What is "Property Ladder"

Property Ladder is a 1 hour television show aired primarily on Channel 4 in the UK.  It is also show repeatedly on various Sky channels.  It is a show that follows the stories of people who have bought properties to renovate and sell on with the aim of making a profit.  The show is presented and narrated by Sarah Beeny - a successful property developer.

The show is formatted thus:

• The people undertaking development of the property are introduced.

• An overview of the plans and expected budget is conducted.

• The presenter then conducts an interview with the developers and usually voices considerable disapproval/criticism at their plans - and outlines how it "should be done"

• Various scenes are shown throughout the development - highlighting in particular any problems that arise

• The presenter conducts a couple more interviews at various stages to catch up on how the development is going.

• Once complete - a summary of the actual cost and some arty before/after morph shots are shown

How we ended up on the show

After having placed an offer on the cottage and had it accepted several weeks before - we were browsing for information on the web and went onto the Property Ladder website to get some ideas and supplier details etc.  The up-coming series was advertised on the website asking for would-be property developers to get in touch.  Having had a few vodkas that night - an e-mail was sent.  A few days later we were contacted by the shows production company who proceeded to send somebody round to interview us and take a look at the cottage - and the rest they say is history.

Why we have started this web page

During 2005 it was decided by the production company that they would follow two developments per episode rather than the usual one.  This we felt, resulted in the show concentrating too much on the negative aspects of the developments (which to be honest - is probably what gets the ratings up anyway).  The format of the show was kept roughly similar - the overview, criticism, summary and arty shots were all kept in there, however the padding i.e. the few positive and informative bits, were cut due to lack of time.  

Of course knowing the program we expected a lot of the criticism that we got on the show.  We also have no problem with the program showing things going wrong (plenty did go wrong - more than enough to fill a 30 minute slot).  In some ways we actually set ourselves up for some of the criticism by joking & playing up to the camera (to anyone who has seen our particular episode - "I've built a brick BBQ" might ring a bell).  However we felt that much of the footage and commentary was taken out of context or was blatantly inaccurate.  Some of the things that we said on camera were also taken out of context, since they film multiple takes asking the same question in different ways and use the ones in the show where you have dug yourself into the deepest hole.  This coupled with swapped timing of events, and "advice" given after the fact was all done in order to make the show appear more dramatic.

Having browsed around on the web - we stumbled upon various forums (see discussions below) in which people were posting rather critical comments about us and our development.  Questions arose as to the safety of the work we carried out and our compliance with planning and building regulations.  At first we were rather angry with these comments and proceeded to set the record straight - however after a while we realised that based on the show that was put out - what are people supposed to believe?  Of course we had complied fully with all planning and building regulations and obtained all of the necessary certifications/inspections, however since none of the footage was shown of us actually doing these things or discussing these important aspects of the development (and there was a lot ~30 hours) - to viewers of the show - these things just didn't happen.

Discussion 1

Discussion 2

Discussion 3

Discussion 4

In conclusion

We hope that this website will give a more balanced view of our development.  We'll be updating it over the coming weeks and months and will try and give as much information as we can - including details of all of the work that we carried out, in what order and also discuss some of the mistakes that we made along the way.  We will also try and provide links to any information resources we found useful during our development.

The moral of this story is:   reality TV................................isn't