Caught this on Netflix and I’m fascinated. British city dwellers looking to relocate to the countryside. If you read Harlequins and bodice rippers like I did when I was young, you’d probably like it to. How I knew I wasn’t watching House Hunters? This exchange in the first episode I watched:
Husband: Oh. You’ve shown me a yellow thatched house.
Presenter: What’s wrong with that?
Husband: I don’t like yellow houses.
Wife: Paint’s a thing, you know.
Husband: Yes. Of course it is.
Also, nobody ever buys a house. The people showing the houses are “presenters” and not agents. In England you can live inside a National Park. There are towns and villages in them. It also seems as if buying real estate in England is quite different than buying in the states. And, oh my God, the English countryside is BEAUTIFUL. Plus, it ain’t no thing to buy a house with orchards. And what the hell is a paddock, exactly?
The hosts of television shows in England are often called “presenters”. Maybe they use that term for the person presenting the show, not because they’re presenting the houses.
Blimey, the things you find on Netflix, who knew Escape to the Country has left this Sceptred Isle? We love property programmes, I think it’s a bit of a national obsession. Look out for ‘Location Location Location’ - the presenters are a scream (and are professional property people, unlike the presenters in Escape to the Country). Then there’s a “Place In The Sun” for holiday-home buyers (and they look at property in the USas well as sunny places in Europe), then “A Place in the Sun (winter sun)”… and on and on.
Yes they do! (sometimes). But it certainly not a prerequisite of the programme.
Ah yes, well, that’s because the houses and villages got there before the national parks did.
House buying in the UK is a like a game of russian roulette. Any system must be better than hours.
Rain = very green landscapes.
LOL, well, why would you move to the countryside if you couldn’t get your own orchard/paddock/barn/croquet lawn/duck pond?
Escape to the Country is a skewed vision of things though - the people they have on the show have what (to most of us) are ridiculous amounts of cash to spend on a property. And whilst you can indeed live inside a national park, it’s sometimes far from ideal because the planning restrictions are far stricter than you’d get outside the parks. F’rinstance, building an extension to your property can mean not building higher than surrounding places, using local materials to match the colour of everything else, someone once had a proper fight with the planners about additional power lines from the main pylon because it would ruin the look of the surrounding area…
These restrictions seem minimal for the privilege of living in a national park. There are block associations in the US with stricter requirements. Plus, as far as I know, you cannot build in our National Parks at all. Granted, we have a lot more room than you do.
And as for price-- you’ve got to be kidding me! 290,000 pounds ($399,000) gets you a 4 bedroom house, a half an acre yard, orchards and a paddock! It seems to me that most of the people on Escape are retirees from seemingly well-paying jobs who are selling homes in the city. On House Hunters you’ve got 2 newly married 20 year old first time home buyers-- a stay-at-home mom who works from home painting rocks and her husband, a professional dog walker-- buying half a million dollar properties.
I must say though that English homes are soooo tiny inside. Especially the really old ones with what looks like 7 foot ceilings. My teeny, tiny house looks palatial in comparison to some of these homes.
I binge watched this with my best friend- we both dream of a UK escape one day… that’s what happens when you’ve lived all your life in a ridiculously bleak desert.
Oh totally! Those little country cottages where built for tiny peasants, not for fridges, dishwashers and L-shaped sofas. I wouldn’t fancy it myself - well, unless it was a huge old farmhouse or manor house.
I don’t live in London anymore - escaped myself, but only to a smaller city (Bristol). I think all that rolling pasture would have been too much of a culture shock. Nice for a weekend stroll, but otherwise I like being able to walk to a selection of restaurants.
:dubious: £290,000 might get a 4 bedroom semi-detached in a housing estate with a postage stamp lawn in this area, or possibly a derelict house with land.
Granted, it does vary by area (the North East is known for having low house prices), but that’s very cheap for what you describe, £500,000 is more typical for 4 bedrooms + a few acres, and it can be double that in a real popular area.