To wish Homes Under The Hammer …

Agree, I used to love watching it, don’t bother any more. Lots of idiots removing beautiful original features and painting everything grey. Or turning very small houses into flats or HMO’s.

I was watching one on Sunday and the presenter was obsessed with HMOs and seemed a bit upset when one developer said no , it wasn’t going to be for this purpose at all.
People go for plain things because it’s not too loud or offensive and they just want to sell them on.
I don’t have OCD or anything, but seeing some of the mess around these properties makes me itch , I just want to see it tidy. Luckily they usually show a lovely tidy cleaned up place at the end. How they get into such a state ( or unfinished ) is a mystery too.

Pre-Covid, time was spent in the auction watching the price go higher and there used to be 2 or 3 estate agents valuing the finished property. Its always been about turning a profit primarily rather than design ideas.

There was one episode years ago about a deconsecrated church that had been sold to a middle-aged couple. Their backstory talked about the woman recovering from cancer and wanting to turn it into a beautiful home where she could be peaceful. There was an outbuilding being used as a little women-only gym and the owner said they could carry on.

The 12 year old estate agent was visibly bewildered and said they could have made so much more from splitting it into flats. Price of everything and value of nothing.

I used to enjoy it, but it is very much now all grey carpet, grey kitchen units, white walls.

They should focus on the more interesting renovations and do quality over quantity. And show them when they are finished, not eight weeks later when they have just put some scaffolding up.

Hi I’m James Andson,

The question is really asking why Homes Under The Hammer shows so many HMOs or plain white refurb jobs instead of real home renovations. Most of the time it’s because investors want quick, neutral finishes that rent fast.
But true home renovations are about character and comfort.

For example, restoring a fireplace or adding warm tones makes a home feel alive much better than another white box.

Sorry pressed YABU by accident. I enjoy it more when they’re doing it up for them to move in or a close family member like a son or daughter and it’s bank of mum and dad.

When HUTH started it was a lot of people buying their first house to do up, with the odd landlord thrown in. Now it's all landlords and the decor is the same in all of them. it's not good tv now.

Yeah, the housing horrors of the '80s came from title-splitting and hacking big houses up. HMOs feel like today’s version — some are done really well though and i get they're solving a problem, but why rip out original fireplaces or lower those beautiful 3m ceilings? Every room needs an en-suite now, so they’re unlikely to ever go back to proper family homes after that.

Watch Grand Designs if you want the other end of the spectrum. Family with average income buy slightly out of date 3 bed semi probate sale, knock down a couple of walls, put in a breakfast bar and a pod for a garden office whilst adding a lick of paint doesn’t fit the ‘turn a profit from a cheap auction or make a massive loss for not reading the legal pack narrative. The closest you’ll get to that is Love It Or List It. There’s property porn on telly for everyone’s taste.

Those beautiful huge Victorian mansions in Notting Hill and Bayswater, for instance, were once full of single bedsits and double bedsits, some housing families per room. In post war Britain, there was an acute housing shortage. People have to live somewhere. There's an acute housing shortage now. I'd rather see suitably sized houses providing accommodation for single people that's at least semi-permanent for those who need it than yet another Air bnb.

Yanbu I feel a little jolt of joy when someone buys a house that they are going to live in.

This is the truth about HMO properties.
Well put MistressoftheDarkSide.

Well that's bollocks really isn't it. There are not enough places to keep all the victorian houses for the lucky few, a lot of them who can't afford it.

HUTH is a show about people buying property at auctions. Clearly these are the type of people buying property at auctions. Im not sure what the problem is? Watch a renovation programme that isn’t based on people buying property at auctions.

There is the very real market demand for HMO's I don't have a problem with that, i just wish they'd use already existing commercial buildings, of which there are plenty, not beautiful Victorian houses and rip all the original features out.

So you think it’s better that a wealthy family live in a single house rather than provide accommodation for eight different people?

What I find awful is they lower the ceiling height of previously beautiful victorian properties to make 3 floors of little 'cell' rooms.

At least make a building better not worse.

Sorry, I'm too busy trying to pay for the house I live in

I know two men in their 70s who live in HMOs. That is not right. They can't afford anywhere else. They spend all day in pubs because it is too depressing to be trapped in one room at "home".

My DP was evicted from his 2 bed flat, and it has been converted into an HMO full of shoeboxes.

HMO might have a place as a temp thing but because of the costs of rents, people are in them as their permanent home and that is really sad. We are not battery hens.

I feel exactly the same. So sick of everything this programme stands for, and the constant displaying of HMOs as if they are anything other than the feeding of financial greed.

My bedsit years were wonderful. - yes it wasn’t flash sometimes but it was cheap and that’s what I could afford. I could’ve gone for the magic wand option I suppose jokes

Oh please, very rarely do HMOs / bedsits "suit" anyone at any time of their lives. Most people have little choice and are forced into them due to economic necessity / life circumstances. Residents are ripe for exploitation and are often regarded as "problematic" or "less worthy" of decent accommodation.

And yes, I do have direct experience from my student years in the 80s, and know people in them now. They are rife with poor security, poor shared facilities and while one can be grateful to have a roof at all, a leaky, mouldy one is hardly ideal either.

Go to an auction, buy a house do it up break this chain of despair. Oh hang on, you won’t do that. HMO‘s I’m just a modern day bed set they suit people at certain stage in their lives. What on earth is wrong with that?