Episode Information Broadstairs & Thetford

Date Published:

07/07/2009

In Norfolk’s historic town of Thetford, house sales are starting to dwindle, which is not good news for former welfare officer Sue Ward.

She’s hoping this grade two listed Georgian jail, complete with cells, original doors and even a filled-in dungeon will provide her with a new career.

The jail has been a run down rental for the last five years, but Sue’s convinced she can draw on the original character to transform it into a desirable two bedroom home. The danger is, it’s going to appeal to a very niche market.

The Budget

Taking on a property with such a gruesome history is ringing serious alarm bells - as do Sue’s figures. She paid £140,000 for it a year ago, when the market was in a different universe. She’s planning to do most of the work herself, in an attempt to keep to an unfeasibly small £20,000 budget. And she hopes to sell for £200,000, bringing in a £40,000 profit.

The Build

This is a massive restoration project. With a full team of builders it should take around four months. But flying solo, Sue could be imprisoned here for a very long time indeed.

The yet-to-be-uncovered dungeon could add some valuable storage space. The serious business, though, is above ground, and Sue’s plans have Sarah a little worried. Spread over two floors, upstairs are two bedrooms, a bathroom and a large landing. Downstairs is the living room, the study and kitchen, with a single storey 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. But there’s the rub: it’s adventurous first-time buyers who are much more likely to go for such an unusual property.

Sarah thinks that Sue should turn the property into two flats to appeal to the younger first time buyer market. Downstairs would only need a small rejig to include a bedroom and bathroom, whilst upstairs Sue 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 and keeping it consistent to the remainder of the building could be crucial to its saleability. Knowing the market is a basic rule of developing and you have to get the basics right to succeed in today’s difficult conditions.

As it stands, Sue’s looking for a £200,000 resale. Two apartments could add £60,000 to her target sale price, but she’s keeping the jail as a house. Although she’s given in to getting a bit of help, by and large she’s doing the work herself. Progress is painfully slow, she only just started boarding up the main house and most of the work is still ahead. It’s another two months before she begins clearing the extension area, dismantling the outhouse, brick, by brick.

Sue’s so concerned with the budget she’s forgotten the market. It’s March 2008 and in the five months since she started, house sales have dropped nearly 50 per cent in the area. With every passing day, Sue is losing money.

Sarah challenges Sue to finish within 12 weeks and she seems to be rising to it. She draws up a new schedule, sets about clearing the old dungeon and hires in two labourers to help. But three months on and the walls of the new extension are only just going up. Religiously sticking to a budget is one thing, but it makes no sense when it results in extending the schedule in a falling market.

What’s more, Sue’s passion with restoring the jail’s character 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. Sarah's not sure Sue should be spending money on making her property even more jail-like. Her preference would be to warm up the cold original character with clever design.

Over a year since Sue started on the jail, her prison sentence seems 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. With buyers few and far between, the worry is that even when Sue does finish this development, those quirky prison features have made this even more difficult to sell.

Turning the house into flats could have been Sue’s get out of jail free card, but she’s been too close to this development to see its true potential.

Estate agents value the property at £160,000 and Sue takes the decision to develop it into a holiday let.