Why is it we just love watching other people buying a house?

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

In any other context, the notion of living in a place that’s ‘light and airy’ would mean that your perfect home is actually a transparent tent.

But not for the house-hunters who turn up in twos, like desperate duos searching for Noah’s Ark, hoping that their accommodation crisis can be solved by just being in the presence of the people the world knows simply as Kirstie and Phil.

When you’re the star of Location Location Location, you don’t need surnames – although they do have them for passport purposes, when they’re also known as Allsop and Spencer – because our intrepid presenters can achieve in two days what mere mortals have failed to accomplish, sometimes over several years.

By common consensus, buying your home is one of the most stressful things you can ever experience – which makes it all the more bizarre that millions tune in, over and over again, to watch others doing exactly that.

The template for Location Location Location is simple – each week Kirstie and Phil come to the aid of two couples searching for a new home.

Sometimes there’s a theme – two young couples trying to get onto the property ladder; two couples of a certain vintage desperate to leave behind the bright lights for a rural idyll, or someone looking to live nearer to granny so they can dump their small kids on her every morning.

Sometimes it’s the geographical link – two couples moving to Edinburgh or Essex or returning from 40 years in Spain – and then other times it’s just plain quirky.

Having outlined a list of requirements, each of the house-hunters gets to visit three houses or flats – all of which usually ignore the original specifications but then things turn out just fine in the end.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.