Homes Under The Hammer Selfish Ruiners of EVERYTHING

[LNPW]

AIBU to really hate people on HUTH who buy beautiful Victorian family homes and turn them into scruffy flats set for a life of minging curtains and a million wheelie bins parked outside?

I know it makes financial sense to do this if you buy a big property but ffs ... leave the Victorian shit alone!

I watched one where they bought a gorgeous 5 bedroom Victorian terraced house. Huge original fireplaces, stain glass windows etc etc ... it needed a lot of work doing yes but the building itself was amazing.

“So, what are your plans for this gorgeous property”

“Well I’m gonna turn it into flats innit” fuck off

For those that insisting it’s a show about greed, seriously!?
It’s a way those people make a living. Why is the way you or your boss makes a living less greedy?
If you look at it like that, all businesses are greedy.
You focus your anger at a single person making a living when there are multi millionaires sitting on money they could never spend? Money that could be shared more equally between their work force?

I watch infrequently but notice that it’s East Mids or Stoke.

I find the show fascinating but the last few I have watched they have gone back to see what happened after 2 or 3 years.

I agree with PPs saying in a lot of cases it makes sense to convert the huge draughty Victorian wreck into flats.

I saw a episode the other day where the woman bought a standard 3 bed terrace and turned it into a 4(?) bed house for renters where each room had an en-suite .

Now if you think of your average terrace you're lucky if one bedroom would be big enough for a small en-suite. Honestly it looked ridiculous as at least 2 of the bedrooms barely had room left for a bed let alone any storage!

There was one featuring a slightly eccentric bachelor guy doing up a fisherman's cottage in Cornwall. Ok, this'll be shit I thought.

Oh. My. God. It was absolutely stunning! So much detail, originality, quality work and beautiful colours. And it was his own house, to live in. Using reclaimed materials OF COURSE. Yet here I am with DP who hires a guy to paint the skirting. Gah.

BTW I know stuff about Martin. DM for it.

@Notso - depends on how you define “decent”. I am talking about high rise flats, damp ridden buildings, prople in hostels, refuges etc - I’d imagine a flat in a converted Victorian house would be preferable for many even if they did have shit carpets and characterless interiors.

Can I ask what the problem with having bins out the front is?
For lots of people that’s the only space for them. 🤷‍♀️

Hasn’t Lucy left the programme?

It does my head when they buy an interesting house and then rip out its character and make it a generic buy to let with grey office carpet. But I do like the bit where they have to walk from room to room nodding to each other to a soundtrack of very literal songs, like Shakin Stevens “this old house”

Don't diss the East Midlands and deny its rare moments of glory, or at least publicity. It must be the most overlooked region of the UK

My sister lives in a row of terraced houses and they have no choice but to have their wheelie bins outside. It does look an absolute eyesore, but nothing they can do.

I do appreciate that there is a huge problem with affordable housing, and young first time buyers being unable to afford to buy.

But I can't get worked up about HUTH because no first time buyer is likely to be able to afford to be a cash buyer for these places anyway and they won't get a mortgage on one of them.

I remember watching an episode years ago that was great. It was in London and this wealthy couple bought a big six bedroom Victorian house and were renovating it into their dream home. They had ripped out a lot of original features because they didn't like them. Lucy came for her follow up and nearly had a fit, talking about damaging resale value. The woman just very calmly kept saying 'but it doesn't matter, it's our home and we intend to live here for the rest of our lives, it doesn't matter to us what other buyers would like, because they won't be buying it'. It was fantastic.

I haven't seen it in years but always remember an episode where someone bought a big Victorian house and turned it into as many bedrooms as possible. The presenter was saying that it would be better to give the residents a communal area but the guy was all bout the money. It was awful I think it ended up having 9 rooms with two bathrooms and a shared tiny kitchen. The rooms could only fit a single bed and nothing else.

There are a fair share of properties that are flipped with little being done, but sometimes they bring crumbling semi-derelict houses, which must be horrible to have next to you, back to life, and providing homes for people. There is a very particular aesthetic around though that can be quite dull.

Yes Sarah Beeny used to get the same treatment. When people are programmed to see houses as 'property' rather than homes, they only see the resale value.

It's brilliant when people laugh in the face of vanilla walls and oatmeal flooring. Or when they divide big rooms into smaller, snugger, quieter ones.

But.. but.. open plan! Family life! Entertaining! As if any normal person fucking 'entertains'. Naff off blondie, I'll curl up with a book thanks.

Unfortunately there is a shortage of housing in this country and not enough social housing. In an ideal world property developers would have £££ to sensitively restore period houses to their original grandeur but in most of these places with run-down Victorian/period properties the demand is for 1-2 bedroom flats.

The mantra for most LL’s is buy em at the right price, renovate to a suitable standard for as little as possible and rent/sell at the highest price you can. Same with 99% of all businesses really - otherwise why bother?

I remember one terrace house where before sale it was very run down and obviously in serious need. Along comes buyer, vaguely agrees that it's not good but declares she'll 'do it up' a bit.
She decorated it,cheap carpets...and that was it! Wanted rental income, period.

Of course,decoration involved a pot of white paint.

I'm not sure what the point of the programme is. How to remove all character from a property? They succeed there,at least.

The one property show that really gets me shouting at the telly is Escape to the Country.

It is sad, they buy a house, bulldoze it, replace it with 3 houses or more, all fucking GREY
why why, get some individualism

I agree some of the homes can be poky and dull, but as people have said, flats are often what's needed or in demand. OTOH, it would be better if family homes were more affordable in the first place, as a lot of these flat will end up with families of 4 in them as they can't ever afford a house.

I think it is wrong that properties have been made into a commodity rather than homes but I wouldn't tar all landlords with the same brush - not all of them are raking it in or very rich in the first place. Remember a lot of them may have very ordinary 'income' and an 'ordinary' house bought by grandma 50 years ago might leave them with a relatively large sum of money and they might put that towards developing a property (with a mortgage) and not be making huge sums from rent on top of that every month.

I worry about Martin Yeah, I haven't seen it for a while but he doesn't seem quite well does he.

My favourite part is the crap musical interludes:
"My dad is going to help me with this renovation"

Its a family affair
Its a family affair

"I plan to take out this wall and completely redo the downstairs area" .... Rip it up and start again.

Its the only thing I like about this program

The one property show that really gets me shouting at the telly is Escape to the Country.

Yes! Always retired couples who need a gigantic house for the grandkids to visit. Because the grandkids will be traumatised if they have to share a room with a sibling on their twice yearly overnight visit.

escape to the country has me annoyed, and they never ever buy any of the properties!
its a con surely.

but on HUM, I watched once and they admitted to watching the programme which persuaded them to try it themselves!
it is just greed, property business!
I hope they come unstuck now, just play monopoly and stop increasing house prices

I bought a home that wouldn't look out of place in HUTH. Mortgageable at least but needed ripping out and starting again.

HUTH had me believe it would be a simple job and take no time. It took 10 years doing it a bit at a time and cost £70k!

As a renter desperate to buy I just can’t watch it anymore. It’s too depressing.

Beautiful bungalow in a big plot with old apple trees and gorgeous garden.

“I’m going to cram 10 houses on it with barely a garden, that cost the same as the original bungalow”

Nice family home needs a spruce up but doesn’t take a lot
Shittely renovated all character removed. “I’m adding this to my already large property portfolio”

They do NOT tend to focus heavily on London and the south east but don't let that stop you for some London bashing