Homes Under The Hammer's Martin Roberts 'cries' after £1million property 'destroyed'

A £1million London property on Homes Under The Hammer was redeveloped into flats by the buyer and viewers were not amused.

By Fran Winston, Showbiz Reporter

14:29, Tue, Jun 4, 2024 | UPDATED: 14:34, Tue, Jun 4, 2024

Homes Under the Hammer: Martin Roberts 'cries' over homeowner's decision

A Homes Under the Hammer buyer's plans for a stunning £1million property in Clapham drove host Martin Roberts to "tears" and caused viewers of the BBC show to rage as they planned to convert the luxury home into flats. Many of the buildings in the area, which is just five minutes from Clapham Junction station, are already split into flats and Martin was impressed to find one that was still a home.

Viewing it in September 2019, it boasted many original features and wooden flooring throughout. The 2,000-square-foot property had a guide price of £1,150,000 and Martin was seriously impressed by it.

He did realise the potential for conversion though and commented on it before the auction. "This unfortunately will probably fall into the category of a property that someone will want to convert into flats. It's a shame really but probably financially it is the thing that makes the most sense."

His fears were proved correct when a PhD finance student purchased it for £1.2 million. He had appeared on the show before with a house in Fulham which he hoped to convert into flats but he was foiled by the council who wouldn't grant permission for a change of use. He was far more confident about this property and intended to create three flats - a one, two, and three-bedroom.

"So that's the plan, is it? To convert it into flats?" Martin enquired as he feigned crying. "It is so nice to find a house that is still a house. It's quite unusual," Martin lamented.

Mid shot of Martin Roberts appearing to cry on Homes Under The Hammer

Martin Roberts feigned crying upon learning home was to be converted into flats. (Image: BBC)

Viewers seemed viewers agreed with Martin and were not amused by the plans. They took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their thoughts.

@Mono_Tones__ fumed: "Oh look, someone who doesn't give a damn about all the beautiful original architecture. Let's rip it all out & convert it into boring plain wall flats. #homesunderthehammer."

@bonnaburns agreed writing "#homesunderthehammer such a shame to see another large house turned into a block of flats. Yes it looks lovely and they have done well, it’s just sad to see large family homes lost like this."

@mmjspelman raged: "Just destroyed a beautiful house with glorious features and replaced with flats . #Homesunderthehammer," and they included a crying emoji.

Meanwhile @SimonMyles01observed: "He was a student yet seemingly spent over 1 million to buy and renovate, so certainly not a typical student and I assume he wasn’t reliant on a student loan!" (sic)

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A modern looking open plan living room and kitchen area

The converted flats were ultra modern and retained none of the buildings original features (Image: BBC)

When the show returned to the properties 21 months later, the project wasn't yet complete and only two of the three flats were completed. The renovation proved more complex than expected as they ran into issues when extending the basement as part of the ground floor three-bedroom flat.

This delay had also caused the budget to creep up and at that stage, the project had cost half a million on top of the purchase price. It also affected the ability to sell the completed flats because of the disruptive excavation works which meant an essential certificate couldn't be granted.

The show returned a second time 14 months later and learned that the two-bedroom had sold for £750,000 while one-bedroom went for half a million. The conversion had cost £600,000 bringing the total spend to £1.8milion. When an expert was asked to value the three-bed flat they put it at £975,000 to achieve £950,000

This was unacceptable to the buyer though who indicated that they would be looking for above £1million for the flat.

Homes Under The Hammer is on BBC one daily at 11.15am.