15 years of improving lives in a housing crisis - the good, the bad, and what comes next
Founder of Dot Dot Dot, Katharine Hibbert, reflects on how nearly 15 years ago, prospective guardians would arrive at viewings surprised that homes in London could be offered at such unusually low cost and unsure at first whether it could really be true. Today, property guardianship has moved from a misunderstood idea to a vital part of London’s housing landscape, and our mission to improve lives in a housing crisis feels more urgent than ever.
“I was quite nervous about going to the viewing – I thought it would be a scam because the price was so low”.
Back in the early 2010s, when I started Dot Dot Dot, I’d routinely hear variations on this comment from guardians living in homes we managed. The idea of guardianship was brand new and people didn’t believe they could get a home in London for half the local market rent.
Fast-forward to today, as we approach our 15th birthday, and property guardianship is a more familiar part of the housing landscape. Most of those coming to our viewings know a little bit about it. It’s still our job to make sure they understand the model and Dot Dot Dot’s particular approach, but we’re not starting from scratch so often.
Our latest video introducing the Dot Dot Dot model to prospective guardians, featuring the voices and experiences of our guardians and team.
The good news
Looked at through the lens of the property guardian sector, that’s good news. More people feel confident about applying for what we offer, and it is better understood by property owners too.
That’s what I hoped would happen when I launched Dot Dot Dot in 2011.The model was new to the UK at the time, having originated in the Netherlands, and I could see it had potential to create a win-win for property owners and for residents. Empty buildings need to be looked after and people need inexpensive homes. A model which allows buildings to be lived in and cared for on a rolling basis and returned to their owners when required solved a problem for both groups. It was immediately clear to me that the potential was huge.
But I also saw an opportunity to do more than just deliver the basic property guardian model. I saw that we could create a win-win-win by being intentional about who we house and how we manage them. By offering our homes to people who want to volunteer, we improve the quality of the experience for everyone. Socially-minded guardians who feel supported and respected by their housing provider take better care of the buildings they live in, property owners can rely on a more conscientious presence in their buildings, and local communities gain active, engaged neighbours.
I’m glad to have been proved right by the impact Dot Dot Dot’s guardians have created. Over the past 15 years, we’ve housed more than 2,000 people, who have given more than half a million hours to good causes – the equivalent of one person working full time for more than 300 years, and worth nearly £8m if paid the living wage. And we’ve prevented more than a thousand buildings from sitting empty and blighting neighbourhoods.
The bad news
What is not so good is that the growing market for property guardianship is only partly the result of increased visibility. It is also a product of the struggle people are facing in the private rented sector.
Guardianship used to be associated with people in their 20s trying to break into satisfying but poorly paid careers or going through a skint patch while retraining. People saw it as a phase they were going through before moving on when their salaries increased.
Today, more and more of the people we house see little prospect of finding a satisfactory home other than as a property guardian. From our narrow perspective we are delighted to have people sticking with us through a series of house-moves, and we’re happy to be able to make life a bit easier for them. But from a wider perspective it represents a systematic failure.
Housebuilding rates in London are the lowest in any major global city. Construction started on fewer than 6,000 homes in 2025, against a target of 88,000 new homes a year for the next decade. Rents in the private sector have levelled out after escalating in 2022 and 2023, but are out of reach for many people in full-time work.
What’s next – looking forward to the next 15 years
For all these reasons – the positive and the negative – we remain committed to our mission to improve lives in a housing crisis.
We strongly believe that, done properly, property guardianship is an important tool. It creates good homes and supports the regeneration schemes which will eventually result in more houses being built. We have already made good progress in pushing up standards in the sector, cooperating with other property guardian companies to publicise the basic standards that all guardians are legally entitled to, and showing that there is a market for an approach like ours, focusing on doing an excellent job day in day out to deliver value in the long-term.
Over the next 15 years, our goal is to normalise the sector until guardianship is the default choice for any owner of a building that is about to become empty. It’s our job to prove – through our persistent commitment to quality – that guardianship in general, and our approach in particular, is the safest, most cost-effective and most socially responsible way to manage vacant buildings.
We want to see housebuilding accelerate and rents become more affordable, but we see our main role as building on what we already do: housing thousands more guardians and supporting them to give time and energy to causes that matter.
