What is Property Guardianship?

Empty buildings are a problem on both sides of the equation.

For property owners, a vacant building means money flowing in the wrong direction. Business rates, security contracts, soaring insurance premiums for unoccupied properties, and the constant background worry of squatters or vandalism. The longer a property stands empty, the more it costs and the faster it depreciates.

For working professionals, particularly anyone trying to live within commuting distance of London or other major UK cities, affordable accommodation feels increasingly out of reach. Average rents have outpaced wage growth for over a decade, and the standard six-to-twelve-month tenancy lock-in doesn’t suit everyone’s life.

Property guardianship sits squarely in the middle of these two problems and resolves both at the same time.

Here’s how it works, who it’s for, and what to expect on either side of the arrangement.

What is Property Guardianship?

Property guardianship is an arrangement where vetted professionals, known as property guardians, live in otherwise empty buildings to keep them secure, occupied, and well-maintained. In exchange for paying a monthly licence fee that sits well below local market rent, guardians get access to flexible accommodation in locations they’d typically be priced out of.

It’s a security solution with a human touch.

Instead of relying on CCTV, intruder alarms, boarded-up windows or 24-hour manned guards, the building is protected by people actually living in it. Occupied buildings don’t attract the kind of trouble empty ones do, and a property with lights on in the evening tells a very different story to one that’s been sitting dark for six months.

What is Gaurdianship: In Its Simplest Form

It’s a three-way arrangement where the owner gets their building secured, the guardian gets affordable housing, and the surrounding community gets a previously empty space brought back into productive use.

How Does Property Guardianship Work?

A property owner, often a local authority, housing association, developer, NHS trust or commercial landlord, has a building sitting empty. It might be awaiting redevelopment, planning permission, sale, or a change of use. Leaving it vacant is expensive and risky.

They engage a property guardianship company like Global Guardians. We carry out an inspection, prepare the building so it meets habitability and safety standards, and then place fully vetted guardians inside under a licence agreement. The guardians pay a monthly fee, live there as their main residence, and act as a constant deterrent to anti-social behaviour.

When the owner needs the property back, guardians receive a minimum of 28 days’ written notice to move out. The building is returned in the agreed condition, and most guardians simply transfer to a new available space within our portfolio rather than leaving the scheme.

What Kinds of Properties Have Guardians?

When people first hear about guardianship housing, they tend to picture a standard flat or terraced house. The reality is much more varied.

Our guardianship properties range from self-contained flats and family homes through to former office blocks, retail units, schools, care homes, pubs, and historic buildings. Some of our most interesting spaces are buildings that would otherwise sit empty and decline, the kind of architecture you couldn’t normally afford to live in at any price. You can browse our currently available properties to get a feel for the range.

The mix matters because not every property suits every guardian. Some people want a private studio. Others prefer the communal feel of a shared converted school or office. Both options exist, and both are managed under the same regulatory standards.

Whatever the building, the rules are consistent. Every property must be habitable, fully compliant with HMO licensing where relevant, fire safety legislation, gas and electrical safety regulations, and the requirements set out by the Property Guardian Providers Association.

What Are Property Guardians? Who Can Become One?

Property guardians aren’t just anyone who fancies cheap rent. They’re vetted, working professionals who agree to live in and look after a vacant building.

To become a guardian with Global Guardians, you’ll need to meet a few core requirements:

• Be over 21 in most cases (some properties accept guardians from 18)
• Be in stable, full-time employment
• Pass our in-house vetting, which includes ID verification, bank statements, references from your current landlord, and references from your employer
• Pass our Ideal Guardian Assessment

There are some restrictions worth being upfront about. Guardians can’t keep pets in the property, and children or other dependents can’t live with you. The licence agreement also sets expectations around overnight guests, particularly in shared buildings. If you’ve got a question about whether guardianship would work for your specific circumstances, our Guardian FAQs page covers most of the common ones.

These conditions sound restrictive compared with conventional renting, but they’re the structural reason the model works. Property owners trust the scheme because they know who’s in their building. Other guardians get a community of similarly vetted professionals around them. And our vetting process is the most stringent in the UK guardianship industry.

Property Guardianship for Property Owners

If you own a vacant property, the costs are already adding up. Static manned security can run into thousands of pounds a month. Insurance premiums for unoccupied buildings can rise by 50% or more. Boarded-up windows broadcast to the entire neighbourhood that the building is empty, which is precisely the opposite of what you want.

Property guardianship inverts the equation.

By placing trusted, vetted guardians inside the building, you can:

• Save up to 100% compared to traditional 24-hour static security
• Significantly reduce insurance premiums by removing the property’s “vacant” classification
• Legally protect the building against squatters and trespassers
• Stop the depreciation that comes with a building standing dormant
• Generate a small income from licence fees rather than burning cash on security contracts
• Demonstrate genuine corporate social responsibility by housing key workers and professionals at affordable rates

The minimum contract length is six months, but most relationships last considerably longer. Through our My Globe platform, property owners get full real-time visibility over every property in their portfolio: maintenance logs, compliance certificates, occupancy levels, and a running tally of the costs we’ve saved against equivalent traditional security.

We currently manage properties on behalf of organisations including Southern Housing, Amicus Horizon, JLL and Aitch Group, with a portfolio that ranges from single residential flats to commercial buildings of well over 100,000 square feet. Our case studies walk through what those partnerships actually deliver in practice.

Got an empty building you’d like us to take a look at? Get in touch with our property owners team and we’ll arrange an initial inspection. There’s no cost for the assessment, and we’ll come back to you with a clear plan for securing the building, including indicative timelines and the number of guardians the property could support.

Property Guardianship for Guardians

For working professionals, the appeal is straightforward.

The licence fees we charge as a guardianship service are typically a fraction of local market rent for an equivalent property. Discounts of 50% to 70% off open-market rates aren’t unusual. We currently have spaces in central London available for under £750 a month, including all bills in many cases.

But the financial side is only part of the story. The benefits of guardianship living also include:

• Properties you couldn’t otherwise access. Converted period buildings, large communal spaces, prime postcodes. Places that would be entirely out of reach on a normal rental budget.
• Genuine flexibility. There’s no fixed long-term tenancy. If your circumstances change, the 28-day notice cuts both ways.
• Speed of move-in. Once you’ve been vetted and approved, you can be living in a guardian property in as little as five days.
• A real community. Global Guardians runs the largest guardian community in the UK. Many guardians stay with us for several years, moving from one property to the next as buildings come and go.
• Direct community impact. You’re actively reducing crime risk in the area, deterring anti-social behaviour, and bringing an empty space back into productive use. That matters to a lot of our guardians.

It isn’t the right fit for everyone. The 28-day notice means it doesn’t suit anyone who needs absolute long-term security in a specific postcode. If you’re trying to put down roots, raise a family, or build a permanent home, conventional renting or buying is a better answer. For most other working professionals, particularly in expensive cities, the trade-off is worth it.

Ready to apply? Register an account with My Globe to start the vetting process. Once your account is set up and your documents are uploaded, you’ll be able to book viewings directly and could be moving into a guardian property within a week.

Property Guardians vs Tenants: The Legal Position

This is where most articles online get the detail wrong, so it’s worth being clear.

When you become a property guardian, you sign a licence agreement, not a tenancy agreement. That makes you a licensee rather than a tenant, and the distinction has two practical consequences:

1. Notice period. Guardians have a 28-day notice period rather than the longer notice typical of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy. Owners must give written notice in line with the licence agreement.
2. Non-exclusive possession. Guardians don’t have exclusive possession of the property. Global Guardians and the property owner (or their representatives) can access the building under the terms of the licence agreement.

What guardians do have is full legal protection in every other respect that matters. Health and safety legislation, fire safety regulations, HMO licensing rules, and the Protection from Eviction Act all apply to guardian properties exactly as they would to a rental. You can’t be evicted without proper notice or due process, and the building you live in must meet the same habitability standards as any other home.

The Property Guardian Providers Association exists specifically to enforce these standards across the industry, and Global Guardians is fully aligned with their best-practice framework.

You can read more about the regulations and standards we operate under. If you’ve come across the occasional horror story about substandard guardian accommodation, those cases almost always involve operators outside the PGPA’s accredited membership.

How the Global Guardians Property Guardian Scheme Works

Becoming a guardian with us is a four-step process:

1. Create an account through our My Globe portal
2. Book a viewing of an available property that fits what you’re looking for
3. Upload your documents for vetting (ID, recent bank statements, landlord and employer references)
4. Sign the licence agreement and collect your keys

For fully vetted candidates, the entire process from first viewing to moving in can take as little as five days.

For property owners, the route is just as straightforward. Get in touch through our property owners team, we’ll arrange an inspection of the building, prepare it for occupation under our cost, and place vetted guardians inside, typically at zero cost to you.

Why Choose Global Guardians?

Global Guardians has been securing empty buildings and providing affordable accommodation across the UK for over a decade. We work with the country’s largest housing associations, commercial landlords, and property managers, and our portfolio spans everything from compact residential flats to substantial commercial sites.

What sets us apart from other guardianship services isn’t just scale. It’s the operational standard underneath it. Our vetting process is the most stringent in the industry. Our properties meet, and frequently exceed, every relevant regulatory requirement. And the My Globe platform gives both guardians and property owners a level of transparency that most operators in this space simply don’t offer.

There’s more on what makes us different here.

We’ve saved property owners hundreds of thousands of pounds in security costs while providing affordable homes to thousands of working professionals across the UK.

Is Property Guardianship Right for You?

It depends entirely on which side of the empty-building problem you’re trying to solve.

If you own a vacant property and you want to protect it without burning money on traditional security, property guardianship will almost certainly save you a substantial sum and remove a chunk of risk from your portfolio. Speak to our property owners team and we’ll talk you through the specifics for your building, with no obligation.

If you’re a working professional looking for affordable, flexible accommodation in a great location, register an account with My Globe to start the application process and browse our currently available properties.

Either way, you’re not just signing up for a transaction. You’re joining the UK’s largest guardianship community and playing a direct part in putting empty buildings back to good use.