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An aerial view of the Thames river in London from the air with the Shard and Tower Bridge in the foreground on September 5, 2011 in London, England. (Tom Shaw/Getty Images)
Ellie Desborough’s home might be in an office block with strip lights above her bed, but she doesn’t mind. Paying one-third the rent for two “massive” rooms within walking distance of work in central London is more than compensation.
She has covered the office walls in wallpaper, and the strip lights she never turns on.
“I can walk to Covent Garden in 10 minutes. Whereas all my friends are out in Zones 3 or 4 or are out at the southern end of the Northern line,” she says.
The only real price she has to pay is that of uncertainty. She can be asked to leave with three weeks’ notice.
Desborough is one of a growing number of “property guardians,” who for discount rent occupy all manner of vacant properties as a security solution for owners worried about vandalism, squatters, and maintenance.
With a stagnant economy bringing growing financial pressure on both property owners and dwellers, the market is expanding.
For some guardians, it is the appeal of cheap rent that pulls them in, for others it is the flexibility.
Desborough, 23, is a magazine editorial assistant from Liverpool. “I had a job opportunity in London last summer and had to move down to London pretty fast. The people I knew down here were already tied up in house shares [shared accommodations]. So I was looking for a short-term solution. As a guardian you’re only tied in for a month at a time.”
She moved into rooms in a large old office building on a development site that is slated for potential demolition, pending various processes, which she believes may take a long time to play out.
Desborough says she’s since had the opportunity to move in with friends in private rented accommodation, but turned it down. She doesn’t believe she’s likely to have to leave soon, and she likes the people she shares the building with, not to mention the location and cheap rent.
But it’s not just the guardians who save money. According to property guardian companies, it saves property owners money too. It is a considerably cheaper alternative to more typical security measures such as security guards, boarding up of properties, and closed circuit TV.
Desborough has been lucky enough to live in her building for over a year, and others have lived there for two years. But she knows of other people who’ve had to move every three or four months.
“I think I’ve been spoiled with being here. I’m very lucky with the type of building I’ve been in,” she says.
The use of property guardians has developed steadily in London since it was first brought to the U.K. in 2002 by a Dutch company, Camelot, which has been running the service since 1993.
“In Holland it’s so much more acknowledged and well known,” says Fiona Hanley, marketing and sales manager of Camelot in the U.K. “Over there it’s quite a normal thing that if you have an empty building you put live-in guardians there. We have a contract with the government there, so when they have an empty property they put guardians in.”
She says that in London, and even more so in other U.K. cities, many property owners are still unfamiliar with the whole concept. “Sometimes they think it sounds like more hassle than putting on a security guard. They can’t see why it’s so much more beneficial. But once you talk to people about this idea more, they say ‘Wow!’—They can’t believe it’s so cheap.”
