I save £1,200 a month on rent, even my bills are included and I get to live near top London attractions…

SITTING in her stunning flat in London, Laura Watkins looks around at the beautiful Victorian fireplace as light spills in through the period bay window.

The 34-year-old children’s book illustrator pays a whopping £1,200 less a month than the average to live in the stunning studio flat in Finchley, North London.

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She pays £812 a month which includes gas, electric, water and council tax to rent one of four flats within a Victorian home.

They each share the kitchen, the bathroom and another living area.

Laura got the amazing deal by signing up to be a property guardian.

These are people who live in an empty building or part of a building  that would otherwise be empty in order to ensure it is not broken into and safeguarded.

Laura says becoming a guardian gives her the chance to live in amazing spaces and give back by ensuring the property she calls home doesn’t fall into disrepair.

She told The Sun: “It means cheap rent, amazing places to live and a chance to live near some of London’s best tourist attractions and places to visit.

“It’s also given me the chance to finally save for my own house and beat the escalating cost of living, something which overwhelmed me before I took on the role.”

Laura has also lived in a former pub down the road from Wembley Stadium.

She said: “On match days you could hear and feel the crowds cheering. It was so close.

“I can’t believe more people aren’t taking advantage of the chance to live in some of the country’s most amazing and unusual locations for a fraction of the normal rent.”

The scheme also suits Laura who needs plenty of space for work.

Seven years ago, her career was starting off and she needed to be based in London but was overwhelmed at the thought of moving to the capital because of the high rents.

She said: “I work from home and need a space for my office and space to draw and paint. 

“I had researched flats and the space I needed meant I’d have to pay almost £1,500 a month just for a small room.”

How to become a property guardian

Laura is one of 10,000 people in Britain who have become a property guardian as a result of the rising cost of living, rents and property shortages.

Properties available to rent under the guardianship schemes include former pubs, police stations, schools, nursing homes, old factories, office blocks, mansion blocks, council flats, huge family homes and even historic buildings.

Guardians can then live there at up to 70% below market value often with the cost of gas, electric, water and council tax included.

It comes as the Officefor National Statistics has revealed average UK monthly private rents again increased by 7.4% in the 12 months to April 2025.

The average cost of renting across Britain is now £1,335 per month. 

Laura said: “I didn’t know property guardianships existed until a friend told me about being one in 2017.

“At the time they were a guardian in a closed down pub and paying a minuscule amount of rent. It sounded amazing and you didn’t need any experience to become one.

Laura signed up with Live in Guardians, one of the companies in Britain that works with both property owners and potential guardians to find the right property for the right person.

She had to fill out a questionnaire, provide her renting history and then had an interview with the company.

Laura said: “I didn’t need any special skills. Once I was approved to be a guardian on their books I got to apply for the range of properties they had on offer.”

The first property Laura rented as a guardian was the former pub in Wembley, northeast London in January 2018.

She said: “The pub was closed, and I was one of four people who moved in as property guardians.”

Laura paid £600 a month for a room on part of the pub’s ground floor.

She added: “Our communal lounge room was the original bar area. “We’d cook and eat our dinner at the pub’s bar.

“I would watch TV and relax in the bar area. We moved on sofas and coffee tables. Someone moved in a grand piano and it is great having such a huge living room in the converted main bar area of a pub.

“I had space to relax and chill and space to work in as well as my own bedroom.”

In March 2020 Laura had the chance to move to Finchley into the ground floor of a semi detached Victorian house,

“It’s in a residential; area and the house has been bought for redevelopment.

“I moved just before Covid hit and have been here ever since. I pay £812 a month and that includes my gas, electric, water and council tax.

Laura pays for her own Wi-Fi and has use of a bathroom, shared kitchen, front and back garden and a shared living room as well as off street-parking – a big bonus in London.

She added: “Access to a private front and back garden in this area of London is brilliant.”

As well as rent all Laura has to do is report any maintenance issues to the property guardian company, keep the garden tidy and her area of the property clean.

She said: “The other people in the house are great and we all get on.

“The amount of space we each have means we have our own private areas as well as communal living rooms.

“There is no way I could afford to live in an area like this with as much space as this if I were paying private rental prices.”

If Laura were to rent a similar property in Finchley or nearby, she’d be looking at paying a minimum of £2,000 a month.

By being a property guardian Laura is living in London at 60% less than market value – a saving of £1,184 a month.

“It’s terrifying to think how much I would have to pay privately. I panicked just thinking about it. I couldn’t afford to pay those sorts of prices,” Laura adds.

“I never thought I’d be a property guardian, but I am so thrilled I have the chance.

“I get to enjoy living in unusual buildings for a small fraction of the price it would normally cost.”

Laura rents her home on a 28-day rolling basis.

She isn’t considered a tenant but is a licensee and she only has to give 28 days’ notice.

Tenants have less security due to the fact as a licensee it’s easier to be evicted. 

In some cases property guardians may have more basic living conditions because the commercial building may be temporarily modified to make kitchens and bathrooms.

Laura says: “As a guardian I don’t have to worry if I want to put up pictures or wallpaper in my area. It’s allowed. As long as you communicate with your agency and follow the agreement it works fine.

“As a guardian my agency has property for rent all over Britain. It means if I wanted to move to the country or into a remote area, I could see what is on their books and put in an application.”

Office for National Statistics figures show the median house price in England is £290,000 which is 7.7 times the median annual earnings of £37,600.

Only 10% of people aged 20 to 44 who rent can afford to purchase their first home, with just 2.9% of young single adults financially able to do so.

It’s one reason there has been a huge increase in people wanting to be guardians, according to Arthur Duke, managing director of Live In Guardians, one of Britain’s largest property guardian companies.

He said: “Live In Guardians  has received more than 13,500 applications from people wanting to be guardians in the past 12 months.

“Since 2010 there have been more than 100,000 applications and demand is skyrocketing.”

“We have more than 700 guardians currently in properties and it’s increasing daily.

“Our youngest guardian is 21 and the oldest is 70.

“The shortest property term we have is three months and the longest is seven years.”

The company has more than 32,500 possible guardians on its database and it looks after £500 million worth of property as part of the service.

He says: “People are seeking out new and affordable places to live.

“We also have more companies than ever before wanting us to provide live in property guardians to stop their empty properties being squattered in, vandalised or not properly being cared for,

Property guardianship agencies say the scheme allows business people to pay reduced insurance and maintenance costs, generate an income on the empty premises, diversify its portfolio and ensure the properties are well cared for.

Across Britain there are more than one million empty houses, according to the charity Action on Empty Homes.

This includes 265,000 long term empty properties, 280,000 empty second homes, 237,000 short term vacant properties and a further 217,000 homes vacant because of specific exemptions like being in probate.

Council figures for 2024 reveal there was a 50% increase on empty council flats and homes for rent with more than 70,000 sitting vacant.

Commercial property is also sitting empty with government figures showing  there is 105 million square feet of office space currently vacant across Britain.

While the shuttering of local high streets across the country means 172,000 commercial properties are empty.

Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government figures showing eight in 10 of these have been vacant for more than two years.