The property guardian sector's standards bearer, The Property Guardian Providers Association, (the PGPA) has published its Review of 2019, and can be downloaded from the PGPA's website.
Property guardianship makes good use of temporarily vacant buildings, offering affordable accommodation for people at a lower cost than private rentals, whilst keeping properties secure.
Empty buildings are at significantly greater risk than occupied properties, from vandalism, arson and squatting, as well as the impact of weather and general neglect.
By occupying them, property guardians greatly reduce both the risks to the buildings, and, consequently, also cutting the costs to local authorities and owners of security, or dealing with the aftermath of vandalism or neglect. The surrounding environment benefits from having less eyesores in the area, and the community benefits from the economic input from guardians living in a building that would otherwise stand empty.
Approximately a third of property guardians are key workers, (teachers, nurses, doctors, police and emergency services workers), who choose to be property guardians so that they can live nearer their work.
There has been a steep rise in applications for property guardianship this year to over 60,000, more than double the 2018 figures.
Freedom of information requests, made to UK local councils this year, has found a significantly higher proportion of vacant homes than estimates suggest. Up to September 2019, the UK had 617,527 empty buildings, of which 445,310 were residential dwellings and 172,217 were commercial buildings.[1]
The empty buildings deployed for use in 2019 include vacated offices, former banks, pubs, schools, police stations, a monastery, and sports centres, as well as prime residential properties and social housing in city and town centres, undergoing redevelopment planning.
Costs of property guardianship:
License fees remain extremely attractive in comparison to private rentals, often still at half the rate or better of the PRS. In addition, the majority of guardians' licensees are inclusive of utility bills and council tax, and sometimes also wi-fi.
The national average private rental is £967 per month, whilst in Greater London it has reached £1,694. [2]
In comparison, these properties were available to guardians in November and December 2019:
£190 per month, for a room in Darlington, County Durham
£257 per month, for a room in a manor, in a rural village, Warwickshire (centre photo, next page)
£650 per month, for a large room in Bloomsbury, Central London (photo left) bills included
£1200 per month for a two bed flat in Portobello Road, London
£566 per month, for room in a house in Cheltenham
£300 per month, close to central Brighton
£250 per month, all bills included, for a room in a former High Street Bank, Taunton, Somerset
In addition to these co-living opportunities, guardian providers have also this year added co-working spaces at very low fees, from £150 a month in Plymouth, to £650 for a prime location market stall in Shoreditch, Central London.
Safety
This year, independent safety audits of PGPA member's properties has been introduced - only members of the PGPA are subject to this safety provision. The PGPA has agreed a co-ordinated partnership with a Primary Authority. Any members property secured by live-in guardians, can be subject to a safety, health and environmental check, at short notice.
2019 Review Conclusion:
The property guardian model first began in the Netherlands in the 1990's, where there is also a serious housing shortage and private rental accommodation in the cities can commonly take up to 70% of an average person's income. The guardian sector has grown there to provide approximately 30,000-35,000 people with affordable accommodation, which for a country with 17 million population, would equate to over 100,000 people in the UK. Property guardians in the UK could also become a significant support to help ease accommodation shortages.
The chairman of the PGPA, Graham Sievers concludes "There are hundreds of thousands of houses, apartments, offices and public buildings standing empty across the UK, whilst they undergo redevelopment planning and fund raising. And yet there are also hundreds of thousands of people who want to find affordable accommodation nearer to where they work. Many of our current guardians choose this option to save up for a deposit for their first own home. So far this year, the increasing legislative and regulatory landscape for the private rental sector has only put pressure on owners of these properties to keep them empty, and not to put them to good use whilst their future is decided. We hope the support we provide together with the safety standards the PGPA imposes on its members will help to redress the balance."