what i own: we spent £925,000 on our south west london home — now it's valued at £1.5 million

This weekend,we’re in South West London meeting Justin Coakley (Picture: David Sandison)

Welcome back to What I Own – Metro’s property series where we speak to homeowners about getting on the ladder.

With a keen eye for Scandi design,when Justin Coakley found a doer-upper in South West London,he was sure he could transform it into his dream home.

But,on the market for £1 million,it was out of budget and was snapped up by another buyer.

A year later,though,Justin,who is originally from South Africa,and his partner learnt that the original sale had fallen through. The pair put in a lower offer and moved into the four-bed house in summer 2004,having paid £925,000 for it.

In just 18 months,their house has already been valued at £1.5 million.

Here’s what Justin had to say about his living situation…

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Then,we’d like to sell up and move further out of London.

Shall we take a look around?

Welcome home! (Picture: David Sandison)

Justin started showing the renovation process of their previous home online (Picture: David Sandison)

He then made a career out of it (Picture: David Sandison)

He’s recently renovated his kitchen with IKEA (Picture: David Sandison)

They decided to renovate each room slowly (Picture: David Sandison)

As they maxxed out their budget on the house itself (Picture: David Sandison)

Justin has done a lot of the renovations himself (Picture: David Sandison)

He’s also tried to teach himself new renovation skill sets (Picture: David Sandison)

They didn’t want to pour lots of money into a top-to-toe reno (Picture: David Sandison)

Justin loves the area for its proximity to the city centre (Picture: David Sandison)

He’s around 20 minutes from Waterloo on the train (Picture: David Sandison)

The high street is 10 minutes away from where they live (Picture: David Sandison)

He loves the area for its accessibility to greenery (Picture: David Sandison)

Justin says he was ‘heartsore’ when he first saw the property on the market (Picture: David Sandison)

As it was over their budget and it was sold shortly afterwards (Picture: David Sandison)

But when the chain fell apart,they swooped in and made an offer (Picture: David Sandison)

They managed to pay under what it was on the market for (Picture: David Sandison)

Justin reckons the home was last renovated in the early 1990s (Picture: David Sandison)

Structurally,it’s still in great condition (Picture: David Sandison)

They just needed to freshen it up and give it a ‘new lease of life’ (Picture: David Sandison)

The couple put down a £300,000 deposit (Picture: David Sandison)

They used equity from their previous home to bring the mortgage down (Picture: David Sandison)

They got an estate agent to value the house (Picture: David Sandison)

…and less than two years later,it’s worth £1.5 million (Picture: David Sandison)

When life gives you lemons… (Picture: David Sandison)

They found it harder to get a mortgage this time (Picture: David Sandison)

As the last time they applied,they were both employed (Picture: David Sandison)

These days,both Justin and his partner are self-employed (Picture: David Sandison)

Justin says that the seller almost pulled out,the process took so long (Picture: David Sandison)

Justin loves antiquing and finding one-off pieces for the home (Picture: David Sandison)

He also increasingly likes to mix old and new (Picture: David Sandison)

The kitchen is Justin’s favourite room in the house (Picture: David Sandison)

He jokes that the one that’s been recently renovated is always his favourite (Picture: David Sandison)

The house measures around 2,000 square feet (Picture: David Sandison)

There are some days when they don’t go into various rooms (Picture: David Sandison)

We’re enjoying this large dining table (Picture: David Sandison)

Coming from South Africa,Justin had to downsize (Picture: David Sandison)

Justin says this isn’t his forever home,and they’ll move over the next 10 years or so (Picture: David Sandison)

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