but there is a lot to do.

There is, yes.

You've obviously got a lot going on with your two young children.

Why take the project like this on rather than buying somewhere that was sorted out?

We couldn't afford to get something like this in the normal housing market.

It's an opportunity that we can take on board

without having to worry about a massive mortgage

and we can do what we want to do with it.

What's the timescale for sorting everything out?

-Hopefully, about nine months.

-That's fantastic.

I am delighted for you and I wish you much success.

-I can't wait to see how it turns out.

-Thank you. Thank you.

It does seem that it's fate that Dan and Alison have ended up with this property,

but they've got a lot of challenges ahead.

Young family, house that needs complete renovation.

Still, they've got a good budget and the enthusiasm to do it.

How will they get on transforming this place into a home?

You can find out later in the show.

For the next property that sold at auction, I've come to Longfield,

a semi-rural location in Kent.

I'm here to see a four-bedroom bungalow.

It had a guide price of £220,000 to £230,000.

Interestingly, before going to auction,

it was marketed for 245 grand.

So, money to be made? A bargain to be had? Potentially.

Let's take a closer look.

It takes a while to get up close and personal with this auction lot.

The path leading to the bungalow just seems to go on and on.

# On and on and on

# Keep on rockin' baby 'Til the night is gone. #

But I like the raised elevation it has and it looks in fair condition.

That's quite a walk. You've got a long path, three steps here,

before you've even got to the front door.

So, a lovely, wide, welcoming hallway.

It's really nice to walk into a property like this.

As you can see, it's incredibly dated.

All the work needs doing here.

Carpets, wallpaper, polystyrene tiles up there.

You've got a really nice, big lounge with pretty views out into the garden.

A good space. You've got another room here.

Possibly a bedroom. Poly tiles on the ceiling and look at this.

Poly tiles on the walls.

I know that this used to be used as insulation many, many moons ago,

but that will all have to come off because that really is a fire hazard.

But a good space.

You've got a little cupboard here

but it's not deep enough to warrant being there, I don't think,

so I would probably knock that out.

And right at the end, the kitchen. How disappointing.

This is too small for the property.

It is very narrow, lots of cupboards everywhere.

What have we got through here? A bit of a serving hatch.

Another room back there.

I'm just hoping that there is enough room in this property to reconfigure

because this kitchen is not working for me.

# You're a waste of space. #

This bungalow, that had an auction guide price of £220,000 to £230,000,

has four bedrooms and two bathrooms.

I reckon the layout needs to be changed to give more space to the kitchen.

# You're a waste of space. #

And if you go through to the lounge, you get to yet another room on the other side of the kitchen.

Now, I don't really know what this room would be.

Perhaps a second reception room. I know the kitchen is through here.

Now, what you could do is take this wall out and open this space up.

But if you look through there,

you don't really have a fantastic view or a lovely big window.

So it would be quite dark,

although you do have a bit of light coming through here.

So, you could potentially knock through here

because this room, as you can see, is tiny.

Look! I can touch the walls almost!

Not a great room. You couldn't call this a bedroom.

I suppose it could be an office.

But if you were to take out this wall, you'd have a fantastic space,

a really gorgeous little bay window there,

so lots of light coming through.

I really think that would be the best use of space.

But of course, you'd need to get professional advice

as they could both be supporting walls.

Off the dining room, this bedroom has a whole wall of fitted wardrobes.

There's just so much wasted space here.

# You're a waste of space. #

And it's next to one of the two bathrooms.

Unfortunately, I've spotted something else that needs re-working.

There's another way into the house but it's alongside this garage

and, well, it's a bit of a squash and it's a bit of a squeeze.

You've got to mind the drainpipes as you come along.

Forget it if you've got loads of shopping bags!

Now, that's the way in.

What I would do is get rid of this old, dilapidated garage.

That does not need to be there.

Then, it'll free up all this lovely space.

You can park your car right up to here,

get all your shopping bags out and go in your side door.

Lovely.

# Goodbye

# Oh, bye

# Baby, bye. #

There's plenty of land with the bungalow as it sits on a big plot,

but just like the inside, it is not being used to its best potential

and if you've got a car, that's a problem.

Parking is a bit of an issue, I'm afraid.

You can see these yellow lines.

Not very inviting for you or your guests.

So why not create more parking in your front garden just here?

Friends and family will be much more inclined to pop round

knowing they won't have any parking dramas when they turn up.

Looking around, it's obviously a popular move

and you can see just how well it works.

What will a local estate agent make of this oddly laid out bungalow?

We invited one along to hear his views.

Unusual bungalow.

This bedroom here we're in is way too small as a bedroom

so I think it would sell far better as a three bed.

Take one of the bathrooms out and have a better sized bathroom

and utilise the accommodation in a much better way.

Assuming the bungalow is renovated to a good standard, how much rent could it generate?

At the moment, you'd look in the region of between £1,000 and £1,100 per calendar month.

And what could be the potential resale value?

With a good job done, you'd sell this in the region of between £335,000 to £340,000.

I'm usually thinking about ways to create an extra bedroom

but in this case, I would be happy to lose one.

Reconfiguring this bungalow will really transform it,

making it a much more marketable proposition

for the resale and the rental market.

It's going to require a lot of work and imagination though.

Let's find out who fancied the challenge as we go to auction.

Lot 12, we go to now. It's a detached bungalow for refurbishment

in an excellent location.

Can I see £200,000 to start me?

A bid for 200? 200, I'm obliged.

And 10 by the sign at the back. 210.

220. 220. A fresh place. 220.

And five. 225. 225. And 30 now.

Are we all done? 230. And five. 235. 235.

I will take two if you like because you were so close to buying it.

If not, I'm going to sell to the hand in the middle on the right hand side.

For the first time at 230. It's against you and the one at the back.

Second time at 230,000. Third and final time. You're all done at 230.

And it is C449. Thank you.

That final successful bid of £230,000

was made by Bill and Maureen.

Bill is a semi-retired managing director

of the sheet metal company that he's owned for the past 38 years.

His partner, Maureen, has now retired

after working for a magazine and then for social services.

I met up with them back at the property to hear about their plans.

Congratulations. Really good news that you got this property.

You were both at the auction. What was it like for you both?

For me, it was really nerve wracking.

I've been to lots of auctions for machinery,

but I found it really nerve wracking.

-So what do you do?

-I've got an engineering company.

We make office furniture. Anything out of steel.

What were you doing at a property auction?

I have retired. My son is now running the business and I get bored stiff.

I don't really like gardening,

so for the last five years, I have bought the odd property.

I've got six houses which I let out.

I like drawing up the kitchen layouts and changing it ten times.

I know exactly what you mean! That's exactly what I do. I love a floor plan. Give me a floor plan!

Not at three o'clock in the morning though!

He gets up and he's in the study, drawing.

"Have you seen this suite", he says to me. "Have you seen this?"

Let's hope the best laid plans here do actually come to something.

I think there's so much you could do with this property.

What are you guys going to do to bring it together?

Have your late nights paid off with your floor plan?

It's not terribly exciting, to be honest.

All we're going to do is knock the wall down

between the kitchen and the dining room.

Make that into a kitchen diner. All the other rooms will stay the size they are.

It's just going to end up as a three to four bed with one room being used as an office.

My concern is that little room is so little.

What about using that as part of the kitchen and really opening the space up?

I did originally think of knocking that wall down

but because it's a main wall, my builder friend said,

"Do you really want to go to all that cost?"

I've actually designed the kitchen in that room with that wall knocked down

and using the bay window and putting the sink in there.

I think that would be lovely.

My first reaction when I saw the property was to open the whole space up.

But you could do it bit by bit and see what it's like when you've taken the first wall out.

Just see how big it is and see how it feels.

Bill plans to refit both the bathrooms

with a shower in the smaller of the two rooms.

So is it all going to be down to him?

So you are going to employ a team of builders to be on site.

Not a team, no. A few friends who are in the building game.

I've got plumbers, and a carpenter.

How involved are you going to be?

Is this something you're interested in as well?

Yes, I am very interested in it.

I think it's really great fun and I can't wait.

-I bet he's pulling faces behind me!

-He's laughing!

-We've had arguments already.

-Show me the nails.

-They're ready for decorating.

-I think not!

So come on, how involved are you going to be with this?

I think, once he knocks this wall down, then I can actually see.

Really, it's going to be a cosmetic thing. We're not going to live in it.

At the moment, we're still thinking about letting, renting or whatever.

So once that wall is down and we open it up, we can see between the three.

So how much have you got to spend on this?

The truth is, it'll probably end up about 40 grand,

even without doing a lot of things, because by the time we put all the new heating in,

two new bathrooms, a nice kitchen, it's going to be about 40 grand, I reckon.

Is there a time limit on this project?

Because I actually want to do more of the work, there is no real rush.

So I am talking probably about up to four months for it.

Otherwise, I'll have to buy another one and start again.

So you might as well take your time on the one you're doing, really.

-Is that news to you, Maureen?

-Not really.

All I'm thinking about really is our holidays.

I'm just making sure we still have our holiday week. Honestly!

Good luck, guys. It's been fantastic meeting you.

-Thank you very much.

-Lovely to meet you.

So Bill doesn't like gardening and he's a bit bored.

Perfect excuse to take on a huge project.

But what will he decide to do about the box room?

And will he knock down the wall to create a larger kitchen or not?

One thing's for sure, Maureen wants her holidays, so the pressure is on.

You can find out how they get on later in the programme.

Coming up, there's a pleasant surprise

in this first floor London flat.

Actually, for a one-bedroom flat, not a bad amount of space.

We're going back to Kent, where it sounds as if it's been no holiday.

Overall, I am really, really pleased with it. Bill has worked so hard.

But first, we return to Lancashire where everything needed fixing.

The house was literally falling apart. The side wall was coming off.

Earlier in the programme, we were in Todmorden in Lancashire

where Dan and his wife, Alison, bought part of this converted

but derelict canal-side property for 86,000.

The couple both work for the council

and Alison was on maternity leave with their second baby.

The property needed a total rebuild but that hadn't put them off.

So why this particular house?

It's got a lot of potential. We can start from the beginning.

As you can see, there is nothing here. Everything is gone.

We can put our plans in place and say, this is how we want it to be.

So it'll be truly our home.

It's now 13 months later and the place has been totally transformed.

The lean-to that was on the side of the property

has been replaced with a new extension.

It makes a much better main entrance.

Some steps now lead down to the former basement

which has become a stunning kitchen diner with underfloor heating.

They made a very unusual discovery.

A well, which they've covered in glass and turned into the future.

Nice!

This room does look fantastic.

This is our kitchen diner.

This is very much the reason why we moved to the house.

The original kitchen upstairs was far too small for what we were after.

There's a lot of work down here.

Height wise, we dug three of four feet out of the ground,

damp proofed it, sealed it, tanked it.

New stairway in from the original stairway that was on the side.

New external stairway straight outside which is really nice.

The one thing I really like here is having a pantry, having everything out.

It reminds me of old family houses.

One of our key features here was the well.

It took a lot of cleaning out. We've put a nice light in there. It's one of our key features in the kitchen.

Up the new staircase from the basement to the first floor,

where the former kitchen has been converted to a room that all the family can use.

You reach it by turning right through the front door.

This is our snug. It's our lovely family room.

We've moved our stairs and put them over here

and eventually we'll have some iron balustrades

to make it look a lot more grand.

We've got our fireplace as well which is all lovely and reclaimed

and eventually will work and be a lovely fireplace.

Eventually, this room will be somewhere for the children to play

and somewhere we can shut the door and watch a film

and the kids can do their homework as well.

So hopefully, it'll turn into a good room.

From the snug, you can walk through to the bay fronted living room.

Like most of the property, it's made use of lots of reclaimed materials.

A year ago, the higher you went up this property the worse it got.

Now, the first floor has some clearly defined rooms.

There's a new family bathroom at the top of the stairs.

Plus two bedrooms for the children.

It's taken a year with lots of structural work done,

so just what did need to be changed?

The first big thing really was the roof. The house was literally falling apart.

The side wall was coming off and that's because the roof structure was so poor.

So the roof was redone.

With new dormer windows and a complete rebuild,

the attic now houses the master bedroom.

There's also a separate shower room

and a spare bedroom which Alison is currently using as a sewing room.

With a full-time job in marketing at the council,

Dan only had weekends to work on the house, but he's been there every weekend for the last year.

For the first three months, he was demolishing the inside before the builders came on board.

As work progressed, friends and family helped out

with the tiling, painting and rewiring.

We always knew the budget was going to be tight.

We wanted to redevelop the house in the way the house was originally.

So a lot of that meant getting reclaimed furniture,

including reclaimed floorboards made from old beams from the local mill.

Lots of salvage yards, which has been great fun for the kids. They've come with us!

They sourced reclaimed fireplaces and lots of other materials from auctions.

And Dan discovered this original ceiling rose.

They paid £86,000 for the property at auction,

so how much has the refurbishment cost?

Did they manage to stick to their budget?

Our original budget was around 80,000.

-I would say we've spent about 100,000 in reality.

-Yes.

I must admit, our original budget, we knew it wasn't a realistic budget

but that was the maximum we wanted to spend.

We knew we'd probably end up spending more like 100.

So they've spent more on the renovation

than they did on the £86,000 purchase price.

Has it been money well spent?

Let's see what two local estate agents think

of the finished product.

It's a lovely property. They've done a lot with it.

They've kept the character of the house.

They've kept the integrity and put some modern touches in.

The house is sympathetically restored.

I think the floor layout for family is absolutely super.

There are large bedrooms. It's a very nice home.

I like the attention to detail and the lovely wide floorboards and the woodwork on the eaves outside.

I love the big bay windows in the sitting room and down in the kitchen.

The estate agents are confident that the house could be let for £750 per calendar month,

but Alison and Dan have no intention of leaving their dream family home.

They spent 100 grand doing it up on top of the £86,000 they paid at auction,

so is it now worth more than their total outlay of £186,000?

I would sell this house for £275,000.

On re-sale, I would imagine that this property

should be able to achieve about £270,000.

That's a potential gross profit of between £84,000 and £89,000,

less the usual selling expenses.

Is that what they were expecting?

I'd say that was probably about what we expected.

Probably about what we were thinking,

bearing in mind what the properties around this have sold for over the last three or four years.

So, after a very busy year, do they feel that the project has been successful?

Yes, definitely. It's been a long, hard year.

I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing next year, now that I've got this out of the way.

-I'm sure I'll find something to do at the weekend!

-We've got two young kids! Plenty of things!

For the next property that went under the hammer,

we're in the West London suburb of Hammersmith,

just about 15 minutes from central London on the tube.

So just a short walk from Hammersmith underground

and just round the corner from Charing Cross Hospital,

I'm liking this place already,

one-bedroom flat, guide price £225,000.

From the outside, things get off to a great start.

The flat I'm here to see is on the first floor.

The original sash windows are in place.

The brickwork is exposed and looks in good condition

and there are some ornate mouldings as well. Very attractive.

Through the communal front door,

it's upstairs to the first-floor flat.

So, what layout is in store?

Well, fairly standard for this kind of thing. Kitchen there.

Onwards into a half decent sized bathroom

and up on to a second landing area.

Storage cupboard. You might want to get rid of that

to give more of a feeling of space on the landing here.

Your bedroom there. It's not a bad size.

And then through into your main living area.

It's not huge but it really does benefit from having this bay window.

Actually, for a one-bedroom flat, not a bad amount of space.

Some lovely features remain here

and the floorboards could sand up really well.

But the kitchen needs new units and the bathroom has only got a loo,

so a new suite is needed there straightaway.

But the flat looks to be in pretty good overall condition.

So, apart from doing a simple renovation on this place,

what are your options for potentially making a bit more money?

Well, you can't go out the front, you can't go out the side, you cant go down.

Maybe you could go up.

Yes. A loft conversion could be a way of enhancing the property.

Now, it's going to cost you, but I think there's scope to go up

and potentially create another room up there, maybe a bedroom,

or something else, maybe even have access to the roof for some views.

It's worth investigating but you've got to look at the cost.

How much is it going to cost for you to do it?

How much is it going to add to the value of the property? Then, you make an informed decision.

The flat went to auction guided at £225,000, but it's leasehold.

So the new owner will have to contact the freeholder,

in this case, the local council, who are selling the property,

to ask if they'd be willing to sell the loft space and negotiate a price.

Then there's another fly in the ointment.

A condition of the sale is that whoever bought the flat

can't have it as their principal place of residence.

Basically, the buyer can't live here full-time.

So what are your options?

You could use it as your pied-de-terre in London

and have a big country house perhaps or more realistically,

either buy it to rent out or do it up and then sell it on.

For legal reasons, that residency condition ensures that the money

made from the sale goes to the local council and not central government.

So the clause is nullified once the property is sold on in the future.

To find out a bit more about the options here,

we invited a local estate agent to come and have a look around.

What does he see as the selling points of this flat?

It obviously needs a lot of work.

But it's got the space that people are looking for

and that's the main thing.

Light in all the rooms and the option of going up into the loft,

which is going to add the most value of all to this flat.

Providing the new owner can get the loft space,

because the flat was sold without the loft included.

So after a full refurbishment, what rental income could it achieve

and what would be the effect of adding a second bedroom up in the loft?

As a one-bedroom flat, I would rent this out for £1,300 per calendar month.

As a two-bedroom flat, I could rent it possibly for as much as £1,550 per calendar month.

What resale value could the flat achieve?

As a one-bedroom flat, I would put this back on the market at £335,000.

And if the new owner was able to purchase the loft

and create extra accommodation up there, then how much could be worth?

I wouldn't want to go above £400,000,

so I would suggest marketing it at £399,000,

probably to achieve a figure in the region of £385,000.

Well this is a very desirable property

in a well located area.

Money to be made? Yes, if you just did it up, but the real bucks

are if you look at extending.

Let's see who fancied the opportunity when it went under the hammer.

Right, move on to Lot 4.

Well located first floor flat, Hammersmith W6.

Who would like to start off on this?

Anyone shout out a bid? Put your fingers up.

Good bid, 250.

255 anywhere?

250, 255 anywhere?

251 anywhere?

251,

252...

well done... 253...

254. Had to work on that!

255.

With you, sir, 255.

254 at the back,

255 elsewhere?

If not, 254, first time,

second time, third and last time if you're all done...

sold - 254. Well done.

That successful bid of £254,000

was made by Kenham,

who was at the auction with his business partner, Mary.

Kenham's a chartered surveyor

who worked at a large commercial property company for 10 years.

He decided to leave to run his own photographic business

alongside the property developing business he set up with Mary.

She is also involved in many other investment and property ventures.

I arranged to meet the duo back at the flat to find out their plans.

-Mary, Kenham, lovely to meet you both. Congratulations.

-Thank you.

Tell me why you wanted to buy this flat.

Well, we'd been looking at the Savills auctions for various

flats in Hammersmith and Fulham.

In that particular auction there were four lots we were going to bid on

and this was number four and we managed to buy it.

I think there's huge opportunity.

We're going to do a loft conversion.

Oh wow!

And put in a kitchen up the top there, staircase running up,

with a roof terrace at the back.

But there's one thing they have to do before they can do

any of that work and that's convince the freeholder to sell the loft space.

And as Kenham explains it's the local authority they're going

to have to negotiate with.

It's a council freehold property.

We've got 125 years of lease new,

but we have to buy the loft demise

which we're currently in the process of doing.

Right. So how much is it looking like it's going to cost to get that?

We've been told that lofts in the borough

are anything between 10 and 50,000.

-Whoa!

-So we're obviously hoping for ten.

Clearly, whoever's selling knows that they add a value onto the property.

Yeah. Exactly.

So their way of doing it - they value it as it is now

and then look at the value post-development

and then they look at what you spend on it

and then they halve that and that, apparently, is your loft value.

It would be great if they could secure the loft for ten grand,

but something tells me it could well creep up.

They've already got an architect on board and apart from their

impressive plans for the loft conversion,

the layout of this floor is also going to change.

This is going to remain as the sitting room

and we're going to have a mezzanine kitchen looking down.

So we'll have a kitchen upstairs,

stairs going up here and then a roof terrace.

What are the views like? Can you see out the window

what you might be able to see from the roof terrace?

If you're really tall, the Tower of London,

Big Ben, but it's got to have not too much visibility

so we don't annoy the neighbours

but there'll still be a nice balcony that you can enjoy the sunshine.

It sounds fabulous but it all depends on them obtaining the freehold

to the loft and then getting planning permission to do the conversion.

They've set a budget of £20,000 for a single refurb

and up to 65,000 if they go up into the loft.

I was keen to know how these two came to be working together.

Let's take a step back. Tell me about you two.

What's the relationship here?

Well, in the past I'd been doing some properties

and at one of the viewings

Kenham was also looking at one of the flats

and we started chatting and decided

we should do a joint-venture together.

-But until that point, complete strangers?

-Yeah.

-Fantastic!

And how long ago was that?

-About seven months, seven or eight months?

-Yep.

Right. And you got into it as a proper business partnership then?

-Yeah.

-Absolutely, 50-50 joint venture.

-So what do you do when you're not doing this?

-I'm a photographer. Right.

-What kind of photography?

-Anything I can get my hands on at the moment

because it's quite a new venture for me.

-I worked ten years as a chartered surveyor.

-A chartered surveyor.

Now that's useful. And Mary, what do you do?

I work in venture capital, so expanding businesses

or helping them improve, restructuring,

or finding better ways of doing things, really.

They've certainly worked out the best way to maximise

the potential of this flat.

They've also got clear timescales calculated, too.

Best case scenario is to complete in three months, worst-case six months

and what's their plan when the property is finished?

If we can't sell it then we'd let it out,

but with the outcome that we could get a buyer

we'd sell it and move on to the next flat or house.

-Great. Congratulations. Good luck with it.

-Thank you.

-Look forward to seeing how you both get on.

-Thank you very much.

If you're looking to develop somewhere where property prices

are quite expensive, like London, or just to mitigate your risks

in these difficult financial times,

joining forces halves the risk

and also doubles the amount of energy

there is to put into a project like this.

Mary and Kenham have made that decision.

I think they have a great property to work on.

It all comes down to whether or not

they get the planning permission to go up though.

You can find out how it goes later in the show.

Now that time has passed,

let's see what has happened to those properties.

Are we confident they'll look as good as new?

Let's hope so.

Back now to Longfield in Kent, where earlier in the programme

Bill had bought this four-bedroom bungalow for 230,000.

He was semi-retired from his sheet metal company

and wanted a project to stop him getting bored.

Bill's partner, Maureen, supported his plans to remove the walls

and refurbish, but she wasn't going to be lending a hand.

So how involved are you going to be with this project?

I mean, it is something you're interested in as well?

Yes, I'm very interested in it.

I think it's really great fun and I can't wait really.

-And I bet he's pulling faces behind my back!

-He's laughing.

-He's laughing.

-Look at the nails!

-We've had arguments already.

-Look at the nails.

-Show me the nails.

-Look, they're ready for decorating.

-I think not!

So all the hard graft was down to Bill and his team.

Five months later, the full size of the plot can now be

appreciated because the bushes and the garage have gone.

From the outside,

it looks like Bill and Maureen have really transformed the place.

Inside, the front living room has been redecorated,

there's a new window,

flooring,

and a fire.

The bedroom across the hall is much bigger

now that the fitted wardrobes have gone.

The tiny kitchen lost the hatch and wall into the former dining room.

A super-large kitchen diner is the result and the flow

of the bungalow now works much better as Maureen explains.

Just here we had double doors -

glass that looked like plastic.

They were the first things that had to go and then it opened the whole room straight away.

Bill made the arch wider

and then we had new windows,

which again, they're lovely windows and quite big.

We put the fireplace in which we thought was quite nice.

Although it's big, it was a nice big room, it could take it.

Overall, I'm really pleased with it and Bill's worked so hard, you know.

It's all down to him.

I've done nothing, and he's done such a great job.

When we moved in, it was 50-years-old

and really hadn't been touched in that time.

The kitchen did cause

some problems what to do.

When we knocked the wall down, we discovered there had been

a door there originally.

So it's actually turned out

to be similar to what they did 50 years ago.

The enlarged kitchen is much better

and has given the bungalow that all-important focal point.

But Bill decided against opening the space up any more

and kept the wall to the small bedroom

but still managed to create some more space in there.

The other wall was actually a nine inch wall.

I think by taking the cupboards out and the boiler,

we opened that room out and I think it's now turned out

to be a really useful room.

Next to that bedroom,

the smaller bathroom has been refitted

and now has a shower.

Next door, the third bedroom has retained the wardrobes,

but the wardrobe has gone in the small fourth bedroom.

There is new central heating throughout

and the place has been rewired.

The second bathroom's refit does include a bath,

but outside, there were major issues getting round the back.

Remember this?

It's a bit of a squash

and it's a bit of a squeeze.

You've got to mind the drainpipes as you come along.

Forget it if you've got loads of shopping.

Well, you can now bring your shopping right up to the front door.

There was a concrete garage here with an asbestos roof.

Just here, there was a coal bunker that was full of earth

and it had plants growing out of it.

When we took the garage down, it meant we had a gap here,

so I put this fencing up with some flowers growing up it.

I'm really pleased with the way it's turned out.

A big improvement. No wonder Bill's pleased.

So how much has he had to spend

to get this four bedroom, two bathroom bungalow up to spec?

The original budget was £40,000

and we're about £3,000 under that at the moment.

Under budget? Can't be bad!

So Bill's been busy, but what about Maureen?

Did she do any physical work?

There is no way I was going to chip paint or get wallpaper off with these nails.

So all I've done is spend a few hours looking at paint,

coming backwards and forwards with sandwiches and bits and pieces.

It was his project so I thought, let him do it.

What does the future now hold for Bill and property?

If you'd asked me that three weeks ago, I had probably had enough.

But now, I'm thinking, what am I going to do on Monday?

Maureen has got next week planned out.

A bit of relaxation is on the cards.

Next week, we're going away to Tenerife.

Just the two of us. A chill out week.

Then, a few months later, we're going up the Panama with six friends.

And then, three months after that, we're going to Sydney, Australia.

# Hooray, hooray

# It's a holi-holiday. #

So they've earned the holidays,

but how much spending money can they take?

Bill paid £230,000 at the auction

and his budget of 37,000 takes his total to £267,000.

Are they going to reap the rewards?

Let's hear what two local estate agents think.

I think it's a really good property.

Lovely finish to the kitchen and bathroom suites.

They've done well in respect of taking the garage out.

So overall, a very good job.

Personally, I think it's a great finish to the property.

They've put a lot of thought into it.

The kitchen is very well presented and the bathrooms are good.

Bill plans to sell,

but is there a good rental return on bungalows like this?

If you're going to rent at the moment, you are looking at £1,100 per calendar month.

We'd be looking to achieve somewhere in the region of £1,250 per calendar month.

I think that's probably about right for the rental.

I was thinking between £1,100 in £1,200.

So rental wise, Bill could expect a yield of around 5% to 5.5%,

which is better than money in the bank.

But would resale be a better option, given his £267,000 outlay here?

I would put this on the market for between £355,000 to £365,000.

If we were looking to put this property on the market,

we'd be looking to place it somewhere in the region of £350,000 to £375,000.

That valuation range would generate a gross profit for Bill

of £83,000 to £108,000 before the usual selling expenses.

-Very pleased with that.

-I'd be very pleased if we got near that.

It would certainly make it worthwhile and I was only doing it for something to do.

So I would be well pleased if I could get anywhere near that.

Another holiday!

# We're going to have a party

# In the Mediterranean sea. #

So after five months of work,

Bill's project to get away from it all is coming to an end.

What does the future hold?

As a job, I've enjoyed it.

I've enjoyed getting up in the morning and knowing what you're doing.

-I've enjoyed working with the tradesmen. It's been good fun really.

-Here's to the next one!

Back now to the West London suburb of Hammersmith,

where earlier in the programme Kenham and his business partner, Mary,

had bought a one-bedroom flat on the first floor of this mid-terrace for £254,000.

It was their first joint property venture

and they had plenty of experience.

Kenham is a chartered surveyor who had worked for a commercial property company for many years

and Mary's a venture capitalist with lots of property clients.

They had big plans for this flat.

This is going to remain as the sitting room

and we're going to have a mezzanine kitchen looking down.

So we're going to have a kitchen upstairs and then a roof terrace.

It is a fabulous plan, I have to say. What are the views like?

Can you see out the window what you might be able to see from the roof terrace?

If you are really tall, you know, the Tower of London, Big Ben.

The clock has been ticking and it was four and a half months later

when we met Mary and Kenham for a second time back at the flat.

From the road, a new roof and skylights looks promising

and the inside doesn't disappoint.

The bay fronted living room that overlooks the road has been transformed

with a new flooring, windows and furniture.

Mary and Kenham did manage to purchase the loft space from the council.

It cost them £35,000, but meant they could create

this wonderful kitchen up in the former attic.

It looks down on the living area below, which is very striking.

So where did they start with this ambitious project?

Basically, the whole place was gutted. Totally gutted.

Everything was pretty rotten.

Effectively, the guys had to rebuild the place

and obviously add a new floor, new roof.

We threw the entire roof in a skip and build a brand-new one.

Rear new roof as well.

Then we added the brand-new roof terrace

and transformed what was a horrible one-bedroom flat

into something pretty different, which is nice and light and airy.

It's fantastic.

Any outside space in London is a real bonus

and these rooftop views across the west of the city add a lot to this flat.

How long did it take to get the necessary planning permission for the conversion?

It took about eight to ten weeks to get through planning.

So that was a painful process

because you had to sit doing nothing.

The moment we had every permission in place from the freeholder,

consent right through to the planners,

we then had the builders in the next day.

And they've been busy.

The original bedroom at the back of the flat is almost ready.

The ceiling has been replaced and is having some final finishing touches.

A second bedroom has been created at the back of the flat in the former bathroom.

It's got a new pitched roof that you can see from the terrace

and they've used some of the space from the old kitchen as well.

The rest of the former kitchen has also been used for a new bathroom.

Which, like all of the flat, has some nice details.

But what effect has it had on the budget,

which Kenham had thought would be around £65,000,

including the loft conversion?

-How much was it?

-I can't remember what the budget was.

I can tell you what we've spent in total. We're at about 380.

Once the £254,000 they paid at auction

is stripped out of that total outlay of 380,000, it leaves £126,000.

But £35,000 was used to buy the loft so the work has cost around £91,000.

Time to see if two local estate agents reckon

it's all been worthwhile.

I love the light brightness throughout the property.

The standard of finish is fantastic.

The accommodation is laid out really well.

First impressions are very positive.

I like the kitchen in the mezzanine that overlooks the reception area.

And of course, the terrace is fantastic as well.

Two double bedrooms, good sizes. Good-sized bathroom.

Beautiful sitting-room. Fantastic kitchen and roof terrace.

Kenham estimates their total spend is 380,000,

so what's the flat now worth?

We'd market the property for £499.950

and expect to achieve a sale price of £480,000 to £500,000.

I would expect to put this on the market for £499,000.

Those valuations between 480,000 and 500,000

could mean a gross profit of between £100,000 and £120,000,

before the usual selling expenses and taxes.

Quite pleased with that. It is about where we were expecting.

We've already had one offer. Actually, a couple of offers.

But we're hoping to push those little bit higher than they're at at the moment.

What rental income could the flat achieve if they don't find a buyer?

I would expect to rent this out for about £1,600 a month.

We'd rent this property for £2,200 per calendar month.

I would have said that we were expecting close to £2,000.

If they can achieve that, we might consider keeping it.

But the reality is, we need to release the equity and get out.

Comparing the possible resale profits

against potential rental yields of between 5% and 7%,

I would say that's probably the best option.

I think they've made an amazing job of this West London property,

especially as a first joint project.

But what's their verdict?

It's amazing to see the end product, having seen it at its absolute rock bottom.

It's great to see it as it is now.

Would they do it again?

Yes. The next auction, I think we'll be at, bidding,

hoping to get another project.

I think we've been very lucky.

We had a great team and we intend to keep them busy moving forward.

We'll be back next time with more auction properties to whet your appetite.

We hope we've inspired you and given you a glimpse

into the world of property auctions here on Homes Under The Hammer.

-See you.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.

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