Martin Roberts has admitted he’s ‘failed on every level’ in his attempt to turn around an out-of-use pub in the Rhondda Valley.
The Homes Under The Hammer star, 61, purchased the Hendrewen Hotel in Blaencwm, Rhondda, in 2023 and planned to inject £500,000 to give the boozer a complete makeover.
Situated not far from Martin’s farmhouse in South Wales, the renovation expert wanted to bring bark a spark to a community which had ‘lost their heart’.
He’d estimated that the half-a-million would be enough for works to be complete in around two years, but after that exact amount of time, the makeover is far from finished.
In fact the eight-bedroom property looks the exact same, with the presenter admitting he’s ‘failed on every level’.
Martin Roberts, 61, has admitted he’s ‘failed on every level’ in his attempt to turn around an out-of-use pub in the Rhondda Valley
The Homes Under The Hammer presenter purchased the Hendrewen Hotel in Blaencwm, Rhondda, in 2023 and had planned to inject £500,000 to give the boozer a complete makeover
Martin told The Sun: ‘For a man who spends all his time telling people to make sure they stick to their budgets and timescales, I have failed on every single level.
‘I’m still smiling but, oh my word, what a challenge it’s been, I’ll be honest, it’s the first commercial property I’ve ever done.
‘There have been lots of residential houses and flats, but commercial properties have a lot more complications, I’d say we are 60 per cent there.’
One of the many hold-ups which he has encountered has been dealing with planners who insist he prepares for possible floods.
Helping Martin power through the many obstacles he’s overcome to get to this point have been a host of young locals.
The presenter has a group Welsh teens aged between 15 to 17 working with his tradesmen, learning various practical skills they can use after school.
Given his boozer is located in one of the country’s most deprived areas, Martin hopes he can give the children ‘a step up the ladder’ and help them gain employment.
With the pub now months away from completion, the former I’m A Celeb star is aiming to have around 30 locals employed when it ‘hopefully’ opens later this year.
Renovations certainly haven’t gone as Martin had once planned however, and two years later the pub looks exactly the same
The renovation expert hopes to have the Hendrewen Hotel and pub open at some point within the next year
Martin is designing the Hendrewen so that each of its eight bedrooms has a different theme, all centred around television.
He’s planning to have a Fawlty Towers room, A Question of Sport room and – of course – an offering centred around Homes Under The Hummer – a show’s he’s presented for more than two decades.
Martin purchased the pub in South Wales after suffering a health scare a year earlier in 2022 when his heart, kidney and liver failed.
He was hospitalised with chest pains that he mistook for long COVID, but doctors told Martin he was suffering from pericardial effusion, a build-up of fluid in the structure around the heart.
He had to have surgery and was ultimately ‘given a second chance at life’ thanks to the incredible work of surgeons.
Martin has assembled a group of local youngsters to help his tradesmen with renovations
In December 2024 Martin issued a worrying update on his health, revealing he fears he doesn’t have much longer left.
Speaking to MailOnline, he said that he still gets twinges in his chest that cause him to panic.
He explained that he doesn’t ‘know how long he has left’ and is trying to do as much good in the world as possible.
‘The physical side of things took a lot longer than we thought to get around,’ the father-of-two said.
‘I still get twinges and every single time I get a twinge in my chest, I panic. As anyone who has had any kind of problems with their heart would attest to it.’
Martin continued: ‘It sends you into a flurry of worry because they only sort of dribble out these stories afterwards.
‘It was like I went to see the the consultant who did the emergency operation, and I said to him, “so how long would I have survived?”
‘He said, “well, you probably wouldn’t have made it through the night. So it was just as well I was on duty… you probably had maybe two or three hours to live.”
‘That was two to three hours from dying and not being here and not seeing the kids anymore and not fulfilling all my ambitions and doing all the things I want to do.
Martin purchased the pub in South Wales after suffering a health scare a year earlier in 2022 when his heart, kidney and liver failed (pictured in 2022)
In December 2024 Martin issued a worrying update on his health, revealing he fears he doesn’t have much longer left
‘So that’s sort of the psychological side of that. It takes a lot longer to get over than the physical side.
‘I was told I need to slow down and take things easy and all that kind of stuff, and I’ve gone a completely other way.
‘This is why I’ve got this project in Wales where I’m renovating a pub, for the community, and we’re using local kids to do the work and bringing kids who are disengaged and disadvantaged, giving them a chance to get construction skills.
‘Just doing lots of good. I don’t know how much time I’ve got left, so I just want to do as much as I possibly can to help.
‘It’s not really about money. It’s about just making a difference, because that’s what you’ll be remembered for.’
