London homeowners are increasingly renting out their properties as locations for film, TV and photo shoots, earning up to £2,000 a day. Nina Watson and Nicola Gill are among those who have turned their homes into sought-after backdrops.
Nina Watson: Accidental Location Scout's Dream
Nina Watson bought an Edwardian semi in Palmers Green, north London, in 2017 for £750,000. She and her husband Phil, who works for a local council, moved in with their two children, Jonah, 16, and Rosa, 14. The house was “very white and beige” at first, but the couple, who both love design, gave it a full-on makeover.
Watson, then an office manager for an animation company, oversaw a slow-burn renovation. She installed period fireplaces, commissioned stained glass for the French doors, built a kitchen extension and redecorated in a style she describes as “vintage eclectic”. She furnished it with family heirlooms, including her grandmother's drinks cabinet, and online bargains like a £19.99 yellow three-piece suite from eBay, 1960s Italian lighting, and a 1920s Maple & Co bed from an antique shop.
For fun, Watson set up an Instagram account to chart progress. “When we decorated the house we did it for ourselves, nobody else,” she says. Her account @artdecojewel has since gained 650,000 followers. People started asking her to help redesign their homes, and during the pandemic she gave up her day job to focus on interior design full time.
Bookings and Fees
Watson was contacted by The Location Guys, which represents filming locations around the country. Fees range from “mates rates” of around £450 per day for student films, which Watson likes to support, up to £2,000-plus for corporate clients. The income goes on household expenses and keeping the house looking perfect.
“I wouldn’t say it is a reliable form of income,” says Watson. “You might get loads of bookings — we had four last week — or none. But my old job was a good job that was not fulfilling me creatively.”
Weird and wonderful requests include a fashion brand that brought a python into the house to pose with a model, a sportswear company that focused on the treehouse in the back garden, and film-makers who installed a copper bathtub in the living room.
Nicola Gill: Strategic Location Planning
Unlike Watson, using her home as a location was a deliberate, strategic plan for Nicola Gill. In 2014 she returned to London from Hastings, needing a home spacious enough for her, her partner Pete Wareham, a jazz musician, their four teenage children, and two dogs. In 2017 she spotted a five-bedroom Victorian semi in Catford.
“It was terrible,” she said. “It had been used as an unlicensed HMO, every single original feature had been taken out, there were toilets in the bedrooms, a terrible plastic glazed conservatory that was boiling in summer and freezing in winter. It was infested with mice and rats. It was as bad as it could be.”
Gill and Wareham paid £700,000 for the house and had it stripped back to bare brick. She decorated it in blocks of vivid colour, from a coral staircase with green trim to a cobalt blue living room, green and lilac kitchen, and orange dining room. The £200,000 renovation was slow, delayed by a rogue builder and then the pandemic.
By the summer of 2022 the house was ready. Gill chose The Location Guys to represent her and got her first photoshoot booking within a week. “I had maxed out my credit cards, and I couldn’t borrow a penny more,” she said. “If it hadn’t worked I would literally have been bankrupt.”
For the first couple of years the house was booked a couple of days every week. The income, plus interior design work, covered the mortgage and got her debt under control. Bookings have now slowed to four to five days per month, with fees ranging from around £800 per day for a simple photoshoot to up to around £2,800 for a TV commercial.
Practical Considerations for Homeowners
Homeowners need to keep their homes spotless because bookings are often last-minute. They also need a plan for where they will go during the shoot. Daily fees range from around £400 to more than £2,000. For a film or TV series, fees can be £20,000-plus per month plus expenses for alternative accommodation. Income is taxable, but reasonable expenses like cleaning can be claimed.
Gill warns that her house has to be kept “impeccably clean” at all times, and she must refresh the decor regularly to stay on-trend. Although firms pay for breakages, general wear and tear is on her. When the house is booked, the family has to vacate, and the dogs go to a sitter. “It is exhausting and tiring, not money for old rope,” she said.
Despite the challenges, Gill has no regrets. “We have got a house for six people in London and we don’t work in the City which is extraordinary. OK, it is in Catford, but still it is a privilege.”
