Daytime TV is well-known to contain some extremely bad programming, but this is an insult to the intelligence.
The basic format: two presenters look at some homes going up for auction, then find out who buys them and see what happens to the properties three months later. That is about it.
They try to make out that making money as a property developer is such a difficult trade and that the buyers will have to be extremely skilled to make a profit. The problem here (and it's not the makers' fault) is that due to the housing market in the UK the average house price increases £41 a day, it is very hard to make a loss unless they pay well over the odds for a very poor property in a bad area. Some don't even look at the house before buying so they don't know it has huge cracks through the wall or massive subsidence, and they will still end up in the black. Renting out for a year or two before selling will reap even more.
The presenters do their best to try and make the programme seem exciting, but they are up against it as there is a definite limit on how thrilling you can make a show like this. The script is painful, for example if the property in question is an old pet shop you get endless lines like "are they barking mad to take on this property?" or "let's see if they can get this shop on the cheep," etc. Who writes this stuff? It would help if the properties themselves were more interesting, but most of them are average mid-terrace dwellings that need a bit of a paint job. One thing it does well is inadvertently show how bad estate agents are. About 9 in 10 when asked "what is the property market like in this area" they will answer "(insert town name here) is definitely an up and coming area." What every area in the UK? Before any changes have been made they will often quote prices thousands of pounds higher than before with little justification. That is probably due to the fact that you can start up an estate agents without any formal qualifications.
Almost makes you wish for a housing market crash just to get rid of the plethora of property programmes that fill our screens and this one in particular as there is just so little variation between one show and the next. Potential property developers might find some of the advice useful, but it is the same every episode and most of it is just common sense.
