The Great House Giveaway is back and hosts and Simon O’Brien have promised just as many disasters as usual.
Returning for its third series, the BAFTA winning programme follows two people, who have never met and never owned a home, given a lump sum to buy a property at auction.
They then have six months to revive the property, under the expert guidance of hosts Tayo and Simon, and turn the space into a desirable home, so they can then split any profits.
If they don’t sell, the house returns to auction, but under the hosts’ watchful eye and hopefully avoiding too many renovation disasters along the way, the contributors aim to make enough profit for a deposit on their first home.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk ahead of the third series airing, Tayo and Simon promised that this series would be just as disastrous as the last, and nothing would be hidden from viewers at home.
Simon shared: ‘Our huge disasters make it on the show, that’s the point. We dont hide anything! If they make a mess of it, we show it!
‘We’re here to tell not only how you can make money out of this, but what the pitfalls are.’
Simon recalled moments when the contributors ignored his expert advice, and what happened when it would then all go wrong: ‘They ended up not speaking to each other, one of them walked off the project and they made no money at all.’
Tayo added: ‘It’s really, really real, but I think that what’s quite good is that everything gets captured.’
Aside from thinking about what could (and would) go wrong on the programme, the hosts did recall their standout moments, when things may seem like they’re going wrong before it does eventually go right.
Tayo said: ‘For me, the highlight moment has been people who would be deemed as underdogs, because it’s always nice to see, for yourself, as the presenter and property expert, and as the viewer as well, people with the odds against them overcome the hurdles and the challenges they’re faced with and get a good result at the end. It’s always lovely to see.’
Simon added: ‘My highlight moment is when one half of the partnership says I’m not gonna bother doing this anymore because you won’t make £1000 out of this place and leaves the other partner to it, and they were right, the partner didn’t make a thousand pounds out of it, they made considerably more.
‘When you get someone who thinks this is a waste of our time and the other person perseveres, and keeps going and ends up making a profit, that makes me smile.’
The series is returning post-pandemic, and when the cost of living has heightened and many face financial difficulties at home.
While Simon shared that the show and the idea of renovating at home yourself has received ‘a lot more interest’ as more people work from home and think about maximising their space, he warned people to watch the series before ‘just wanting to have a go.’
‘The reason the series works is because we don’t hide anything and people can do very, very badly, and it can be a really painful process,’ he said.
‘So before you start ripping all your plaster off and knocking walls down in your house, really think carefully if you have the wherewithal to see it through.’
Tayo added: ‘The show really taps into the romance with property in the UK, everybody loves the idea, whether it’s just the goal to buy your own home, or a buy-to-let portfolio for retirement, or making income for flipping houses, and that’s one thing that we’re focusing on here.
‘We’re giving people a real indication of what that looks like, and I don’t think there’s many shows out there doing that. We don’t intervene, we leave them to it, and we really see real outcomes, and that’s what makes it special.’
The Great House Giveaway returns to Channel 4 tomorrow, Sunday, May 1 at 7pm.
