From void to value: how meanwhile use can protect assets and deliver social impact

When a building is vacated, most owners think about security and cost mitigation. They are right to do so – the financial impacts of squatting, poor maintenance and business rates stack up quickly. Few however think beyond the financial value of a building. Managed correctly, a period of vacancy presents the opportunity to put the building back to work and generate real social value.

Meanwhile use, bringing a vacant property into temporary, managed occupation, does both jobs at once. It protects your asset and it creates real value while your longer-term plans take shape.

Take our work at Douglas Bennett House, a large four-storey building on the grounds of the Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell. The property had sat empty, been subjected to squatting, and suffered significant damage. Once the squatters were removed, our Live-in Caretakers secured the site while our in-house team carried out repairs. Within just four weeks the building was restored and became welcoming homes for 80 vetted Live-in Guardians. A liability sitting opposite a major NHS mental health hospital became a safe, occupied space, which was part of the neighbourhood to provide accommodation for the NHS workers employed at the hospital.

Asset protection sits right alongside social value creation. Our Guardians typically pay 60% to 70% below local market rent, and we prioritise key workers, including NHS staff, teachers, emergency service workers and social care professionals, helping them live close to where they work. For the people who keep our cities running, guardianship is often the difference between living near their work and being priced out of it.

Choosing Live-in Guardians means that asset managers and developers can achieve the necessary level of security and property protection whilst advancing corporate social responsibility. Social value is increasingly something portfolio holders are expected to evidence, not just claim. Meanwhile use through guardianship gives you a measurable story to report against: the quantity of buildings brought back into use not left shuttered, the number of affordable homes created or key workers supported. It is value that shows up in your reporting, as well as on the balance sheet.

Your building benefits from management by Live-in Guardians at the same time. An occupied, actively managed building stays warm, maintained and compliant, with issues spotted early rather than discovered at handback. This means lower insurance premiums and maintenance costs in the long run. We aim to return every property in better condition than we received it.

The void between one use and the next does not have to be dead time. Done properly, meanwhile use protects the asset, supports the people who keep our cities running, and gives owners a social value story worth telling. The real question is whether your empty buildings are working as hard as they could be.