rocketing house crisis saved many developers bacon over the years whatever their mistakes they were still protected by a rising market but then in August 2007 that protection went away just as 14 amateur developers set out turned bricks-and-mortar into cold hard cash we now about six times as much unsecured credit as we did in the early 90s the markets are just plummeting and then you're left with all this or a negative equity and that is just pretty frightening when you've put so much love and attention into a property to someone to say yeah it's fantastic but I'm only gonna offer you so much I was worried I didn't know whether I'd actually made a mistake in in buying a property at that time [Music] it's autumn 2007 and there the housing market is unstable there's still much worse to come so for tonight's developers taking on too long and complicated niche projects could be a very risky strategy did you just think do you know what I really need a jailhouse okay 71 thousand pounds for a lock-up stall Organa dodgy alley action I dream of the door go and cut chunk October 2007 and house prices have yet to turn in the resort town of Broadstairs on the Kent coast which is lucky for architectural designer Neil Hornsea and partner Allison ger as they're about to take on the challenge of a lifetime offer side street down a back alley they've just bought this ugly mishmash of derelict storerooms yes this is the front door they hope this dark dirty and totally uninhabitable property is the start of a new career as property developers from the common eye it just looks like a storage building full of pigeon poo we're going to add something that part of me part of you that it's gonna really lift it it's gonna feel like it's a a great pad in the West End of London right in the heart of Broadstairs Broadstairs is a popular coastal resort where second homes go for a premium and despite first impressions I think these old storms could have potential only Neil and Alison will have to be very very clever to unlock it you've chosen to buy your first developments in a street where you've got a pub with live music and a fishmongers on the left-hand side and then your development is down this little alleyway next door yes the reality is some people might find that noisy and smelly they may do but I think you'll find a lot of people that come to Broadstairs are coming here for the atmosphere of everything else this is a beautiful location Neil and Alison bought well paying a bargain 71 thousand pounds for the property they hope their budget of just sixty five and a half thousand pounds is enough to create a home worth a hundred and eighty thousand pounds price tag that would bring them a great forty three and a half thousand pound profit for seven months work there's a bit of me that thinks that seventy one thousand pounds is amazing you can buy it a property for that little nowadays and there's a bit of me that thinks he paid seventy one thousand pounds for a lock-up store in the back of a shop down a dodgy alley there's quite a lot of money when you look in there it is who's in charge here who ultimately is gonna make the decisions we play off well off each other nails very much enthusiastic about the architecture and I can sometimes say hang on a minute hang on a minute got a look at the budget so so the delay will be after work well and so the dynamics here we've got airy-fairy designer and and money money man here I really hope the inn and Alison are a good team because solving this property's problems on their tiny 65,000 pound budget will take a serious now you don't have any of these parking spaces right there's actually three properties here and it's a first-come first-served basis just shared go go get in there get in there first yeah have you thought about talking to there the freeholder about actually buying one of the parking spaces we are talking to solicitors at the moment we're hoping that we can try and secure that land for our property and just give the other tenants rights away I think the whole development could turn on securing this parking area crucially it would allow them to get off the approach turning it from a dingy back alley into an exclusive bolt-hole you also have quite a challenge in turning the back of a shop effectively into a contemporary and an exciting residence how are you planning on achieving that I think by just changing the look of this space really modernizing this adding really good quality materials glass is going to allow us to sort of just punch all these hard surfaces with light it's going to open up the internal space and make it bright [Music] the store came with a single bedroom and bathroom upstairs Neil and Alison want to extend this area over the roof and create a large second bedroom with spectacular windows that should appeal to design savvy professionals downstairs though is less successful there's the main store room with a small bathroom to the side and they want to knock this through an ad designer stairs utility and WC leaving a large open-plan living space dominated by the kitchen and that could be a problem disadvantage is that you come through the front door and the first thing you come into is the kitchen if this is a living area you're either going to be sitting next to the staircase or next to the toilet an utility room so you think walking straight into the kitchen is it really open plan space you have to walk into one of those spaces absolutely but in an ideal world I think you'd walk into the living area and the kitchen is in an area that isn't in direct view all the time with open plan areas where you position the kitchen is all important here I put it around the corner into the recessed area keeping an open feel but also offering just enough shielding for the best of both worlds we need to look at how we let where we put that kitchen so you might put it in there yes we might not I the last thing this complicated development needs is an awkward layout Alison and Neil have enough on their hands already getting people through the front door 130 miles away in Norfolk's historic town a set furred house sales are starting to dwindle which is not good news for former welfare officer sue ward she's hoping this grade 2 listed Georgian jail complete with sells original doors and even a filled-in dungeon will provide her with new career I think I've got an artistic eye I've got a vision for this property and I'm confident that it's going to turn out the way I want it to the jail has been a rundown rental for the last five years but Sue's convinced she can draw on the original character to transform it into a desirable 2-bedroom home the danger is it's going to appeal for a very niche market when you saw jailhouse for sale did you just think you know what I really need a jailhouse or did it kind of evolve when I walked into it I fell in love with it it just had those quirky features that I thought would be a would be a selling point so you've been locked into the cell and and this is where you'd have got your food and actually the only light coming in would have been through that aperture there I'm sure I dream of a door going cut chunk on some people but I'm hoping I'm not on too many people my worry is that it will taking on a property with such a gruesome history is ringing it's serious alarm bells as to Sue's figures she paid 140,000 pounds for it a year ago when the market was a different universe she's planning to do most of the work herself in an attempt to keep to an unfeasibly small 20,000 pound budget and she hopes to sell for 200,000 pounds bringing in a 40 thousand pound profit it's not a lot of money for refurbishing a big ol building like this I can't afford for it to go too much over budget because that would leave us with no profit at all now I would expect it to be maybe 60,000 well I'm hoping not I'm very good at bargain hunting a I'm very good at negotiation and I'm going to do a lot of the work myself but I do think they might is quite tight on this as a house I mean you do face a real possibility that you won't make as much money as you think you might this is a massive restoration project with a full team of builders are expected to take around four months but flying solo I think she could be imprisoned here for a very long time indeed [Music] developers are looking to beat the market by taking on problem properties it's a high risk strategy that can land first-timers in a very hot water in Thetford sue Ward has given up her career to single-handedly transform this spooky jail into a two-bedroom home it's October 2007 and nervousness in the mortgage market means house sales have already stalled we're not quite sure yet but from what people have said to me they think the dungeon is under here so once the floorboards are lifted up we might actually find if we're lucky the original trapdoor and the ladder or let me be there on that day exciting what do you think you're fine might be treasure failing that it could add some valuable storage space the serious business though is above-ground and Sue's plans have been little worried spread over two floors upstairs are two bedrooms a bathroom and a large landing downstairs is a living room study and kitchen with a single-story outhouse behind that apart from a total refurb sue wants to rebuild the outhouse installing a utility and large dining room that will be knocked through to the existing kitchen in all it will be a large two-bedroom house aimed at a small family or retired couple and there's the rub it's adventurous first-time buyers who are much more likely to go for such an unusual property had you thought about turning it into flats this not really I know that in this area there is a demand for flats and there's a flat next door that sold for over a hundred and thirty thousand now that's a one-bedroom flat so if you had two one-bedroom flats here you're talking about 260 and I think it would divide that's a whole 60,000 pounds more than Sue's target say I think as soon as you start carving up historical buildings I think you lose some of that appearance that may not be such a bad thing downstairs would only need a small reject to include a bedroom and bathroom while upstairs you could turn the larger bedroom into an open-plan kitchen living room and bring the huge landing into the living space for the upstairs apartment the rest of the original jail has already been converted into smaller units personally I think keeping it consistent the remainder of the building is also crucial to its sail ability that wouldn't be my preference I know I just think it will make a superb house do you need to make money on this is it important to make money on this yes with this building if you actually want to make the most possible profit on it that probably is turning it into two flats from an aesthetic point of view I would be loathed to turn it into flats okay so it's a house not two flats it is a house knowing the market is a basic rule of developing and you have to get the basics right to succeed in today's difficult conditions in Broadstairs Neil Hansie and Alison ger are starting their own massively challenging project [Music] they're hoping to transform this derelict store into a luxury to bed holiday home the builders kick off by knocking through the whole ground floor in line with sue and Neal's open-plan design it's just a fabulous building in the heart of bored stairs which just happens to be near a pub and near a fishmongers once we get people inside the building it's just gonna be a WoW after Wow after well unfortunately getting buyers into the property is where it falls down it's situation is pretty off-putting and the locals seem to share my view up an alleyway and it really doesn't look attractive at all I wouldn't want to live next door to a fishmonger they do have life fans in this pub as well and it was gonna be quite noisy there is a solution and that's if Neil and Alison buy the freehold the alley this London property is also off a busy road and down a narrow lane but the approach has been turned into an exclusive Enclave with this development here they've moved the entrance right up onto the road which means that as soon as you come off the road you're already in the development and you already have a sense of privacy the downside is your development is the fact that you've got the part you've got the fish mondo you've got the alleyway and whichever way you look at it is always going to hold it back but you have the ability of being able to change that by putting gates at right up by the road with good design in Anniston Anil could turn their money from a major - to a huge plus here's steel siding an understated water feature and clever lighting all combined to stunning effect the idea what we have is we're going for very high in dwelling put the moment we can't do that because we can't talk we don't go in that space I think that of top priority should be pursuing the freeholder to either buy the freehold or ask their permission to put the gates in and pursuing the other tenants who use the alleyway to get their agreement to put the gates in even if they don't contribute financially towards them we've established through the freehold or is but we've just got to sort of focus our attention on sort of talking further it'll cost a few thousand pounds putting gates up but it's money definitely worth spending and you should certainly pursue it to the bitter end 146 miles away in Thetford sue Ward's six-month jail house project is also under way and to say her approach is a more hands-on one is a major understatement she's gutting the entire property herself and while you have to admire this huge effort in this housing market not hiring an help could be a major false economy I've got a little bit behind with some aspects of the build sometimes it'd be nice to get people in to help a bit more but the budget is really tight so I'm gonna have to plod on and do as much as I can myself and there's another huge worry hanging over this development I'm still not convinced it's the best solution to develop this jail into a two-bedroom house yes I think downstairs would sell as a flat but upstairs there just isn't the space and I think frankly it would be criminal this is a beautiful building and I think it will sell much better as a house when you're developing it's crucial to know your local market but I'm not sure Sue's done her homework because here unlike much the country where there's an oversupply of flats they are still good business and I'm not the only one to spot this this site a few yards away is earmarked for 24 apartments just down the road though the developer has been trying to sell both flats and houses off plan this development here is 12 flats and eight houses they so late flats in only four houses that the flats are flying out the door but the houses aren't and that has its own story the splitting of my unit into two flats will be clumsy downstairs flat will be great definitely not the upstairs one I think the upstairs one is a real problem as it stands Sue's looking for two hundred thousand pound resale but that would be for her entire house so how much could two apartments fetch in Sue's property this area here would be very similar to the space you'd have on the upstairs flat how much do you think this is on the market for I would have expected it to be on just under the hundred thousand mark this is on the market for one hundred and twenty five thousand pounds and it's just fractionally more square footage than you would have on your first floor flat Sue's downstairs area would create an even larger flat fetching around ten thousand hands more together they could add sixty thousand to her target sale price I know you've shown me this flat but the layout within the jailhouse I think upstairs will be cramped is there an element of truth in the fact that you've sort of fallen in love with a jailhouse and it actually or you're veering off the path of the fact that this is for business and as a bottom line it's about money I think the building has a charm about it and I think there'll be people who were similarly interested and will buy it because of that I think you're gonna keep it as a house aren't you I am I think that's the bottom line I'm afraid Sue's giving up her job and her savings is she in danger of giving up her future - in broad stairs Neil and Alison are progressing well in their development and there's big news the owner of the early is willing to sell them the three hulls for ten thousand pounds but unbelievably they're bulking the price instead they're shelling out major money on building a brand new first floor that many would-be buyers may never make it up the early to see you do take risks on your boring the amount of money that we're borrowing to do this and yeah you do wake up with those cold sweats some warnings and think crikey that's a lot of money but hopefully we'll be selling out quickly once we've completed it and we're remaking the making the profit with the shabby alley that's far from a sure thing what is certain is the rest of the development now has to be faultless I could see kitchen units coming down here and an island here Neil and Alison wants a central kitchen that will dominate the living space that may be a big mistake buyers are likely to want it against the far wall in the more secluded and recessed area this two million plan London property has a very similar l-shaped ground floor and here the layout feels bossom yeah they've got a perfect solution because it kitchen is tucked right around the corner so whilst you can socialise with a person who's cooking because you can you can chop and and you can chat the people who are sitting here it also means that you can sit in there on the sofa and not have to look at all the pots and pans and the mess that you've made you can use it's just away and what we've done is we've looked at the kitchens and all occasions and think we came up with a decision where we felt it was less compromised and I think it's important not to lose sight of who's actually going to live in this house and your market is probably a second home owner so the first thing that someone's going to want to do when they turn up to this house is relax and and so relaxing should be the focal point of the house and not cooking hmm you're right actually and refocusing on who are we selling it to that's what we're going to keep coming back to because what happens we get boil with that one we get personal we start thinking this is the way that we would live in Thetford sue has been a lot less interested in suggestions she's keeping the jail as a house although she's given into getting a bit of help by a large she's doing the work herself progress is painfully slow she only just started boarding out the main house and most of the work is still ahead the extension hasn't started yet because I'm really concentrating on the main house first I think it's very very easy to get distracted and go to another area of the development and then really you get nothing completed it's another two months before she begins clearing the extension area dismantling react has brick by brick by brick you're now five and a half months into the project and you were hoping that this will be finished in six months do you have a schedule of works do you know how long I take I don't know how long it's going to take I have a schedule I think the way my shed you'll is working is that I have a list of all the jobs that need to be done I take them off as as they get done how long do you reckon it's going to be before you the house is finished it will be finished in six months six months obviously one of the main issues is that you're doing a lot of this yourself I mean I could have got people in from day one and had huge numbers of workmen on site but my budget would not stretch to it and I think I said to you right at the very beginning I am going to bring it in on budget and that involves doing a lot of the work myself Suso concerned of the budget she's forgotten the market its March 2008 and in the five months since she started house sales have dropped nearly fifty percent in the area of every passing day sue is losing money so I think you could fish this in six to eight weeks if you actually shifted on it I'm certainly up for making a schedule and perhaps speeding it up a bit what would you be prepared to try and commit to try and commit I say three months three months twelve weeks yes I'll give it my best shot set your challenge [Laughter] sooo rises to my challenge she draws up a new schedule and sets about clearing the old dungeon and hires into labourers to help but I have to give sue her do she does lead from the front really exhilarating food I can't begin to explain what hard work this is if sue carries on like this who knows she might even make the 12 week deadline in Broadstairs Neil and Alison are halfway through their six-month build and unlike sue they're exactly on schedule but that could all be about to change it's a very simple space that we're developing and it really does need this the signature piece Neil's shopping for stairs but it was always going to be hard to combine his design ambitions with Alison's cost keeping how much does this one cost them this walk cost you I think it's about a hundred thousand in Broadstairs Niall Horan's Ian Alison girth are halfway through their schedule the bills going well but spending here is a big issue ten grand could secure than the freehold of the alley and an exclusive gated development designer Neil thinks the money would be better spent elsewhere Neil was twisting my arm top the budget for four thousand pounds 20 20 thousand pounds for the stairs to achieve the look that he wants he has had to work extremely hard to get me on side with this one because at the end of the day he's asking us to spend a third of the budget of the total budget just on the stairs for 20,000 pounds I think Neil and Sue could afford both the alley and their stairs I agree a cutting edge open-plan house needs a great staircase but good developing is about creating maximum impact without breaking the bank I think you should set yourself a 10,000 pound top whack budget for the staircase because I don't think by spending any more than ten thousand pounds you're going to make more when you come to sell it it'll just be money down the drain yeah I'm pleased with anything you say to persuade Neil to reduce the budget to be honest having it sounds like a good idea even though it's still double what we originally planned I want Neil and Alison to see this fabulous curved staircase that could also hit my 10,000 pound budget the secret is in the materials you can create a truly beautiful staircase which will stand the test of time out of wood and it would cost a lot less quite honestly so have that as your feature rather than 20,000 pounds of glass treads I think the decision you have to make is is this a development or is this just a design showpiece yes this is a development that I want to do and I want to make money out of it and you're right I think we can achieve something absolutely fantastic for this challenge that you're giving me a 10 down rebound then I'll work to that and I'll show you something absolutely brilliant at the end of it in Thetford Sue's so no progress is continuing at a snail's pace I was hoping she would have finished it by now but three months on in the walls of the new extension are only just going up I've sort of asked friends and family to help build this extension rather than pay out for bricklayers so budget is looking healthy schedule is not what I agreed it would be religiously sticking to her budget is one thing but it makes no sense when it was outs and extending with scheduling a falling market what's more Sue's passion with restoring the jail's character I think is taking her away from the important work on-site she's making a 600 mile round trip to Dartmoor to buy a cell door for the upstairs bedroom putting another jail door I think will just enhance the building and bring it back to its former glory Vega I will keep the governor happening I'm not sure su should be spending money on making her property even more jail like personally I'd be concentrating on warming up the cold original character with clever design there's a trick or two to be learned from this old prison in Oxford that's recently been converted into a hotel while most of it anyway [Music] this is clearly what you want to try and not achieve this is the original South acoustically it's really quite unpleasant to be in and it feels very small I mean it is a jail it is a cell and you know it when you're with it developments need to attract as many buyers as possible with seized property that's a bigger challenge than usual they've used the light color on the walls but it's the warm and thick rich color so although it brightens it it's not cold and they've used darker colors on the bedspread and the furniture to sort of embrace the fact it is a a small dark room but without making it feel claustrophobic and that's quite a fine art to have achieved that it's a lovely combination yes they've also rendered two of the walls so that they're smooth rendered and softer than having brick all the way around ceiling panels and carpeted floors are a good device to eliminate any eerie echo it's all intended to take the hard edges of the original building you've didn't anted up more haven't you to pick up a a cell door to use in the house mhm it's to go on the ensuite that was an area that would have been a cell originally which is why I've got that door just to embrace what would have been in that area but I think you've got a very small room that's very constricted and an original cell door I I think that there are some people who may find that a little bit claustrophobic really well you'll have to use the ensuite and see how you feel when it's finished in complete contrast in Broadstairs Neela Alison's design ideas are spot-on for their developing market an ultra-modern kitchen is being installed in the ground floors recessed area anneal stairs are going up beside flea not one piece of expensive glass in sight it should be an exciting time but Neil and Alison are worries it's April 2008 in a tumbling nationwide property market is prompting a major rethink we got new plans for the property we decided to hold onto it as a holiday let the market is very unstable and there's a lot of media hype about prices going down and a recession so we think that ultimately now it's not a good time to sell it's a huge decision and I want to make sure Leanne and Alison have really thought it smooth and some way your thinking is you are because it's a vile Emma that I think a lot of people are in but I think you have to look at the reality of the situation right now whatever you read in the papers or at all by agents the only true way to gauge prices in today's uncertain market is to look on the land registry website here in Broadstairs prices are still static so I'm not sure that letting instead of selling is such a good move there is a massive difference between developing a property to sell and developing a property as a holiday let's and Shirley is tremendously over specified for a holiday letter it will warrant I think as a holiday there are more discerning client that's going to come down and let and and use it most of you come here our families yeah and they have kids and that's not a very good holiday letter for a family with kids whether we sell it or whether it's holiday layer it's always been designed around a young professional couple I personally think it's going to be easier to find somebody who's prepared to buy a home who's a young professional then lots and lots of young professionals we want to come to Broadstairs on a week's holiday and rent somewhere perhaps we're getting a bit greedy perhaps befallen into that camp to think hmm we want a bit more so I cash my chips in now in separate it's now been over a year since sue started on the jail and her prison sentence seems the never ending there's still a huge amount of work to be done connecting the extension to the house and then on top of that at Sue's pace many more weeks of plastering and decorating ahead no because it's 18 months since you started isn't it and you were gonna take six months yes and when we met after six months you said 12 weeks definitely will be finished it's a long way from being finished isn't it so the six months showed you at the beginning I I see now was totally unrealistic but then I had no experience I had no frame of reference it was my first renovation with buyers feel far between I worry that even when sue does finish this development those quirky prison features have made this even more difficult to sell it actually literally is a dungeon Wow there's a lot of jail references in this no which is fine and I think what it is that's what it is and I think ultimately you're either gonna love this building or hate it hunt you I think that there is a huge interest now in unusual buildings I think people are looking for something more than the standard box and I think this is more more than a sort of a standard box it's just a little bit creepy being in the dungeon with some shackles but maybe that's because I've got an issue with being locked something it does send it the truth is this development has missed a bit of an opportunity from the beginning turning the house into flats could have been Sue's get-out-of-jail-free card but I feel that she's been too close to the development to see its true potential I think the truth is you've committed the cardinal sin of property developing it and you fell in love with this development didn't you you could say I have an attachment to this building that would be fair to say and more and more as it moved on it stopped being a development and it came a historical restoration and a labor of love I think it has turned into a restoration I never wanted to be out of pocket I always wanted there to be you know a profit from it but obviously in this current market I doubt that I've even got that now do you know how much it's it's worth now I think I have a rough idea in this present market I think it's probably only worth about 155 that's 50,000 pounds less than she hoped for even with a never-ending schedule it's important to keep an eye on the market to see if you've lost all chance of making a profit but lots of period features and it's full of character unfortunately since the others have bought this property house prices in the area of about 20 percent I would value this property at one hundred and sixty thousand pounds I value this property after one hundred and sixty thousand pound so what's the plan because you're it's now valued at about break-even point if you what are you thinking you're gonna do I've taken the decision to to develop it into a holiday let give me this holiday let it's a good idea but I think that you have to be wearing this market you need a ten year plan not a one or two year plan if you're going to do this as a holiday let's well hopefully your holiday letting career will will be more enjoyable and and better than your developing career watch out I've still got the shackles down the dungeon so don't be nasty back in Broadstairs Neil and Alison are really motoring and coming to the end of their development and thankfully they've decided against doing a holiday let's I'm going to sell not put off by the falling markets they're hoping for even more than their original hundred eighty thousand pound target price I would expect it to be up between somewhere between two thirty two to four five we're gonna get a certain type of person who's gonna want to come and buy this because of its architectural merit since Neil and Alison gir started out on their massive conversion of an old lock up in Broadstairs in Kent Northern Rock has collapsed mortgage approvals have plummeted and no one's got a clue when and if the housing market will recover if we don't make a profit then we could be in a little a little bit of trouble with Allison but if anything is going to beat the market this development must be very close in Broadstairs six months after they started Neil and Allison's development is finished bang on schedule and what they've done with the outside of this old storeroom is really quite remarkable big feature windows and a front decked area signpost this as a modern high spec home the trouble is that it's in direct contrast with the alley leading to it an alley that could have been nearly allison's for just 10,000 pounds once you take 10,000 pounds and in the cost of putting a gate across here we're probably talking around about 20,000 pounds and it just didn't stack up I think I disagree with that and you should be able to put electric gates in and a couple of intercom systems four four five thousand so it would be a total of 15,000 well I really wouldn't want to pay more than five thousand pounds this is my development I would want to have this anyway so that I could transform it but you finished the development now and presumably you want to get it on the market and just get on yeah and that's a shame because inside this home is really quite fantastic [Music] the derelict old building is now a temple of high design with a great finish super clean lines and lime-green feature walls all working together in a superb open pan space not least because the kitchen is exactly where it should be overall do you think that this space now works well says this worked out this because it gave us the best use of the space for the open-plan area to sit and dine so you're relieved you didn't end up putting the kitchen slap-bang in front of you as you walk through the door no yes I was my saying no I'm pleased with it put the kitchen over there really for the reason now is that when you come through the door you see my fantastic staircase it still needs a handrail but the pared back steel and wood construction is starkly simple and I think quite stunning did Neil rise to the challenge in half the 20,000 pounds he originally thought he had to spend so how much are there that costing you cost us eight thousand five hundred pound right so you did manage to half the cost from twenty thousand down yeah we saved us our thousands of pounds by actually using my skill of being able to design it's great that he's managed to meet your challenge to bring you down to ten thousand because twenty thousand pounds was just a ridiculous figure for a staircase upstairs Neil and Alison have gone for a simpler look in the master bedroom the huge windows make enough of a statement on their own next door the lakshmi kicks in with a top-end bathroom the mosaic wall and the sleekest of fittings combined again for the very highest finish - looks great but it all looks fairly expensive and initially you were hoping to spend sixty five and a half thousand on the whole development how much did you end up spending a little bit more we actually ended up spending ninety thousand pounds so do you think your budget was unrealistic in the first place no I don't think it was but I think I could have turned this development round for the sixty five thousand five hundred but we could see the potential once we started to get the second four in so we upped our game in certain aspects so it changed on the way and and he didn't quite sort of appreciate exactly what you bought until further on down the line yeah I kind of think once he bought this space this was your only option you had to go down this line and it was always gonna cost this sort of figure it would have been a big problem if you'd bought this slightly dodgy space and a slightly dodgy alleyway and kept it right doing this whole project for 90,000 pounds is pretty impressive but it does mean if Neil and Alison sell at their original target price of one hundred and eighty thousand they'd be well under the forty three thousand pound profit they were hoping for that would now make you a nineteen thousand pound profit would that be okay nineteen thousand pound isn't bad but I don't think it would be worth hundred ninety I think it's going to be in excess of two hundred what do you think it could be worth now in our wildest dreams it would be an absolute amazing dream come true if we got around two four five but there's always the danger of getting greedy yeah I'd be happy if I saw the 230-mile yeah that we have the open moon if we sort of hit those sort of figures that's a whole fifty thousand pounds over the original hundred eighty thousand pound we'll the agents think Neil and Alison have done enough I really like the idea the kitchen being tucked away a bit so it doesn't become a focal point the staircase is stylish in its own right it's the perfect kind of weekend retreat or possibly a bolt hole for someone I think it will definitely attract announcer Tampa do you have some reservations about the location at the end of the day a beautiful house next door to fishmonger we would be looking to achieve a sale price of two hundred and ten thousand pounds I would value this property at two hundred and twenty five thousand pounds I would value this property at two hundred and twenty five thousand pounds now we've had three valuations and they've come in at 210 thousand two hundred and twenty five thousand and two hundred and twenty five thousand I think that's fantastic they would give you a profit of between 49 and sixty four thousand pounds you only need to find that one off buyer because that's all it will take but that may be a bit tricky it's a bit of a one-off property in so do you have an idea what you'll put it on the market for I think it makes sense to market it around about the 230 mark if I was you I'd go in at 220 ultimately you want to generate interest in this thing you want lots of people to want to come and look at it yeah and if you've got five people who want to buy it it'll end up at 2:30 yeah okay do I go 40 20 yeah I think two-twenty okay good luck good luck good news thank you Neil and Alison put their house on the market for two hundred twenty five thousand pounds and four months later accept an offer at two hundred and ten thousand making them a respectable forty nine thousand pound profits pop news developing is a risky business even when the markets on your side if you've got a good business plan and a strong set of figures it is possible to make a profit even in a falling market if it's a hobby though steer well clear it could cost you dear next week's developers prospered in a rising market to new business holiday let's and property development you've bitten off a lot but now they're risking it all on a huge historic development it's become our future the bookings are essential to our survival because everything we've got we've plowed into it [Music] you [Music] you
