‘Property porn’: is TV’s obsession with home buying fuelling the UK’s housing crisis?
Do you remember the timber cottage with panoramic views (Cornwall, 2014)? What about the Gaudí-esque “Barcelona pavilion” (West Sussex, 2015)? Or the historic water tower conversion (London, 2012)?
The first episode of Grand Designs – a TV show in which Kevin McCloud takes us inside architectural marvels that are often also expensive money pits – aired more than 20 years ago in 1999. Then, the average cost of a home was about £91,000. A decade later it was £279,000.
Fast-forward another 10 years, to 2022. There is a horrendous housing crisis across Britain which has left tens of thousands of people – many of them families with children – living in temporary accommodation, and created a stagnant waiting list with, according in need of social housing.
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