Episode 77 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello and welcome to the show.

Interest rates, planning laws, building regulations, well,

these are just a few things that can change whilst doing a project.

Yes, you can see why property developing is never boring.

That's certainly true when you visit a property auction!

Well, if you decide to buy at auction,

you need to do your research, visit the property before hand

and make sure you stick to your budget.

That way, you make sure that you don't spend too much money.

So, let's see what went under the hammer on today's programme.

In South Wales, this wall is fighting a losing battle.

It's holding back that bit of Welsh mountain -

stopping it from collapsing into that bit of the house.

And down but not out in Devon,

a sad looking six bed end-terrace just needs cheering up.

-You're a house cuddler?

-Yeah, yeah.

But all is not lost for this former pub in Kent.

I think you could easily divide this ground floor space into two

separate flats.

All of these properties have been sold at auction,

we'll find out who bought them and what they paid for them

when they went under the hammer.

Yours.

This is Pontygwaith, a small village in the South Wales Valleys.

# The old home town looks the same

# As I step down from the train...#

Well, the literal translation of Pontygwaith is "Bridge of Works",

relating to an old blast furnace that was here in years gone by.

Well, the iron works and the mines have long gone but what was

once a valley black with coal dust, is now a green and pleasant land.

# It's good to touch the green, green grass of home. #

Well, lovely views from the road where the property's situated

and the property itself sounds pretty enticing.

£25,000 plus was the guide price, three bedroom terrace,

looks pretty neat from the outside, let's take a look.

WOLF WHISTLE

# Wow, she's neat

# Don't know what to do without her

# All I do is think about her... #

Certainly, the stone built exterior is attractive,

although the steps up to the front door might put a few buyers off.

Nice carpet, that's always a good sign.

Seems to be fairly well presented,

as the catalogue said. Yeah, that's good.

Erm, and then through from that little hallway into a large

-living room.

-HE SNIFFS

No smell of damp, nice size space, lots of light coming into here.

Yeah, central heating, that's good news.

I like those double doors, actually.

I like the way they open up like that.

Again, it gives a really nice, sort of, open plan feel.

Come from there into the kitchen,

probably built into an extension onto the rear of the property.

It's not in bad condition, I mean, I've seen worse, I've seen better.

It depends, really, what you were going to use this property for.

Erm, renting it out, I think this is perfectly adequate.

Living in it, you might want to update it.

Erm, but it's OK, continuing that way, again, very traditional,

that's where the loo and bathroom is.

Is that a problem? I don't think it is.

All in all, yeah, it's living up to its promise.

# She's neat, she's sweet, makes my life so complete

# She's neat, she's sweet, makes my life so complete. #

The very presentable downstairs

is matched by the three bedrooms upstairs.

Two to the front of the property and one to the back.

Oh, let's have a look in the back garden.

So far, so good, then, but step outside to the rear

of the property and a potentially major issue presents itself.

Well, it is made reference to in the auction catalogue.

It says, "There is a retaining wall which needs attention."

Now, whenever you hear those words "retaining wall"

and "needs attention", you definitely need to be wary.

Because any kind of ground works can cost quite a lot of money.

Now, this is the wall that they're referring to.

It's basically holding back that bit of Welsh mountain

and stopping it from collapsing into that bit of the house.

So, you might say, "Big deal, take it out and replace it."

Problem is, getting your materials,

where are you going to get them from? You can't bring them in

the back of the house. What about all the stuff you'd take out?

Again, you can't take it through the back of the house,

it all has to go through the house.

That turns this into a very labour intensive job.

That means it's going to be expensive! How expensive?

What do you think? Two, three, four, five thousand quid?

Nah, add another ten on,

15 grand or so...oh, yeah, and you'd be about right.

# Walls come tumbling down. #

You would not want that wall tumbling into your bathroom

while you were brushing your teeth - that's for sure!

So, one wall to fix and one big bill,

but what does an estate agent

think of this property and its problem wall?

The retaining wall is probably one of the worst walls I've seen,

cos of the height and the access.

You can't get a mini-digger in, everything's got to be done by hand.

So, it's going to be a labour intense job.

Would he suggest any work to the inside?

If this was me renovating this house,

I wouldn't spend much on the inside whatsoever.

A lick of paint here and there, you know,

there's brown in the kitchen, people might not like that.

I'd just knock it back to beige, neutral.

A bit of flooring here and there, where there's been

a bit of damage but apart from that, it's a really good property.

So, what about values, once renovated?

If the inside was done up a little bit better

and the wall was done and it was retained better

and it was secure, the likelihood is,

you'd probably get about 70,000, maybe 75,000 for this property.

And if you opted to let this instead?

You could easily achieve £425 per calendar month.

Possibly even £450 per calendar month,

cos it's such a good standard.

Well, it's a good property.

You know, nothing wrong, until you step outside to the back here

and that whole wall issue.

However, if you put aside a budget to sort it out, then,

this is still a great property to buy.

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

Well presented mid-terraced house, guided at 25,000.

Again, start me, will you start me somewhere near,

start me at 25? Start me at 20, then?

20, somebody? Thank you, 20, I've got you there.

At 20, and one, now can I see? I've got 20 there, one I'm looking for.

At 21, 22?

22, 23, 24,

25, 26, 27, 28...

With such a good guide-price, it's no wonder that bidding was brisk.

We rejoin the auction with the price at 38,000.

38...and a half?

38 and a half, 39?

39...and a half? No.

£39,000, then, back where we were earlier.

At 39,000, for the first time,

second time, third and last time...

39 and a half, new bidder.

40, sir, to you? £40,000, no.

At 39 and a half with a cheeky last little bid, at 39 and a half,

for the first time, second time, third and last...£40,000.

I love it when people change their mind.

40, 40 and a half.

41? 41. 41 and a half, 42.

42, no. At 41 and a half then, right at the back, first time, second time,

third and last time then, at £41,500,

yours, show your number please, is number 55, thank you very much.

That successful bid was made by Iwan,

one half of a local property development partnership.

I met up with the other half, Brian, back at the house,

to chat about their plans.

-Brian, good to meet you.

-Nice to meet you, Martin.

-Congratulations!

Thank you. So, why did you want to buy this house?

Erm, just as an investment, either to sell or to rent,

depending on how it goes.

What was it about this one you particularly liked?

Erm, just that it was a nice house, nice size, erm,

I knew a little bit about the wall but thought that it could be done

and we could make a profit out of it.

OK, so that wall coming straight in to your thought processes...?

-It's a bit worse than what I thought.

-Oh!

Erm, but we'll get through that.

# On common ground we'll build our castle walls

# We'll build them stone by stone

# And how. #

Brian had seen the property before the auction but now,

having made a closer inspection of the wall,

realises it needs a lot more work than he first anticipated.

What kind of estimates have you had for the cost?

Erm, I've only I've had one estimate at the moment.

Erm, and that's looking between 10-15,000.

-Right.

-So, it is quite a big job.

Was that a shock or was that OK?

-Erm, when I first saw it, I actually thought about 8,000...

-Right.

-..cos I knew it was going to be quite a big job.

-Right.

It's one of those jobs...

On the face of it, it's not that complicated

but it's all heavy, labour intensive work, isn't it?

Yes, and the hardest part is that

the only access is through the house.

So, all of the dirt, heavy stuff is going to be going through the house.

Concrete mixers, tools, people, muddy boots...

Yes, and pound notes.

-And pound notes!

-HE CHUCKLES

In their business partnership, Brian usually does all the hands-on work

and Iwan deals with the finances.

But this time around, Brian will leave the major and potentially

problematic task of the wall to professional builders

and will focus on the interior.

It's just going to be a makeover with, basically, decorating,

paint it up, get it all neutral colours.

Get it nice looking, have a look at the carpets,

maybe clean them up or even putting new carpets in.

New lino into the kitchen and bathroom and that's basically it,

-on the inside.

-Leave everything as it is -

no thoughts of moving the bathroom upstairs or anything like that?

No, no, it all works, and it was working for he previous tenants,

so definitely we'll leave it as it is.

OK, let's talk budgets then.

You talked about the wall costing 10-15,

what about the other stuff you're going to do in the house?

Inside, erm, we're going to get the gas and electrics checked,

get certified, erm,

I think that's going to be the biggest expense.

And the rest is literally going over with the paintbrush.

I would say a budget of £1,000-1,500

maximum on the inside.

So, in total, 16 and a half,

if it went towards 15 for the wall.

What's the timescale?

Timescale was going to be a couple of weeks...

HE LAUGHS

-Oops!

-..up until we found out how bad the wall was.

Obviously, trying to get a builder in for that

length of time, you've got to know when they can start.

So, we're looking, like, three to four months now, I think.

Right.

These kinds of problems can sometimes leave you snookered.

I just hope that Brian gets a big break with that wall.

Can you see where this is going?

What about your pastimes, hobbies and things like that?

I used to play a lot of snooker.

-Snooker?

-At a high level.

-How high?

I used to play in all the Welsh amateur championships.

Did you? Did you do well?

Erm, there's too many good players about, so...

MARTIN LAUGHS

..yeah, so, held my own on some tournaments.

-Great, what was your biggest break?

-137.

-You got a 137 break?!

-Yes.

-Twice?

-Twice, yeah.

-Wow, that must've felt amazing!

-Yeah, it was.

I heard you did a bit of poker playing in your previous life?

I'm not allowed to play poker any more,

the wife has put a stop to that.

-I've knocked it on the head.

-Were you a good poker player?

-I made the first Welsh Open poker tournaments...

-Wow!

-..and made a TV stage on there.

-Oh, did you?

-I came seventh in the end.

-Did you? That's pretty good!

-Yeah, it was all right, got lucky.

Well, hopefully not too much of a gamble with this house.

Yeah, it's a bit more than what we thought

-but we'll get through it and we'll do a good job.

-Good.

Well, congratulations, good luck with it.

Thank you very much, Martin.

I'll look forward to see how you end up.

Well, thank goodness Brian knew about the only real issue

with this property.

It is, intrinsically, a really good house

but then there is the great wall of Pontygwaith to consider.

How will he get on rebuilding it?

You can find out later in the show.

Okehampton, in Devon, can be found on the Northern side of Dartmoor,

just 24 miles from Exeter and 30 from Plymouth.

It's an idyllic town, perfect for people who want to enjoy

the countryside and visit the North Devon coastline.

Just five minutes walk from the town centre is the property

I'm here to see. It sounds fantastic!

£150,000 plus was the guide price for this,

a six bedroom end of terrace.

Look at all the granite around the windows.

Fantastic, I love it already!

A great guide price for a solid looking property that,

on the outside, has bags of character.

OK, interesting little entrance, vestibule.

Nice granite!

Again, erm, through into the main part of the house

and immediately a sense of, well, grandeur, actually.

It's a little bit cramped in this particular part but, pff,

wow, there's lots to explore.

That would definitely be a favourite room of mine.

Straight away, it's not really big enough to be a living room

but maybe a study or a library or something.

Lots of light flooding in through those great big windows.

Stairs up to the numerous bedrooms there.

It feels a little bit cramped.

I don't know what you could do to try and open it up

but the rooms themselves are fantastic, kitchen there.

Units...you know, you'd probably want to replace them.

I think you could make that look a real sort of central

point for the property.

Into this room here, which is like a large...double aspect

dining room-stroke-living area, it's really, really great.

I'm thinking, straight away, I'm wondering

if this wall could maybe be taken away.

Cos that kitchen isn't really as big as you'd like it to be.

Maybe put an RSJ across there, open that up,

so you have a kitchen, breakfast bar, dining area here.

You've already got the patio doors out onto the garden.

What a room that would be

and it would really open up the ground floor.

But bearing in mind that is just the ground floor

and bearing in mind again, it's a terrace, wow!

# Do you love me?

# I can really move

# Do you love me?

# I'm in the groove

# Do you love me?

Yes, it needs a bit of updating and possibly a little restructuring

but it is looking very promising indeed.

Let's take a look outside.

Well, at the back of the property, erm, a little sort of courtyard

area here, which would be much nicer if it had some nice tiles on it.

A useful out building, in fact, a couple of out buildings.

Well, one building split in two and an outside loo.

This bit of garden,

And if that was it, I'd say, "Mmm, pretty good".

But there's more because come through this little gate and

there's this little area here.

The most unusually shaped garage I've ever seen, that's yours,

as is this little bit of land here.

But even better than that, you have separate access down this

little shared, well, alleyway, I guess.

All in all, what a bonus!

A family sized house, with a family sized garden is always desirable.

It clearly needs a lot of work.

Hopefully, this isn't the only loo

but there is definitely potential once you figure out what to do.

So, upstairs to the first floor and, well...I'm not going to say

"at last", that's not fair, but there is, finally,

if you like, a negative about the property.

Erm, obviously, a lot of damp coming in through that wall there...

and it looks fairly serious, judging by that.

I'd be concerned about how it might have affected the stairs,

cos once you get into trying to do new carpentry on the stairs,

if it's rotted, that is going to be really expensive.

So, find out what's causing that would be my number one job

if I bought this place.

But up here, smallish landing,

you've got three bedrooms here, they're all really good sizes.

You've also got a bathroom with a separate loo, so that's good.

Rooms themselves, well, if that wall is damp,

these ones don't seem too bad.

Erm, you know, good size, lots of light coming in through the windows.

The windows themselves look like they could do with replacement.

Apart from that, nope,

it's still really, really good.

There are a couple of signs of damp that need to be investigated

in the bathroom and the fact this is the only bathroom is not ideal.

On the top floor, there are three more good size bedrooms.

Perhaps, it'll be worth turning

the smallest of these into another bathroom.

It all depends on what you plan to do with the property.

It's a great house with bags of potential

but money does need to be spent on it.

However, with a guide price of £150,000 plus,

you would expect that.

What does a local property expert think of it?

Erm, my first impressions of the property are that it's a bit

tired out, actually, needs a bit of refurbishment

and bringing up to date.

I think modern buyers are expecting to have WC facilities, at least, on

each floor and bathroom facilities on floors that have bedrooms on.

So, for this property,

I would be looking for there to be a cloakroom on the ground floor,

for there to be the current refurbished

bathroom on the first floor and on the top floor for there to be an

addition of bathroom or shower facilities with WC.

That all sounds very doable but what kind of re-sale figure could

this house reach if fully renovated?

I see this property as coming onto the market at a guide

price of £250,000 and I'd be expecting it to

achieve as near as possible to that price.

What about the rental returns?

Once all the works have been done on the property, I would expect

it to achieve around the price of £850 per calendar month.

Well, a few issues to resolve. Damp, a few extra bathrooms would be nice.

Apart from that, this is a great house and for a fantastic

guide price, let's see who spotted it when it went under the hammer.

It's a six bed house, it is a bit of a doer-upper, as they say.

It's guided at 150,

so anybody like to start on 150,

on the nail of the guide.

150 to go?

150 to go, 145 will do...

Sorry, 150 I'll take.

Yeah, 150, any advance on 150?

151, 152, 153, 154, 155.

£150,000 seated here.

Any advance on £150,000?

It's £150,000 seated, anybody else want to advance on this?

There's a few builder-developer types here, you've got to have

looked at this - if you haven't, you're missing a trick!

150 seated, right, we're going to go at 150.

I'm going to call it for the first time at £150,000. Second time.

Happy at 150, yeah, nodding, second and third and last time.

I am surprised that we're not getting any further bids here.

It's 150.

It's sold at 150.

Getting the end terrace that, very surprisingly,

no-one else appeared to want, was Beverly.

That solitary bid for bang on the guide price of 150,000

sealed the deal.

Beverly, who works within the NHS, has done up three properties before.

So, I can't wait to see what her plans are for this property!

-Beverly, congratulations!

-Thank you.

Although, I have to say, you looked a little bit stunned there!

Yeah, it was a really scary moment, yeah.

I really didn't think I'd get it and I couldn't believe it

when no-one else bid!

It was just a very, very bizarre feeling.

I was expecting to have to bid against somebody else

and then there was this deathly silence.

I mean, you intended to buy it, did you?

It wasn't a random, spur of the moment thing? No, not quite.

Although, my daughter did say,

"I didn't know you were going out to buy a house, this afternoon, mummy!"

I was going with a fact finding mission, to plan to try

and buy something in a few months' time.

So, it was just a bit earlier but, erm, as I wanted to be in Okehampton,

in the end, and found this one, and it came along at the right price,

seemed rude to turn it down, really.

So, why did you want to buy it then?

Well, I have this thing about sad, old houses.

I like to make them lovely and lived-in again and loved.

It's just been a bit of a challenge that's been

at the back of my mind for a few years now.

And I was in a position to buy at auction,

so it seemed an ideal opportunity to make my money work for me.

Right, so, you're a "house cuddler" basically?

SHE LAUGHS

-You cuddle them back into being loved places.

-Yeah.

Yeah, I suppose, over the time since my first house

when I was only 19, we've had a few that have needed a lot of TLC.

I love decorating too, so I'll get someone else to do all

the dirty work and then I'll do the painting and make it look lovely.

# Cuddle up a little closer

# Lovey, mine. #

Beverly will be enlisting the skills of a friend

in the building trade, while she makes it lovely.

I, for one, am delighted that this house has been taken over by

someone who just wants to give it some real love and even better,

turn it into her home, a very big home.

-Beverly, it's just you... and six bedrooms?

-Yeah.

Well, it's not going to stay six bedrooms

and it's not going to stay one toilet either.

So, yeah, the smallest bedroom is going to become a shower room

and the bathroom's going to have a toilet put in it and then

the toilet that's there now, I'm going to turn into a mini en-suite

for the second bedroom.

OK, so you'll end up with five bedrooms?

Yes, cos there'll be three bedrooms on the third floor and then

two bedrooms on the attic floor, with the shower room up there.

I'm looking forward to doing something with the garden,

as well, cos it's a bit of a project.

Yes...wow!

Beverly is also planning on a new kitchen,

with a new access way along the side of the property.

Along with that, she's also looking to create

a conservatory that will incorporate the outside loo,

which all begs the question...

Budget, budget, budget?

Probably about 25-30 grand to do all that I want to do.

Depending on how much it costs,

depends on whether we do the outside bit

and how much I can spend on the garden and the tatty garage

at the bottom of the garden to maybe bring that to be a nice,

stone summer house.

-So, what about timescale?

-Probably four, five months...

I'm looking for.

Well, I'm delighted that it found you and you found it!

Good luck setting up your new home.

-Thank you.

-Look forward to seeing how you get on.

-Thank you.

Well, it's natural

and probably quite healthy to be a little bit suspicious

if something seems to be too good to be true when it comes to property.

But in this case, I think Beverly has just got herself

an absolutely fantastic deal with this property.

And how wonderful that she's going to turn it into her home.

You can find out how it all turns out later in the show.

Still to come, is it last orders for this pub in Kent?

The bell's gone to ring time, not even a dart board in here!

And is Beverly just what the doctor ordered for this house,

in Okehampton?

A lot more needed doing than we ever dreamt.

We're returning now to the Welsh Valleys, to the

village of Pontygwaith, where this mid terrace three-bedroom house

was up for auction at a guide price of £25,000.

The inside of the house was in really good condition,

which might lead some folk to think this was a bit of a bargain.

But venture into the back garden and there was a major structural

problem that needed to be dealt with.

There is a retaining wall which needs attention.

It's basically holding back that bit of Welsh mountain

and stopping it from collapsing into that bit of the house.

The house was bought for £41,500 by business partners Iwan

and Brian, who were aware of the problem wall, and also realised

that to repair it, everything would have to come through the house.

All of the dirt, heavy stuff is going to be going through the house.

-Concrete mixers, tools, people, muddy boots.

-Yes.

MARTIN CHUCKLES

-And pound notes.

-And pound notes!

Four months after our first visit, we've come back to see if Brian

could move mountains or, at least, hold this one back.

Well, it looks like the mountain has been well and truly tamed,

by this expanse of solid brick work.

It took six weeks to build, at a cost of £18,000.

But it's money well spent if it protects the rest of the house.

We had to take it all the way down, which was 30 tonnes of rubbish

going out through the house.

We had to do it manually, by buckets,

going through the house, and obviously,

you can understand how much of a mess it made inside the house,

on the downstairs.

We had to go back two metres

and we had to relay some footings

and then we had to build the wall by staggering it from a metre and a

half wide, all the way up to a top,

to give it a nice, solid foundation.

I'm now happy that the wall is finally done

and done to a good standard and for the people who are moving in,

it's going to be less of a worry for anybody.

# Move any mountain. #

After moving the mountain, well, 30 tonnes of it, everything else was

pretty much straightforward.

We had to have the extension re-rendered, re-painted all the

rendering and also put a new fence up on top of the wall that we built

because it was quite a high wall

and needed some sort of safety element to it.

With the inside of the house being in such good condition,

Brian didn't have to do much other than decorate.

A new floor in the bathroom

and kitchen was the most obvious improvement to be made.

The original budget for refurbishment was 16,500 but

obviously with the wall coming in at 18,000, there has been an overspend.

We've just gone under 20,000.

So, all in all, with the work on the wall, it wasn't too bad.

I man managed, obviously, the work that needed to be done.

We had a local building company come in to do the work on the wall,

which they've done a fantastic job and redecorated

and done all the rest of the work myself then.

The question is, after all that hard work and spending £18,000 on a wall,

will it have added any value to this property?

With that in mind,

we asked two local property experts along

to see what Brian and Iwan could expect to realise

from the local housing market.

When we first came here,

I was surprised that this was actually sold in auction

because it was such a lovely property.

It wasn't until we went out the back

and saw the damage to the wall that's occurred,

and I can see why the money was spent on that.

Locally, it's a lot of money to be spent on a wall,

but the price that the house was purchased for,

added to the value of the property, I think there's money to be made.

The property's been renovated to a very good standard,

nicely decorated in neutral colours.

Nice-sized kitchen, good-sized bedrooms

and they've done a very good job on the back garden.

I think this property will appeal to everyone.

You've got families, you've got three bedrooms.

Could be a first-time buyer. Could be a buy-to-let landlord

because there's money to be made there,

so it's really ticked all the boxes.

They both like the house,

but could that translate into profit for Brian and Iwan?

Let's get some valuations.

If I was to market this property,

I would put it on for £85,000 for resale

and if I was looking to rent the property,

I would put it on for between £425 and £450 per calendar month.

This property could sell for at least £80,000.

And this property would also rent for £450 per calendar month.

A rental at £450 per calendar month

would bring in a yield of almost 9%.

That's a pretty healthy figure.

But the boys have decided to sell this house,

and having spent a total of £61,500,

if they get that top price of 85,000,

they would net a pre-tax profit of £23,500.

Actually, we've got the property on the market for £84,995

so spot on, really, with the pricing.

So what's next for Brian and Iwan?

While finishing this house, we actually went to auction

and bought another property and I think we'll do so in future as well.

Sittingbourne in Kent was once a popular watering hole

for travellers journeying between London and Canterbury.

The arrival of the railway sounded the death knell

for many of the inns in the area.

Times may have changed,

but it's not much easier making a living from a pub these days.

That is certainly true of the property I'm here to see today,

because it's this former pub, which had a guide price of £125-135,000.

I wonder what possibilities lie inside. Let's venture in.

Oh, pubs are always handsome buildings,

and they have such amazing proportions.

I always think they would be brilliant

to turn into a family house, but that's not to be for this property.

And as you can see, it's quite quiet.

I can't imagine this would work any more as an old boozer.

There's certainly not enough footfall.

And look, this is where the brewery would have turned up,

-rolled out the barrels...

-SHE STRAINS

You'd go under there.

All the beer would have been stored underneath to keep it nice and cool.

It's a fantastic space.

The bar area here, although the bar's gone,

the optics have gone, the bell's gone to ring time.

There's not even a dart board in here.

It's in a bit of a sorry old state.

You've got your glasses still down there,

probably some tables and chairs for people that like to eat some food.

Up here... It's not huge.

But I bet it was fun in its day. Going to explore.

The first question to ask yourself is,

"Does it stay as a bar?"

As well as the open-plan bar space,

there's a good-size commercial kitchen to the back.

Perhaps with this kitchen, you could turn it into a restaurant.

Or could the property be converted for residential use?

Let's see what upstairs has to offer.

So this was obviously the living accommodation above the pub.

The sitting room, I take it. You can see by the fireplace here.

So quite a good space.

You've got nice, big windows there, but from where I'm standing,

there's a big old corridor with room going off to another room

and another room. I'm going to explore.

Goes on forever!

Come on.

Down this corridor are three bedrooms and a bathroom,

and regardless of what you do downstairs,

it would make sense to keep this floor as accommodation

for rent or sale.

Looks as though somebody's had a real good old go

at ripping this out of the wall, sadly.

It's a beautiful old fireplace and it's a nice room, in fact.

You've got this lovely window

so could be a bedroom or a sitting room.

Bedroom through there, bathroom,

another nice room, which is the mirror image of next door,

again with this lovely window.

Now I've have a chance to walk around, I'm just thinking,

if you were to develop this and turn it into flats,

it would almost be too much of a luxury to have this as one flat.

You know, it's just too big. There are too many rooms.

And if you wanted to carve it into two separate flats,

I think then it would be just that bit too small.

Leave that one with me. I need to think about it.

Outside, there's a courtyard with outbuildings

and a beer garden which would be ideal for off-road parking,

until you realise it's on a higher level than the street.

Yes, makes access just that little bit awkward.

Well, of course,

whatever you do with this old pub will depend entirely

on what kind of planning permission

you're able to get from your local council.

They may have restrictions on what they will allow you to do

with certain types of properties in certain areas,

especially in these difficult economic times.

Is there a lack of affordable housing in the area?

Or is there a pressing need to develop businesses and create jobs?

Different local councils will have their own priorities

when regenerating an area, so you've got to do your research

and speak to the local authority to find out what they want

and what they are likely to grant planning permission for

and then you can start using your imagination.

So a spot of creative negotiations will be required

to find a planning solution that pleases everybody.

Assuming the council are on board,

my preferred option would be to create flats.

Now I've had the chance to look around,

I think you could easily divide this ground floor space

with the kitchen out the back

into two separate flats worth around £80,000 each,

and I would probably leave the upstairs accommodation now

as one rather large, luxurious dwelling worth around £100,000.

You would need to apply for planning permission from the local council,

but it would certainly be a lucrative option.

But do my numbers add up?

Let's see what potential a local property expert

saw in this former pub.

Sittingbourne, like many towns, the high streets are struggling.

This particular property is what you would call

an extension of the high street,

so it's probably in an even worse position.

If this place was mine, what I would do downstairs

is I'd have an access door to the front

and an access door to the side or the rear,

allowing you to put two one-bedroom flats down here.

Upstairs currently you have a three-bedroom apartment.

What I would do is I would convert it into a two-bedroom apartment

by making one of the bedrooms into... Taking it into another room

so therefore you'd have a much larger master bedroom,

smaller second bedroom, you'd have your bathroom next door,

possibly an en-suite. And a lounge/kitchenette

at the top of the stairs as you go in.

And how will that translate in terms of return?

Starting with the two-bedroom apartment upstairs,

being realistic, you're probably going to get a rental return

of around £600 per calendar month.

The two apartments on the ground floor...

One-bedroom apartments around here at the moment,

probably £500 per calendar month.

If the two new flats rented for £1,000 per calendar month,

that would certainly beat the commercial valuation

of the ground floor as a whole,

which the agent put at £500 per calendar month.

But would it make more sense to convert these for resale?

Looking at the selling of the apartments

and starting with the two-bedroom apartment upstairs,

you would be looking at a realistic sale price of around £105,000.

Looking at the two one-bedroom apartments downstairs,

probably around £85,000 would be around the right figures.

Well, this really is an interesting old property.

It's in a good location within Sittingbourne,

and it throws up all sorts

of different possibilities and opportunities.

But whoever takes this on has got a huge job on their hands

to turn this into something that's really going to work

for the local area.

Let's find out who was prepared for the challenge

when this old pub went under the hammer.

Freehold premises. As we've said, obviously it was a former pub.

Guide 125-135. Start me at 125?

£125,000?

125?

Where do you want to start me, then? Start at 100?

£100,000, let's see where we get to.

£100,000 at the back.

£100,000. 100. And five?

105? 105. And ten?

110?

110, and 15?

115? At £110,000, I've got. 115, I'm looking for.

Are we all done at £110,000?

Can't tempt you any further?

Nope? OK. Well, come and talk to us.

Well, the hammer didn't fall on this occasion

because the reserve price for the property wasn't reached.

However, an offer of 113,000 was made and accepted afterwards.

The new owners of this former public house are local property developers

and husband and wife, Sunil and Gita.

Yes, if they seem a bit familiar to you,

well, it's because they've been on Homes Under The Hammer before.

# Mr and Mrs

# Oh, how I love that phrase... #

Sunil and Gita, congratulations. Now, we've met before on the show.

-You know Sittingbourne really well, don't you, guys?

-Yes.

We run a lettings,

sales and lettings agency in Sittingbourne high street.

And you're also developers,

because I know you've got lots of other properties.

Yeah, our main business is we're landlords first,

so that helps us to help other landlords in our agency business.

-So you've bought a pub?

-Yes.

-What happened there, then?

Erm, well, when Sunil came home, I thought

it was quite ironic that he came home and told me

that we'd bought a pub and he doesn't even drink.

So why did you buy the pub?

Obviously not to turn into another pub, I take it.

-It's a good investment for us.

-Yes.

-If it's a pub today,

it could be a school tomorrow or something else, so...

What do you know about this building?

Is there any restriction on this property?

The history of this is it's always been a pub,

but it's not been a successful pub.

It's changed hands six or seven times in the last ten years.

Which is, in a way, good for us,

because when we're making a planning application,

we can show that it hasn't been viable

and it's not just the business owner, it's a number of business owners.

-So that's all about going for change of use, obviously.

-Absolutely, yes.

-Yeah.

-So what sort of ideas have you got for this place now?

Well, initially, the idea was to turn it into three flats.

One upstairs and then two downstairs.

Erm, but we've also been investigating

the possibility of turning it into a special needs school.

OK, really interesting. Now why have you gone down that avenue,

and why a school in particular?

It's just that the opportunity arose.

We were talking to one of our current landlords

and he said he'd been approached by the council

and they were looking for a school,

a special needs school with four classrooms in the area.

So he came down and measured up and said,

"Yes, we should look at this possibility."

So what would you need to do to set the ball rolling?

It's mainly planning and getting approval.

And then applying for grants if we need to.

-If not, we could fund some of the project ourselves.

-That's our ideal.

That's what we would like.

If that's not possible, then Plan B is to look at the possibility

of turning it into flats and having three separate flats.

So what sort of budget have you two got in mind?

On the school project, it's going to be about 70,000.

But if it's flats, we're going to spend about 30, £10,000 on each flat.

Guys, good luck with this project,

and I can't wait to find out how it goes.

-Really lovely to see you both again.

-Thank you very much.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

Well, Sunil and Gita are highly experienced

and successful property developers.

They could easily just build three flats out of this old pub,

but I love the fact that they have chosen to make it a priority to try

and give something back to the community here.

I am hoping this will be a wonderful school for children when we return.

You'll have to stay tuned to find out what happens.

-Well, we've seen one project. Two more to go, Martin.

-Yep.

Did those plans come to fruition?

And will those estate agents' valuations

make our buyers very happy or not?

Let's go back and find out.

We're back in Devon at the six-bedroom end terrace

in Okehampton.

This beautiful old building had a lot going for it.

Lovely big rooms

and a massive plot of land with outbuildings at the back.

It showed signs of damp and only had one bathroom with separate WC.

But with a guide price of just £150,000 plus, I thought

this looked like a bit of a bargain.

"That's all very well, Martin," I hear you cry.

"But houses rarely go for the guide price."

Well, normally...

At £150,000. It's sold, at 150.

It was a dream come true for buyer Beverley,

who just wanted to shower this house with affection.

I have this thing about sad old houses.

I like to made them lovely and lived in again and loved.

So you're a house cuddler, basically.

SHE LAUGHS

-You cuddle them back into being loved places.

-Yeah. Yeah.

# How sweet it is to be loved by you... #

Beverley planned an en-suite and shower room,

and was desperately keen to decorate the house herself.

She was also determined to get her gardening gloves on

and sort out the vast outside space.

We came back four months on to find out if Beverley had turned

what she thought was a sad house into a happy one.

On the ground floor, a brand-new kitchen has been fitted.

A hatch has been created into the wall,

allowing the kitchen to be connected to the living area,

which has been completely replastered.

She still might need carpets, but by the looks of things,

some of Beverley's floorboards have been replaced.

Up on the first floor,

and the bathroom has been refitted to include a WC.

And what was the separate toilet

has been incorporated into one of the bedrooms to create an en-suite.

The second floor is still to be finished,

but two of the bedrooms are ready for decoration.

And the third has been plumbed,

ready to become a bathroom as planned.

There's obviously still work to do,

and there's a clue as to why if you look outside.

The whole house has been re-rendered.

It's had its roof fixed and even the granite has been cleaned.

So was there more to this renovation than first met the eye?

When I bought the property, it looked OK

in most places on the outside and the inside, if you know what I mean.

It just looked a bit tired.

But when it actually came to it,

every job we did was bigger than we thought it was going to be.

And it turned out that there was a lot more needed doing

behind the scenes than we ever dreamt.

It was an old house, but you'd think not everything would cause problems.

Well, listen to this.

We put the windows in. Every single one is a slightly different size.

The shower cubicle had leaked,

so the joists underneath had got quite a bit of rot in some of them.

And so when they started to do the plumbing for the bathroom,

the whole kitchen ceiling fell down!

That was a bit of an "oh, bother" moment.

So, given the long list of problems,

did Beverley ever regret taking it on?

I don't think I've ever really thought,

"I wish I'd bought something else." Because every time it got that bad,

one of the guys would come up and say, "No, no, no, it's all right.

"I can fix it, I can sort it. We can do it. It's worth it. It's good."

And then, similarly, on a day when they'd go,

"Oh, it's going to cost more money, it's going to be more effort."

And I'd go, "No, no, it's worth it. It's worth it. It's really great."

So I think we encouraged each other really well.

Happily, Beverley seems undaunted by all the trials and tribulations.

She's within her four to five month timescale,

but given all the unforeseen issues,

has she managed to stay within that budget of 25-30,000?

I think I've probably spent about 66,000.

Because I'm going to live here, there are no cover-ups.

You know, if it needed something doing, then it got done.

If I don't have a carpet and move in, I don't have a carpet. You know.

But it was important

that the floorboards underneath the carpet are good.

And that they're not... I'm not going to fall through them

when I do my dancing. SHE LAUGHS

£66,000 is a hefty overspend,

and brings Beverley's total investment to £216,000.

And that's before she tackles the garden.

But come on, do you think it's value for money?

Let's see if two local property agents agree with me

that this is a cracker.

The standard of the work seems to be very good.

The finishes are lovely

and the appliances that have gone in do appear to be of a good quality.

Once the property is finished, it will be a lovely family home.

I think with the work that's been done to the property...

Erm, the windows look nice and sympathetically updated.

The rendering looks good.

It looks clean and it looks fresh.

Beverley spent a total of £216,000,

so let's get those all-important valuations.

For resale, I believe this property could achieve between £230-240,000.

I'd be looking to put it on at between £230-250,000.

Of course, this labour of love is to be Beverley's home.

But it's good to know that were she to sell, that top value

would give her a profit of £34,000, minus the usual taxes and expenses.

So what now for Beverley?

The plan is to decorate a bit more colour somewhere.

But I think probably the first thing I'm going to do

when I get in here is to actually have a party.

It's time to head back to Sittingbourne in Kent,

where earlier, as I explored this former pub,

I mulled over the possibilities.

Now I've had to chance to look around,

I think you could easily divide this ground floor space

with the kitchen out the back into two separate flats,

and I would probably leave the upstairs accommodation now

as one rather large, luxurious dwelling.

That thought had also occurred to Sunil and Gita,

who bought this place for 113,000.

But residential conversion was their Plan B,

because they had decided instead to try and turn

this into a school for children with special educational needs.

It's just that the opportunity arose.

We were talking to one of our current landlords,

and he said he'd been approached by the council and they were looking

for a school, a special needs school with four classrooms in the area.

So he came down and measured up and said,

"Yes, we should look at this possibility."

Well, I think that's a super idea,

but a good deal trickier than simply just converting this pub into flats.

13 months later, on a crisp and cold winter's day, we're back.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look as if the school plan has been successful.

We would have loved to have had it turned into a school.

That would have been our first choice.

But timeframes by which we would get an answer

and some kind of an agreement was just too long.

So we couldn't really wait around

because we needed to get the project underway.

With the school project falling through,

Sunil and Gita reverted to Plan B -

converting this old pub into three separate residences.

On the first floor, the existing three-bed flat has been modernised.

A new open-plan kitchen and dining room is the centrepiece.

But there are still traces from the past.

The bedrooms have been decorated and new windows have been installed.

On the ground floor, the space has been cleverly divided

to accommodate two two-bedroom flats.

And although the imprint of the old building

is still in evidence here and there,

it's easy to forget that this was once a public house.

Each flat is comfortable and spacious rather than luxurious,

but the most important thing here is they are all occupied,

and it would appear that even a former pub still draws in customers.

Because of the pub, because it's been here for about 100 years,

people were interested as soon as we started doing the works.

They were really interested in "Oh, what's going on in the old pub?"

Even before all three flats were ready,

we had tenants who were ready to move in,

so that was really, really great

because we didn't have even one day where they were sitting empty.

To get full occupancy from the off is a tremendous outcome,

but Sunil and Gita are drawing from a very deep well of experience.

And that's not the only well they've encountered during this project.

We had a few guys who work for us who basically helped us out.

They actually had to lift the floorboards

and basically gut the whole place out.

They discovered that there was a water well.

In order to make sure that it passed all the building regulations,

we got a metal mesh over it and then we got it cemented again,

and then another metal mesh and then we had the whole floor cemented.

So that was quite an interesting find.

No matter how interesting,

unexpected discoveries are usually expensive,

so how did they get on with their original budget of £30,000?

It cost 80,000

to do all three.

But the upstairs didn't really cost that much

because it was already a flat.

Most of the cost was really doing the two flats down here.

We did have some problems with structural stuff, with the floors,

the insulation, that we hadn't necessarily budgeted for.

Yeah, we spent a little bit more -

twice as much - but... HE LAUGHS

But it's still good because I think we've got a longer term...

We've got more for the money.

Including the purchase price of 113,000,

Sunil and Gita have spent a total of £193,000 on this project.

We invited two local estate agents to take a look around

and tell us what they think of the work that's been done.

It's amazing.

The change has been... It's huge.

When I came in here last time, it was open-plan, mess everywhere.

Couldn't really see the potential of what it could become,

and they've done a fantastic job.

A friend of mine used to own this when it was a pub.

And since the conversion, it's just tremendous, the change.

The current owners have used every single bit of space

and they've planned it perfectly.

I think it was a brave move going for the conversion,

but it has worked extremely well.

With full occupancy,

it's obvious that Sunil and Gita are not going to sell,

but will the estate agents' valuations

justify that £193,000 investment?

The top floor flat, it's a huge space up there.

I would have thought, realistic value-wise,

for selling probably about £135,000.

From a sales point of view,

you're looking at probably £125,000 to £135,000.

For the two two-bedroom flats on the ground floor,

the agents put a top sales valuation of £125,000 per flat.

If they were to sell these flats for the highest valuations,

Sunil and Gita would expect to receive a total of £385,000,

which would net them a pre-tax profit of 192,000.

Not bad for a year's work!

-It's good news, isn't it?

-Are you pleased?

-Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

But selling this building is not part of the plan.

The agents agreed that rental income for the three flats

could total around £2,000 per calendar month.

Is this close to what Sunil and Gita are already achieving?

We're very pleased with the rental that was achieved,

giving us £2,000 a month on the three units.

So that's good.

You know, it returns 6 or 7%, which we're really happy with.

We've decided that the best thing to do is to buy

and hold it for a long time.

-Yeah.

-So that's the key to have an income coming through.

Well, that's it for now, but join us

next time for more property auction stories from around the country.

-We look forward to seeing you, then.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.