Television bosses believe that the British still love nothing more than a property show, albeit one with a dose of realism. At least that’s what the schedules suggest.
The seventh series of Relocation, Relocation — the programme in which the property gurus Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer help buyers to find a house in the country plus a city investment — began this week, featuring a couple hoping to move from Glasgow to Cornwall.
A new series of its predecessor, Location, Location, Location, will also air this year, after Channel 4 managed to stop the BBC luring away its hosts. Last year Location still managed to average 2.9 million viewers per episode, 100,000 more than in 2008. Grand Designs also retains its popularity, averaging 4 million viewers per episode last year. A Relocation spin-off will begin today, called Phil Down Under, in which Spencer helps British families to relocate to Australia: ideal for viewers wanting a bit of escapism from the cold, but also for buyers desperate for a more relaxed pace of life.
Another Channel 4 spin-off, A Place in The Sun: Home or USA, will also tackle the difficulties of moving to another continent, with the former footballer Damien Francis and his fianc?e looking on both sides of the Atlantic. In line with the “don’t move, improve” sentiment prevalent in 2009, Sarah Beeny will introduce a new series in which experts help homeowners to tackle “horror house” problems such as pest infestations, a far cry from Property Ladder, in which she helped buyers to turn a profit renovating bargains. This follows the success of Allsopp’s make-do-and-mend programmes last year, Kirstie’s Homemade Home, and The Home Show.
The BBC also has a new property programme in the pipeline, To Build or Not to Build, which follows people who want to build their own homes — indicative, perhaps, of a market in which there really isn’t that much to buy. A spokesperson for Channel 4 said that “older formats” continued to do well: “Arguably, with a tricky property market, the sort of hands-on advice that Phil and Kirstie and Sarah Beeny are known for is in demand more than ever.”
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However, Camilla Dell, managing partner of Black Brick Property Solutions, says: “Some of the shows feel out-of-date when the market is so volatile. Shows such as Grand Designs or the DIY ones, which are less dependent on the market, will be more enduring than Kirstie and Phil.