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Do property programmes ever show any affordable housing?
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I caught a bit of Escape to the Country this afternoon and they were showing a house for around £850, 000! I couldnt believe it. Usually from what I've seen the houses on this show are around the £450,000 mark, although I'm far from an avid viewer so maybe I'm wrong.
However I just wonder who this show is aimed at, because the vast majority of the British public do not have more than a couple of hundred grand at most to spend on a home and could never dream of owning a holiday home or escaping to the country!
While it can be quite nice to ogle the beautiful properties, why can't these programmes be more realistic? It drives me mad that they NEVER seem to acknowelge the "common man" and just show things most people couldn't even dream of buying. What's the point of that?
However I just wonder who this show is aimed at, because the vast majority of the British public do not have more than a couple of hundred grand at most to spend on a home and could never dream of owning a holiday home or escaping to the country!
While it can be quite nice to ogle the beautiful properties, why can't these programmes be more realistic? It drives me mad that they NEVER seem to acknowelge the "common man" and just show things most people couldn't even dream of buying. What's the point of that?
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The 450,000 to 850,000 pound bracket is probably aimed at the ever increasing million pound plus lottery winners.
And neither couple ended up buying anything they were shown. As per normal!
They never have a "normal" budget on this programme.
So just who are the BBC aiming this show at, because it surely is not the average viewer.
I'm with you.
Plus, why when a couple have told them there budget is £800K, do they then go and show them properties that cost £850K. Ridiculous.
The couple that wanted to live in Sussex, in the country, and after looking at 3 or 4 houses in the country, ended up buying a house in Chichester...in the town! >:(
I've never seen anyone actually buy or put an offer in on the properties shown. But my absolute favourite was one women who seemed to pick fault with everything. She was shown a stunning country house which had a tree in the garden. She discounted this house because she was put off by the leaves that would fall from the tree in autumn.
I would imagine if you're put off by leaves love the country generally isn't the place for you to be living.
Much prefer Location, Location, Location as you see houses of all budgets for all types of people and more often than not they end up buying one of the houses.
'Homes under the hammer' does at least show dwellings at the more realistic end of the market although the people who buy them and do them up often turn out to be part of the 'buy to let' brigade:(
You guessed it, they turned it down because they thought that it was too big - it was actually slightly smaller than they had specified for their search.
I am sure the people just go on to get on tv. Do the production team do any checks on the viewers ? I wonder if you have to prove that you have the capability of getting or mortgage for the property or at least have your home for sale?
At this point I'm thinking...these are not my people
I know some will respond that its all about the dream.
I think that its lazy programming, it is much more difficult to find nice lower priced property than expensive properties, anyone can go to an estate agents and find nice places with a huge budget.
Yes they have revisited shows but many seem to rent first which is the right option if you have never worked there though a few do buy to but not many.
These programmes are purely for "entertainment only" given that some are so old that prices are out of date anyway. Some viewers just like to look at unaffordable houses, just to see what they could buy if they ever won the lottery. (A lot of people think like that).
For some of the couples being shown houses, it's an "opportunity to be on telly," actually buying a house is not really important.
So everyone is happy. The networks, as such programmes are relatively, "as cheap as chips" to produce. The couples shown houses as they get a nice day out at the production company's expense with no high pressure sales talk and the viewers who can fantasize for a while before moving on to the next programme. Probably one on BBC 1 or 2, "The Cooking Channels."
It's always been clear these programmes just attract attention seekers who want to be on TV, since the properties are always totally unrealistic for the average person and no one ever buys anything.
I know they churn out these shows like there's no tomorrow because they're so cheap to make but if the episodes had some variety, like affordable housing and the occassional non-annoying person, it might make them actually worth watching!
Seriously!? So why even bother to make and screen the show, wouldn't that be the ENTIRE point!?
Well in part the show is about people leaving "the big city". Those selling a house they've lived in all their lives in London say, are very likely to be releasing a healthy lump of equity. It's not like it's lying around in their bank accounts
That said if it was me I'd have been looking to put about £600K of that into my bank account instead and buy a place for say £250K
Having said that, from what my wife tells me who sort of "half watches" this programme whilst indulging in one of her hobbies, that a common theme, is that "They want a more secluded place in the country, an old building with "quaint features" and then when shown something, complain about the low ceilings and how far it is from the shops.
They also want a big garden, without having a clue how hard it is to control one.
But it can be amusing.
"Each to their own" of course, but I wouldn't put that much in a bank as you get naff all interest.
I'd buy another house (not a flat) and rent it out. A much better investment. It can become a "ready made pension" when you retire.
It is an entertainment programme after all, not a serious documentary or consumer programme.
I think my biggest problem is that every episode is the same, in terms of price ranges (although the £850,000 was the most expensive property I've seen featured so far out of the times I've watched), the people who go on are unlikeable, picky, and attention seeking and it just reeks of a lazy filler show.
Yet it must have an audience or it would be axed, so I suppose the BBC do know what they're doing. Likewise when it comes to Flog It and other shows that are the same every time.
I was actually thinking of it as a pension, I had in my head the fact that this was upon retirement - and actually about releasing the money from property.
Academic really given how much equity I actually have in my house
Maybe they should bring that back, since so many people struggle to get on the housing ladder at all nowadays. It would be so refreshing to see something realistic for a change.
I agree with escape to the country but atleast on location,location location they nearly always buy the house at the end and the houses on there are generally something in most peoples price range
At least with Location, Location, Location, they have buyers from all age groups....first time buyers, families, retired people....they show a whole range of prices and from the ones I've seen, a lot of people actually buy one of the properties that they've been shown.
Presumably the programme makers pay for the trip "down under", nice little freebie holiday