The Price Of Property: Overview | 4Homes

Date Published:: 02/09/2008

Britain has become a nation obsessed with the price of property: will prices spiral upwards again or is the market about to crash?

Jon Henley, presenter of The Price Of Property

In this four-part landmark series, the first Channel 4 documentary to be shot in HD, journalist Jon Henley embarks on a journey around the UK to discover how the pursuit of property ownership has changed the country. Combining archive material with aerial footage to show the impact of property on the landscape, The Price of Property reveals the social history that has shaped the housing market and explores the profound effect this has had on the face of Britain.

Episode One: London
Episode Two: Living The Dream

Jon starts in London , where he finds people whose lives have been transformed by the property bubble, before continuing across the country through villages that are full of second homes, but empty of people, to the towns earmarked for extensive building as the country attempts to meet the demand for housing. Jon hears remarkable stories from everyday people, and paints a detailed portrait of life in modern Britain through the prism of property ownership.

In the first programme Jon attempts to get to grips with the London property market and understand the impact of the hyper-inflation of the last decade. After 20 years living abroad he's astonished to discover that the one bedroom flat he sold for £70,000 in 1987 is now worth just under a quarter of a million pounds, taking it out of the reach of all but the luckiest first-time buyers, while houses at the very top end of the market change hands for telephone number-like figures.

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I was hoping to enjoy the episode tonight about new towns (harlow before I switched off)but all that b****y "music" , which is quite not needed, going on all the time whilst people are speaking was driving me round the bend. Granted, this is not the only programme to be afflicted this way. And not the only channel. Why must serious programmes be dumbed down this way? Don't you think that we are intelligent enough to keep watching without this row?

Posted by John Dorward on 27/09/2008 19:00:23

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Aldo - 55M people in the UK, but I admit the omission of the apostrophe in "nation's" may have been confusing. I am off back to my dayjob writing greengrocers' signs!

Posted by Jonty on 25/09/2008 11:32:51

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Did Jonty count right? There are 6 billion people in the world (more or less) - is he deliberately taking a western-centric view of this? Anyway - why was this shot in HD?

Posted by Aldo on 25/09/2008 11:11:20

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Did I hear right? Â£3 TRILLION of equity in the nations property? Surely not! By my reckoning, that would be Â£55M per capita! Or was it the US definition of a "trillion"? Fascinating show - but with economic events moving so fast looks almost dated already - the current property "crisis" might look quite benign in a years time. Despite my natural cynicism it actually managed to make me feel sorry for a buy-to-let loser! A desparately sad situation for that woman and her family.

Posted by Jonty on 25/09/2008 09:47:26

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Interesting subject, but the programme sounds like it's largely going to be the usual 'rubber-necking' the rich fare.

Posted by Corky on 09/09/2008 17:14:03

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Are there further episodes to this? What's going on outside London? It was a good start, but I'd like to hear from government ministers, past and present, as to why they haven't controlled the ludicrous property booms and crashes, rather than allowing the market to run wild and leave people homeless, while others become very rich by accident. And why they continue to encourage people to cram into the South-East, rather than incentivising business, and therefore people, away from the capital. Immigration is a major issue, but how many people come into the South East each year from other parts of Britain, driven by the search for work and wealth? Surely this is the key driver behind the property culture we have now. I'd love to hear the facts on all this and I hope Jon's got all that up his sleeve.

Posted by Tim on 09/09/2008 09:48:19

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Dull and superficial. Just an awestruck glance around some millionaire's houses, and an implied claim that house prices always go up, while renting is for losers. The presenter had no interesting or probing questions to ask. A few helicopter shots are no substitute. When was this made? Do C4 realise that houseprice are sliding downward faster than at any time in the last 50 years? Tonight's news has the head of Nationwide (UK's biggest lender) predicting 25% down over the next 18 months. Four hours of tv of this social irrelevance, low standard and lack of depth is four hours wasted.

Posted by jan weddup on 08/09/2008 23:15:03

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