Episode 26 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello! Sometimes the property market can get a bit competitive

-and you can end up paying too much.

-Yes, that's right.

Make sure you do your research, you set a limit

and then you stick to it.

Yes, and one way you can put that advice into practice

and maybe get yourself a bargain is at the auctions.

Now, buying at auction is becoming more and more popular - we should know.

Yes, but maybe that's not so surprising when you figure what

a long drawn-out process buying property by other means can be.

So, when the hammer falls at auction,

you exchange those contracts, how did today's buyers get on?

Let's find out.

First up in Edgbaston, Birmingham,

I may need to start watching my step.

HE SCREAMS

And in Waterhead, Oldham, it's the creepy crawlies with

a sting in their tails I'll need to watch out for.

Whilst in Forest Hill, south London,

an opening bid makes everyone's eyes pop.

-What a great lot, who wants to give me a start on this?

-1,000,000!

£1,000,000.

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.

Sold.

Today we're in Edgbaston.

But fear not, cricket fans,

Warwickshire's ground is not going under the hammer.

No, I'm in the eponymous suburb just outside Birmingham.

But don't worry,

though the property we're here to see is in the west, bordering Smethwick

it's just a short hop on public transport to Birmingham city centre

or, indeed, the cricket ground.

You can normally tell quite a lot from the auction catalogues.

Up for auction in this instance, "A traditional three-bed terraced

"house in need of a thorough scheme of modernisation and improvement."

That can mean all sorts of things. Guide price, £58,000 plus.

This is it. Let's have a look.

HE SCREAMS

Right. Didn't expect that.

Wow.

OK. Fairly big drop down to a non-existent floor, then.

I feel like I've shrunk. What a strange feeling this is.

Clearly there's something seriously weird going on here.

The floor has been taken out.

Not normally considered an optional extra but it is today.

But let's see if we can recover somewhat

and see what there actually is.

OK, well, there's a little corridor with a very, very dodgy wall.

There's a front room there with ferns.

Saves on pot plants, I suppose. It's all looking pretty good so far.

Or not.

# The concrete and the clay beneath my feet

# Begins to crumble

# But love will never die. #

Now, I'm no surveyor and I don't know

if it's the damp under the window, the hanging wall or the fact I'm

a foot shorter than usual but I get the feeling this house has problems.

Ahem, seriously, though, if you don't get an expert to look at this

pronto, alarm bells will be ringing.

Now, to give the auctioneers their due,

the auction catalogue does say the auctioneers have not

inspected the property but believe it to comprise,

amongst other things, kitchen, unfitted, bathroom, unfitted.

What it obviously doesn't say is floor, unfitted.

Joking aside, yeah,

the lack of floor continues through the entire downstairs.

But you've got a large living room there in the middle.

This, presumably at some point, was the kitchen.

And then the bathroom to the property at the back there.

So, what are we left with? Well, we're left with a big hole

and a space where a floor used to be.

Good news, I suppose, is that if the floor was rotten or it had issues,

somebody's actually got rid of it for you.

Bad news is you've got to put it back.

And that is a very manually driven job,

as in somebody has to bang nails in, cut bits of wood to fit.

It's stuff that takes time, time equals money.

So, this bit of the renovation alone is going to take a big chunk of your budget.

Normally, in a traditional house like this,

I would be working out how to get the bathroom upstairs.

In this case, there isn't one at all and the absence of that

and the kitchen means this is likely to be looking for a cash buyer

as mortgages for properties without them can be tricky.

So, no bathroom, no kitchen, no floors but lots of mould

and other plant life. Right, I've tossed my catalogue aside.

Time to venture upstairs. Wish me luck.

It's really funny how suddenly you don't take anything for granted.

The good news is, upstairs there is a floor. Fantastic.

There's also three bedrooms, not bad sized. All at the front.

That's quite pleasant, lots of light coming in from the two windows there.

And, actually, upstairs - corridor down to another bedroom there,

into this other bedroom - it's in really, comparably, good condition.

Lots of space, but it's turned from uu-uu-uu-ugh

to mm-mm-mm? Not bad.

Well, you know, once this was all restored

I can imagine this floor could be really lovely.

You could even move the bathroom upstairs

but you would lose one of those three bedrooms.

Outside, there is a rather dismal looking yard

and some barbed wire that I would get rid of ASAP.

All in all, I'm not as sceptical as I was.

# Then she said, yeah, yeah,

# "You're like a diamond in the rough." #

Time to find out what a local estate agent thinks of this terrace

guided at £58,000.

The area is prone to an issue that was in place years

and years ago when the floors were actually built on ash.

So, some of the original quarry tiles will have been laid on ash

and then floors, subsequently, of course, will have moved.

So, the floor can just be re-laid now it's been taken out.

Ah, that explains a lot.

It used to be considered OK to lay flagstone, quarry tile or parquet

flooring on a base of ash, sand or even just earth.

A great method to suck up damp and cold into your house.

But at least someone has started some of the hard work.

So, would it be worth taking this project in progress

to the next level or at least just making the floor level?

Let's get those all-important values.

Once renovated, as a three-bedroom property, I would market this at

around £110,000 in order to achieve anywhere from £100,000-£105,000.

The agent doesn't believe that moving the bathroom would

make any difference to the values

so if you got it for anything like the £58,000 guide price,

replace the floors and left the layout as it is, you could do OK.

What about rentals?

Once renovated,

this property could achieve anywhere from £500-£550 per calendar month.

Well, here's a house that proves you can never take

anything for granted when it comes to property.

Yep, it's got an optional extra required - a floor.

Lots of work to do, joking apart, and a lot of it being manual,

so it's not going to be cheap.

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

Lot 53. It's a three-bedroomed bay-windowed terrace house.

50?

I'll take 50 as a start, thank you.

At £50,000, 51.

51, 52,

53, 54,

55, 56...

It may not have been the busiest auction room but that didn't

stop the bids coming thick and fast for this particular property.

We rejoin the bidding at 71,500.

71,500, 72,000?

72,000, 72,500?

72,500, are you sure?

At £72,500 going once,

going twice, third chance, all done?

Sold at 72,500. Thank you.

And the successful bid of £72,500 came from freelance IT consultant Abu.

I met him back at the property to find out what he had planned.

-Abu, good to meet you.

-Nice to meet you, Martin.

-Congratulations.

Tell me why you wanted to buy this house.

-I actually went to buy a car for my wife last week.

-What?!

-Yes.

-The last two cars we bought for my wife have been from Derby.

-Right.

So, I went there to buy another car for her

and ended up at the auction

-and next thing I know I've bought a house.

-What?!

I knew there was an auction taking place in Derby

and I knew this property was on the auction list so...

While I was in Derby I thought I'd pop over and have a look.

And the next thing I know I've actually walked away with a house.

-Did you get a car, as well?

-No.

-Right, is she speaking to you yet?

Yes, I have promised her she'll get her car so she's happy,

I think she'll get the car sorted.

So, Asma, Abu's wife, hasn't got a car yet

but Abu has already renovated

and sold several other previous homes

and he has just sold their last house in order to get working

capital to help finance purchasing investment properties.

So, had you seen the property beforehand?

I hadn't seen the property.

I don't think there was any viewing for it but I knew the location

and I knew that they're building a hospital literally about

-400-500 metres from this property.

-Right.

So, from that point of view, I thought there's not much

I can go wrong with, to be honest.

So, presumably, you assumed, naturally, it would have some basics.

To be honest, I was expecting a lot worse state

because I haven't seen the property.

You might have realistically expected a floor downstairs,

I suppose.

Yes. I think, yeah, that was a bit of...

I actually walked through the door, it looks a lot worse,

then when you get upstairs it's actually quite decent.

# Cos I'm Mr Brightside. #

Abu seems unfazed by all of this.

He hadn't looked at either this property or the legal pack and then

he discovered that it had a 10-day completion instead of the usual 28.

He could really have been in trouble

if he hadn't had the money organised.

But he is seeing the positives here.

Being near a new hospital does make for good investment potential.

And, as we are both agreed,

upstairs is fine. I just hope his wife, sans car, feels as positive.

What are you going to do, then, to make it habitable?

Obviously I'm going to strip the whole house out, put in new kitchen,

new bathroom, maybe plaster the whole house, new wiring.

Certainly floor-boarding downstairs would help.

And possibly double-glazing it.

And then I think I'll end up with probably four rooms to let.

Three upstairs and one in the front room downstairs.

-Oh, wow, you're going to do it as a...

-Yeah.

-..individual rooms?

I think that probably makes more sense to do that way

than to rent it as a house.

-I think... Budget of about 8,000-10,000.

-8,000-10,000?

-Have you had any quotes yet?

-No.

-Mm.

-LAUGHTER

No, I'm fairly comfortable. I'm still fairly comfortable with it.

The downstairs, a lot of manual work to get that floor sorted out.

Joists and people with hammers and saws.

I mean, yeah, it'll be interesting to see when I do get a quote

whether I'm within my budget of 10,000.

-But at the moment that's the figure I had in mind.

-What about timescale?

-I'm looking to do it in the next four weeks.

-Wow.

Yeah, I mean, I think once I've got my builder in here...

Have you got a builder lined up, then?

No, I'm going to get... Next couple of days, shortlist a couple of people

-and then choose one by the weekend and get them to start Monday.

-Wow.

-And then get somebody in.

-Yeah.

-Time is money.

Like I say, the plan was to do one of these,

if I'm successful I'll do another five or six.

-Well, it's lovely to meet you. Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Good luck with it.

-I think I'll need a lot. Thank you.

Boy, oh, boy, oh, boy.

After all these years of Homes Under The Hammer,

I think I've heard it all and then I meet Abu. Fantastic.

Wow, went to buy a car and ended up buying a house and one...

..that needs a heck of a lot of work to sort it out.

Four weeks, really?

10,000?!

Well, it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

I mean, you've got to love his positivity.

You can see what happens later in the show.

Close to the Pennines in Greater Manchester

lies the town of Oldham.

It was once the most productive cotton spinning mill town

in the world, boasting seven railway stations.

Nowadays, its transport includes a tram service that can get

you to the centre of Manchester in about 30 minutes.

Famous Oldhamites include Brian Cox OBE,

the BBC science presenter and former keyboard player in the band D:Ream.

That's him tinkling away now.

KEYBOARD MUSIC PLAYS

The property I'm here to see is in the Waterhead area of the town.

It's a three-bed detached house with a guide price of £75,000 plus

in a very, very popular residential area.

And the first thing I can see is the driveway,

that will definitely need tending to.

Let's take a look.

# Things

# Can only get better! #

And this is a nice big area here.

Kitchen in here which seems to be in good condition.

Through into the lounge area.

Stairs to the bedrooms

and a bit of an outside balcony space there which could be

used on those nice summer nights or even,

if you're feeling adventurous, you could build on that.

Planning permission, of course, you'd have to get for that.

Dining room over here.

This is a lot of floor space but the one thing that does hit me

is the kitchen could quite easily be opened up,

you could actually take this wall down.

Half the work's done for you cos this is a false wall

so you could actually open it up, have the kitchen there,

tidy that up, nice little dining area here, lovely lounge area there.

That's what I'd do.

Don't get me wrong, separate kitchen space does have its advantages.

Cooking smells are more containable and, although I am quite

a tidy person in the kitchen, if you're the type to use every pan

in the house, well, cookery carnage is best hidden behind closed doors.

However, lots of young families like the open-plan thing as it

allows you to cook and keep an eye on the kids at the same time.

I think making this open-plan living-dining space even more

open-plan is the way to go here.

Upstairs, the three bedrooms have reasonable proportions.

Decorations and floor coverings being perfectly

acceptable for rental property.

The smallest room has even been decked out with disco lighting.

But you wouldn't be able to invite many people.

The bathroom fixtures, too, are more than adequate for letting.

But there's one unwelcome bonus feature which would definitely

stop me from showering here.

There's clearly a wasp nest in this property somewhere.

There's so many wasps on that windowsill.

Don't try and deal with it yourself,

get in touch with your local council and they will send someone

out from their pest control department to deal with it for you.

Shouldn't cost you any more than £50-ish,

it does vary across the country but get it sorted as soon as possible.

# Now I'm on the outside. #

A quick glance outside

and it's easy to see where these pests are accessing the loft space.

Now, this house has a lot of ups and downs,

due to its position on a slope.

For instance, not everyone would like those front steps

taking you to the open-plan living area above the garage level

and, of course, it means the garden has its ups and downs, too.

This garden's going on forever.

Now, they've got a nice little bit of back garden here.

It's the most level part of the garden that they have round

this property. Going through here, side of the house, even more garden.

Yes, it's uneven. It could be really nice outside here. I like it.

The balcony above the garage could do with a little bit of TLC,

and a tidy-up of the garage space itself wouldn't go amiss.

We asked a local property expert from the auction house

who sold the property for his thoughts and valuations.

It's a general refurbishment.

I'm not sure that you would do any major works.

I don't think there's the space, externally,

to either extend it or put a conservatory on.

For rental, once it's refurbished,

we'd expect it to achieve £750 per calendar month.

Given the guide price of £75,000 plus,

what kind of scope is there after a good refurbishment?

We'd expect it to achieve somewhere between £120,000-£130,000

once it's been refurbished to a good standard.

This could be a lovely family home. There's not a lot to be done here.

The kitchen, the dining room and the lounge could be changed,

could be one big, open space, which is what I would do.

Outside here could be inside or out.

There's lots of choice with this property.

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

Lot five, Waterhead, Oldham. £75,000, the guide on this one.

Start me, then, 70? Need a bid. Can't sell without one. £70,000.

65, then?

I'll take it away.

65, here. At £65,000...

The threat to remove the property from the auction galvanises

the packed auction room and bids soon exceeded the guide price.

We rejoin the bidding at £79,000.

At £79,000, then. Are we done? At £79,000, then, for the first time.

Are you sure? At £79,000 for the second time.

Half, I'll take it. 80? Half. You're out.

Here, at 80. At £80,000, then.

First time.

Second time.

Selling it at £80,000,

third and final time...

Well done, Madam, congratulations.

The successful bidder is Saira, a dentist,

at the auction with her six-year-old daughter, Alina.

I arranged to meet her and her husband, Sohan, at the property.

This is the first time Sohan, who is an ENT surgeon,

will have seen it.

But they're no strangers to property developing,

having already got three properties in their portfolio.

Nice to meet you, Sohan, Saira, nice to meet you both.

Firstly, tell me about the auction experience

because I know you were in charge. Yes.

I went along to the auction.

I didn't really know about the auction until two hours before.

I just basically looked online and rang up

and made a few enquiries with some agents and things,

did a bit of research and I thought, well, I was off,

so I thought, I'll just go along.

Oh, well, why not? I've got a bit of time.

I just got a phone call while I was at work,

saying that I'm going to an auction. And I thought, fair enough.

She said, there's a few properties that I'm looking at.

You know, we'll see how it goes.

What are you going to do with it?

Tell us what your plans are, to do with the property.

Who is the brains behind changing it or renovating it?

I think Saira is.

He's the silent partner!

LAUGHTER

Literally, the silent partner, yeah!

But, yes, I've got a few plans on.

I'm thinking, one option is maybe just leave it as it is

but obviously renovate it.

Second option is to extend it.

I feel that there is some space that could be used

better in the garage and also above the garage,

possibly extending there, just to increase the living room space.

So, would you try and use the garage as, what?

What would you change it to?

With it being a detached family home, I'm just thinking of children

and how feasible it is to come up all these flights of stairs.

Maybe to put the front door in and have the main reception in there,

and then have this as sort of the first floor.

And, if we are going to convert the garage downstairs,

then maybe make the staircase flow with this staircase, somehow.

Sohan, tell me about the budget.

What budget have you got for the turnaround of your new property?

I think it depends on how much we end up doing.

If it's just a matter of just doing the garage, and making everything

look a bit nice, then we're talking maybe about ten grand.

If we're thinking of extending forward a little bit,

then obviously we need to account for that.

But it's the Bank of Saira, really!

Ha! I like that, I like that. And what is your first choice?

Is it to renovate and make good, or to actually turn it round?

What would your choices be? Maybe I'm asking the wrong person.

Maybe I should ask the boss!

Well...if we renovated it and we do get somebody interested to buy it

I would prefer that option but I think it's going to be more

realistic that we're going to do it up for rental, really.

OK, and your timescales, what are you hoping

and when are you hoping for it to be turned around?

Well, if we're just going to renovate it as it is,

probably about four weeks.

If we're going to extend, then probably looking at

about three to four months.

If you're thinking about changing downstairs,

what about up here, would you consider opening it up, maybe?

Yes, possibly to make it into more sort of...open-plan.

But I've not quite decided what we're going to do with that yet.

And what about the balcony, cos from what I can see there's

-maybe a possibility of extending onto the balcony?

-Yes, definitely.

I think it would be... It is a space that we could utilise better.

The other option is maybe extending up another storey, as well.

The bathroom upstairs is quite small. Whether we could extend...

Do a double-storey extension on the garage

-and maybe make it a bit more roomy upstairs, as well.

-Wow. Great ideas.

-Very good ideas, yeah.

-I wish you luck.

-Thank you.

-I wish you more luck.

-Thank you.

-Good luck, I hope it works out.

Cheers, thank you.

Saira and Sohan have got lots of decisions to make.

Will they move that staircase, will they utilise the garage,

and will they actually build on that balcony?

Lots of things to think about and they've got to stay within budget.

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

Still to come: In Forest Hill, London,

these developers reveal the secret to their success.

-Budget, budget... Budget.

-Yeah.

-Budget, budget.

But in Oldham, for Sohan, the key to success is no secret.

I'll leave her to it.

Probably best.

Time to get our cricket whites on again and return to Edgbaston,

a suburb that lies just outside the city of Birmingham.

Now, the auction catalogue said that the property

I was about to see was a traditional mid-terrace three-bedroom house

that had a guide price of £58,000.

That, in the catalogue's own words, was,

"In need of a thorough scheme of modernisation and improvement."

And, you know, they weren't kidding.

HE SCREAMS

Right.

Didn't expect that.

Wow.

# I'm telling you You'd better watch your step

# You'll fall and hurt yourself One day. #

Yes, for some reason someone had seen fit to rip up

the flooring throughout the property.

And, what's more, it was riddled with damp

and there was no kitchen or bathroom in place.

However, it was still pretty popular on auction day

with it selling for £72,500.

Sold at 72,500, thank you.

The successful bidder was IT consultant Abu

who hadn't seen the property or read the legal pack.

In fact, he wasn't even planning on buying a house at all on the day.

-I actually went to buy a car for my wife last week.

-What?!

-Yes.

-The last two cars we bought for my wife have been from Derby.

-Right.

So, I went there to buy another car for her and...

ended up at the auction. And next thing I know I've bought a house.

What?!

# I don't know what this world is coming to

# I just can't rely on you

# Just can't rely on you. #

So, instead of a nice new car, Abu went home to tell his wife

he'd instead bought a house that had no floors.

Joking aside, Abu was a relative novice

and had taken on a big project here.

He planned to create another bedroom downstairs

and rent the four bedrooms out separately.

But his timescale of four to six weeks and his modest budget

of £8,000-£10,000 to get it completed seemed a little bit ambitious to me.

We've returned six months later

with our fingers crossed to see how Abu has got on.

Well, there are some beautiful new floors.

And a dazzling new kitchen.

Plus where there was once a dark,

damp room there is now a bright, modern and fresh bathroom.

Upstairs and the stunning transformation continues

with three lovely bedrooms complementing the rest of the house.

The work Abu has done here really is a breath of fresh air.

I'm going to have to interrupt his little tour with nine-year-old

daughter Lena to find out exactly what he has done and how it's been.

Obviously I knew...

concreting the flooring downstairs was the biggest task.

Obviously, as I see, walk through the door when we first bought the house.

Plastered the whole house top to bottom. Rewired the whole house.

Couple of things which I hadn't planned for was to do

the double-glazing so that was a hit I took, I'm quite pleased with.

Looks a lot better now with the new double-glazing.

Central heating, initially, I thought I could maybe use the old

radiators and boilers etc but, bearing in mind the amount of work

I was doing, it was as easy to rip it all up and put a new central heating.

They are two big things I did which I hadn't originally planned for

but I'm pleased I have done that

because I think I'm happy with the results.

He has every right to be happy.

But one of the big issues here originally was the extensive damp.

How was that tackled?

One of the remedies was to make the roof a pitched roof,

a new roof, to do that. We've actually put some damp course

in there to make sure we don't get any dampness again etc.

And we did that throughout the whole house.

Those were things that, actually, you need to make sure you do

before you start the renovation work etc

cos the costs will go up if you have to come back and do that later.

I was really concerned about Abu's original budget

of 8,000-10,000 and he has done a lot more than he set out to.

I looked at the...

The double-glazing, the central heating, that added another 5,000.

So, my total costs were 17,000.

After that, if you take the 5,000 for the central heating, double-glazing,

I'm probably off maybe a couple of grand what I should have been.

Considering the transformation here,

spending around 17,000 is pretty good in my book.

The work itself has, in total, taken around 12 weeks,

with holidays and issues with contractors taking their toll.

And whilst Abu is no longer sure if he will rent or sell, there's only

one question on my mind, has his wife, Asma, finally got her new car?

I promised her once I've sold the property or rented it out

she will have the car.

And she's happy that I will eventually get her that car.

Well, then, we'd better get on with it.

With a total spend here of £89,500,

Abu, and especially his wife,

will be interested to hear the thoughts of two local estate agents.

Starting with the agent who saw it originally.

The biggest difference to the property is the damp

that has been eradicated.

And the floors are now in place,

there were no floors the first time I came to the property.

I think that the work's been carried out to a good standard,

particularly the bathroom and the kitchen.

The agents are suitably impressed but let's get down to the nitty-gritty -

rental predictions first.

For a three-bedroom property, I would anticipate a rental

income of £550 per calendar month.

If we were to rent the property as a three-bedroom mid-terrace,

we would expect to achieve approximately £550 per calendar month.

That figure would give Abu, on his total investment

of £89,500, a yield of just over 7%.

Now, Abu thought the location of this house near a hospital meant

that renting it out on a room-by-room basis might be a good option.

Remember, he would have to comply with HMO regulations.

The rooms could rent for £50 a week for each room

which could mean a monthly income of £800.

What about resale valuations?

I would anticipate that the property would achieve

around £105,000 with a marketing price of 110.

I would market the property at £115,000

in order to achieve

anywhere from £105,000-£110,000.

Originally, my first reaction was as long as I break even I'd be happy

cos I bought this project to learn.

So, yeah, I mean, yeah.

I think... I had 100,000 as a guide price myself,

so anything above that is a bonus for me.

A top valuation of 110,000 would mean a pre-tax profit

of £20,500 for Abu which is a great achievement

considering how this property once looked.

And I think Abu's wife may well have a smile on her face, too.

Forest Hill in south-east London is a very desirable area

with good transport links and lovely views over London

because it is, as you would expect, on a hill.

# Be running up that road

# Be running up that hill. #

Well, what I'm looking to view is described in the auction catalogue

as a former garage workshop site

of approximately 0.18 acres with planning permission implemented

for seven two-bedroom properties and a guide price of £600,000 plus.

It all sounds very intriguing,

really and it's just at the end of this lane.

# There will be good times ahead

# So just hold on

# Cos there will be good times ahead. #

And that guide price of £600,000 may sound a lot

but for this area, and with planning permission already agreed,

it actually sounds like a bit of a potential bargain to me.

Yep, you could say this site has got my attention.

Well, just have a look at this, wow, what a plot!

Now, here's a bit of history for you.

I know this used to be the stables to an old coaching inn,

back in the early 1800s.

When people were travelling by horse and carriage they would stay

at the inn and their horses would be stabled for the night right here.

You can see now it's been used for other things over the years

from garages to workshops to offices.

You can see it's run down and it's just ready to have

some new life breathed into it.

Well, at the moment it's all looking rather tired

and is serving as an elaborate pigeon loft.

# Like birds of a feather. #

So, what have we actually got here?

Well, we might have a lot of history

but we've also got a lot of problems.

Just have a look at that roof.

Now, the good news is that although it's in a conservation area,

permission has been granted to pull this whole building down.

But whatever is built in its place has to be sympathetic to the area, obviously.

Being in a conservation area adds to the site's desirability

but for developers it means an awful lot of red tape.

As this already has planning permission, the hard work

has been done for you and well, you're good to go.

So, what has been granted are four two-bed town houses,

all the way along here with garages underneath and along here

three two-storey two-bedroom houses with assigned parking spaces.

So, it will still pretty much be in this lovely L-shape

set-back from the road.

Now, the slight negative, for me, is the garage that was here

is now just over here and access is along this driveway here.

Let's just hope that revving is kept to a minimum.

# Here in my car I feel safest of all

# I can lock all my doors

# It's the only way to live In cars. #

Sounds like the planned houses will be family houses

so we don't want cars in and out if kids are running around.

Plus, if I'm nit-picking, it looks like the area is under

a pretty noisy flight path which is never popular.

But who am I kidding, this site, with a guide price

of £600,000, could be a great prospect in the right hands.

So, let's see if a local estate agent agrees with me.

First impressions of the development are very good opportunities.

The type of houses they're going to put here are going to be

easily sellable at the right price with the way

the market's going at the moment. They should command a sensible value.

So, let's hear what the predicted valuations of the planned properties are.

I think for the two-bed town house, I think you're looking

in the region of around £575,000-£600,000

and I think for the normal two-beds,

I think you're looking in the region of £525,000-£550,000.

Wow! Right, time to get the sums worked out, then.

So, for the two-bed town houses it's £600,000, that's 2,400,000.

Add on three two-storey houses at 550,000 and that's...

blimey!

I make that just over four million quid in terms of house sales.

Now, of course, there's the demolition costs,

the build costs and the fees and all that stuff.

So not quite time to start counting your chickens

or, in this case, pigeons, just yet.

But this is looking like a very desirable prospect.

This is a site set back from the road in a great location,

ripe for development,

but it needs an experienced developer

to bring this tired old building back into the 21st-century.

So who could see the wood for the trees

with this Forest Hill development?

Let's see when it went under the hammer.

Fantastic lot, this. Great, great opportunity for somebody.

Great development opportunity.

What a great lot.

-Who wants to give me a start on this?

-One million.

Thank you.

That's what I like, somebody who knows the value. A million pounds.

So I've got £1 million straight ahead.

Anybody else?

Million ten - yes?

Million ten. Million twenty.

'Well, with the very first bid, the guide price is smashed

'and the auction room is buzzing.

'We return with the bidding at £1.4 million!'

1.4,

410, 420, no?

It's back to you, sir. Bid - £1,410,000.

It's against the gentleman on my left by the door.

Anybody?

You're back in, yeah? 420, 430,

440, 450,

460,

yes or no? 460?

If not, £1,450,000 for the first...

£1,450,000 for the second...

£1,450,000 for the third and final time...

Are we all done?

Sold - £1,450,000.

Well bid.

MUSIC: Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor

That final knockout blow of £1,450,000,

which was over twice the original guide price,

belonged to ex-boxer and experienced property developer Mark.

Joined by 17-year-old son Max and business partner and colleague Johnny,

Mark is looking forward to stepping into the ring with this property.

But first, him and Johnny will have to go a few rounds with me.

So I want to know all the back story. Whose idea was this?

Who's bought this?

Were you happy with the money you paid? Mark?

Yeah, um... Well, the back story is we just...

We had a site in planning

in another location over in Crystal Palace and it got refused.

So we was a bit desperate to find something quickly to get work on.

You and Johnny were both there on auction day.

Guys, did you expect to win the bid?

-Did you expect to pay what you paid? Johnny?

-Yeah.

I think Mark went there very focused, had a figure in mind.

I think he knew the value of the potential for development

and went in there with a bar to set, really.

Well, we went there to buy the site, not to mess around.

Hence the reason, you know, we went in there,

opened the bidding higher.

That wasn't arrogance, that was confidence -

I'm going there to buy this deal.

So anyone who wants to start going five, five, five,

please, move out of the way

because, quite frankly, I'm going to buy this deal.

I know that sounds overconfident,

but if I didn't buy that deal, we wouldn't have any work.

So it was a matter of...

..it's got to be done.

Are you a developer? How many of these have you done before?

For how long have you been developing?

I've been a developer since I was about 25, 27...

So... I'm 43 now.

-So, yeah, a long time.

-So you've seen the highs and lows over the last few years?

-Yes.

-Very much so.

-But you've stuck by each other.

So, Johnny, you've been working with Mark as a project manager?

-Yes.

-For how many years?

Coming onto seven now, it's over six years, I think.

'Well, with bags of experience to go along with Mark's bags of confidence,

'it seems to me this site couldn't be in better hands.

'But will they stick to the agreed plans

'or do they have other ideas?'

Yeah, it's got planning for seven two-bed houses at the moment, which...

There's a price on it, which is a fair price.

We could do very well out of it.

But my gain and my speciality

is gaining upon planning permission.

So, basically, because plans were given in 2006,

I'd like to look at how I can build upon that.

Look at the London Guide, and see how that's changed,

look at what's been built around just recently since then.

So when you're thinking about it, whoa! Hang on!

We could get another floor on here, make these four beds.

So when you're looking at two beds which would probably be 600-650,

or something, and you're looking at four beds,

-you're then talking about £1 million a house.

-Sounds fantastic.

I'm really excited to see it. Johnny, how long do you think you're going to be on site for?

-How long is this project going to...

-Too long!

He said that without his mouth moving!

It's estimated at the moment around about 12 months, 11-12 months.

And if you're not clocking in on time, have you got him on your back?

-Yeah.

-HE CHUCKLES

Budget, budget, budget...

Budget... Budget...

Come on, then. How much is the budget?

The budget on this is about...

It will be, depending on what we get...

Now, if we have the two beds built and we get rejected,

there's nowhere we're going to get even more,

we've got a fallback scheme to build upon.

So, upon that, it would be about 1.5 to 1.6.

If we get the four beds, it's going to be another £500,000 on top.

So you could be potentially looking at a two million quid budget?

About two to 2.1, yes.

-On top of already having paid 1.4.

-Yes, that's right.

# It pays big money

# If you're willing to take a chance. #

That means, along with the purchase price,

they could potentially be investing a total of roughly £3.5 million on this site,

which is a pretty eye watering amount for anyone.

But, for Mark, property developing isn't his only passion.

So what did you do before developing?

I was a boxer at the Fitzroy Lodge when I was growing up, in Lambeth.

And I boxed there for quite a few years

and won the ABA London Championships.

And... So the thing about boxing,

I've always had that winning determination.

# I get knocked down and I get up! #

So you have to! You have to keep going, it's true.

No matter through the session or whatever it is,

you've got to keep going. It keeps you focused, good for you.

Guys, I've loved meeting you today.

It's been such fun and I'm really pleased you got this.

And, good luck with the project.

-Let's hope you get that third floor! Well done.

-Thank you.

-Mark, Johnny.

-Thank you.

-Lovely.

Well, Mark and Johnny certainly appear to be boxing clever.

The extra floor will certainly bring in extra money,

but will it pass planning

or will their plans be knocked out of the ring?

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

Well, we've seen how one of today's properties turned out.

-What about the rest?

-Has all the work been done?

I think we should have a look.

Back to Greater Manchester and the town of Oldham now, where,

earlier in the show,

I took a look around this good size detached family house,

complete with garage, driveway and an overgrown garden.

Inside it was in good shape, too,

with three decent-sized bedrooms upstairs

and a nice layout downstairs.

However, this property did have something of a sting in its tail.

Don't try and deal with it yourself.

Get in touch with your local council and they will send someone out

from their Pest Control department to deal with it for you.

Dentist Saira managed to buy the property for £80,000,

just 5,000 over the guide price,

so she certainly wasn't stung.

Maybe it was her good luck charm seven-year-old daughter Alina.

It was Saira and her husband Sohan

that I met at the house

and it soon became clear who was going to be in charge.

Who's the brains behind changing it all?

Or renovating it?

I think...Saira is.

We like to say he's a silent partner...

-That doesn't surprise me.

-Literally silent partner.

But, um, I've got a few plans on.

I'm thinking one option is, maybe, just leave it as it is,

but obviously renovate it.

Second option is to extend it.

I feel that there's some space that could be used better

in the garage and also above the garage,

which...possibly extending there,

just to increase the living room space.

So, depending on what Saira decided to do,

she had a timescale of anywhere between four weeks and four months

and a budget of £10,000

for the simpler renovation plans.

It's now six months later

and on the outside, at first glance,

there doesn't seem to be any extension.

But let's step inside and see what changes have been made.

So they plumped for the simple renovation in the end,

with re-plastered walls throughout the property,

and an elegant colour scheme that is ideal for rental or the sales market.

Upstairs and the bedrooms that had bold feature walls

have all been replastered and repainted.

And I'm glad to report that in the brand-new bathroom suite,

any sign of those nasty pests have buzzed off.

Perhaps the biggest change here is in the back garden,

which has gone from wild and overgrown to trimmed and tidy.

Saira and family have chosen to keep to a simple renovation plan.

So how did she come to decide against building an extension?

I initially called a few agents round to have a look at the property.

They basically advised me against extending,

saying that it would hit the ceiling price for the area, so that's why.

We were going to extend the garage

and make it into a lower floor, but we decided against it

because we didn't think it would make any more money on the property.

A big part of property renovation is doing your research

and listening to the experts.

There's no point in spending lots of time and money

on extensions and such

if it won't be reflected in the eventual valuation of the property.

So there are no flies on Saira.

But what about wasps?

We did have a wasp nest and the wasps actually died,

but the wasp nest had be removed.

So we had to get Pest Control in to remove it.

It was a bit unpleasant to have it around, but other than that, not a problem.

I'm glad to hear it.

Wasps can present a real hazard.

But, with the work complete, how long has it actually taken?

We are six months on.

In terms of actual time of doing work,

I think most things wouldn't take more than about a month to do.

But it's just because everything has been stop-start

and we've been so busy with work ourselves

that it's just taken so long.

The budget originally was £10,000 and we thought

we could possibly convert the garage within that price.

However, after getting estimates it was more like £25,000

to do the conversion and extension.

So that's why we just did a cosmetic makeover and the budget,

so far, is £6447.96.

Well, if I round that up to £6,500,

along with the purchase price of £80,000,

they've invested a total of £86,500.

And with the couple leaning toward selling rather than renting,

it would be interesting to hear the thoughts

of two local estate agents.

The work's been carried out to a very high standard throughout.

I think it was certainly the right decision not to extend the property.

With the three bedrooms, it's certainly in keeping with the local area.

I believe it would be suitable for the sales market,

however I do think there would be a rental demand, as well.

Well, with that in mind, let's hear valuations with the rental first.

For rental, I would expect this property to achieve

somewhere in the region of £575 per calendar month.

I would think the rental price would be

between £575 per calendar month

to £600 per calendar month.

The rental figures sound really appealing.

Yes, but I think we've made our decision that we plan to sell.

-Yes, I think so.

-I agree with that.

So despite a rental yield of around 8%,

the couple are set on selling.

If this property was placed on the market,

I would expect it to achieve in the region of £135,000.

I would estimate the sale price to be around...

£140,000.

-Wow!

-That's really good.

I think they're amazing. It's what we kind of expected...

So... I'm really pleased with that.

Really good, considering. Very good.

Get in!

That top figure would mean a potential pre-tax profit

of £53,500,

justifying their decision to keep the renovation simple.

So with this success, will they be heading back to the auction house?

I would definitely buy another property in auction.

Probably lessen my workload to accommodate it, though.

What about you?

I'll leave her to it.

Probably best!

Back to south-east London now

and the leafy area of Forest Hill.

It was here that I looked around what the auction catalogue described

as a former garage workshop site.

It covered 0.18 acres

and had a guide price of £600,000 plus.

But most interestingly of all,

it already had planning permission for seven two-bed properties.

You can see it's rundown

and it's just ready to have some new life breathed into it.

The bidders on auction day really slugged it out for this one,

with the opening bid of £1 million

and the eventual winning bid of 1.45 million quid

both belonging to experienced property developer and ex-boxer, Mark.

Sold, £1,450,000.

Well bid.

# I'm gonna knock you out!

# Momma said, "Knock you out!"

# Breakdown! #

Along with the project manager and friend Johnny,

this property developing pugilist

wasn't in the mood to pull any punches

for the opportunity to buy this site.

Well, we went there to buy the site, not to mess around.

Hence the reason, you know, we went in there, opened the bidding higher.

That wasn't arrogance, that was confidence.

I'm going there to buy this deal, so anyone who wants to start going five, five, five,

please, move out the way,

because, quite frankly, I'm going to buy this deal.

Buy the deal he certainly did.

And despite having plans approved for seven two-bed houses on the site,

Mark had greater ambitions.

I bet, knowing you, you are going to tweak it and change it, aren't you?

We could get another floor in here and make these four-beds.

So when you are looking at two-beds,

which would probably be 600-650 or something,

and you're looking at four-beds,

you're then talking about £1 million per house.

Mark's big plans meant big budget,

and he hoped to get this done for around £2 million.

And Johnny, as the project manager,

had earmarked a timescale of around 12 months.

We've come back 11 months later to see how Johnny and Mark have got on.

Well, it may be a building site, but they've made real progress here,

with the timber frames of several buildings complete.

The old dilapidated garages and offices are long gone

and I am pleased to report that Mark was able to negotiate a change to the original plans,

as project manager, Johnny, explains.

Well, the new plans that we got passed,

in comparison to the original planning consent,

allowed us to gain an extra storey

onto the whole development.

So what that's actually going to give us now

is six four-storey, three-bedroomed houses

with a seventh three-storey, two-bedroomed house.

Quite a change to the original plans of seven two-bed houses then.

And since we last saw Mark and Johnny,

they've got a lot busier,

with Johnny having to enlist the help of Pat here to run the site.

Indeed, they became so busy, Mark was unable to attend today,

so it's up to his right-hand man to fill us in.

Since we last saw you, a lot has gone on.

Obviously, you can see the timber frame behind me now.

We've done, obviously, all of our ground works, footings,

drainage, run our service ducts,

getting everything prepared for the timber frame to be built

on top of the block and beam floor.

We've got all of our trades lined up - roofers are in next

and then all of our internal trades.

We've sort of maximised the development.

We're still keeping it in context with the surrounding area.

There's some big properties up and around this area.

We feel we've got a good result.

All seems to be going to plan, but I'm not surprised.

It was obvious that Mark had a very, very clear idea

of what he wanted.

So how have things been going?

Very good, yes.

He's been, sort of, obviously

heavily involved with the planning side of things

and the design, which we're still looking at now.

But, yes, it's great.

So everything is coming on nicely.

But thanks to the planning process taking three months,

the timeframe has changed.

We've been here for about 11 months, I believe,

with another six months, five to six months to complete.

With Mark and Johnny very confident of selling all the properties possibly off-plan,

it will be interesting to hear the opinions of a local expert at this point in the build.

Remember, along with the purchase price, the investment figure

is around a whopping £3.5 million.

The design of the development is well suited for the area.

The traditional London stock brickwork

complements the surrounding Victorian properties

and adds the characteristic

of a traditional new-style development

that you'd see in central London.

And, yes, the demand is very high for this location,

as we are seeing south-east London becoming a lot more popular,

where the prices in London generally are a lot more affordable.

It sounds like once complete, or even before,

these properties will be snapped up.

What kind of values are we talking about for the six three-bedroom houses

and the single two-bed house?

The two-bedroom property will sell in the region of £900,000.

The three-bedroom properties will sell in the region of

£1 million - £1.25 million.

MUSIC: Doowutchyalike by Digital Underground

Hold on to your hats.

If they were able to achieve the top estimates there

and sell all the properties,

that would equate to £8.4 million.

That, well, is just staggering!

However, the project isn't finished yet

and five to six months can be a very long time in developing,

although Johnny can't help but look ahead a little.

I'm expecting the houses to look great,

really high-quality to a very high standard finish,

which is what we pride ourselves on.

Yeah, I'm expecting them to be a head turner

and people are going to be pleasantly surprised.

Well, more property owners there who took the plunge and bought at auction.

Were you inspired to become one of them?

Make sure you join us next time for more Homes Under The Hammer.

-See you, then.

-Goodbye.

-Bye.

-Bye.