As Dream Home recently handed its winner a $100,000 prize, and the 20th season of The Block is about to premiere, a casting callout for a local version of House Hunters is sending potential home owners and DIY renovators into top gear.

At last count, there were 10 home renovation shows on the free-to-air networks and BVOD in Australia, while a quick look at  streaming giant Netflix is offering nine “fix your space” shows.

ABC lifestyle series, Grand Designs Transformations, attracted one million viewers alone in its first episode since its launch earlier this year.

Two home owners in each episode turned their homes into their dream homes, and the ABC’s screen content boss Jennifer Collins said she was “thrilled to see the show resonating so strongly with our audience”.

Now, House Hunters Australia is offering an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at “one of life’s most significant journeys – buying a new home,” reads the blurb on the live application form.

“Join us as we follow your search, from exploring open houses to making that life-changing offer. Each episode captures the highs, lows, and excitement of finding the perfect place to call your own.”

With home ownership steadily falling outside the reach of many Australians, especially first-home buyers, with interest rates remaining high, home renovation shows are seen as a practical tool to get ahead.

After all, our house is our biggest asset, right?

Fix up your home and increase its value for sale, or get ideas on how to renovate the bathroom, kitchen or garden to make your home more liveable (replacing holidays), or watch talented architects, builders and designers work to a client’s budget and transform unique properties into masterpieces.

And then there’s shows like the popular Selling Houses Australia and now our version of House Hunters, which aims to shed light on  how to enter the housing market.

People ‘hate-watch’ House Hunters

The long-running US version of House Hunters, which premiered in 1999 on Warner Bros Discovery’s lifestyle channel, HGTV, selects families, singles and couples who are far into their home ownership journey.

With the help of a real estate agent, who also has to audition, producers are looking for compelling storylines and talent.

They must be doing something right as it has been on air for 24 years, produced an incredible 243 seasons with at least 16 spinoffs including Nine’s Country House Hunters hosted by Catriona Rowntree.

Viewers can’t get enough of it, variously describing it as “oddly addictive” and “hate-watching” reality TV.

One US blogger on Apartment Therapy summed up the show after she watched an episode during a flight.

“The husband’s main requirement for their new home was a room with a view of a sloth,” Jennifer Nied wrote.

“It was completely ridiculous, and I disagreed with every demand the couple made.

“Still, I couldn’t turn it off until I knew what happened.

“We were hate-watching House Hunters, and we’re far from alone.”

Nied referenced data analytics company, Canva, which compared Nielsen ratings with social media commentary on TV shows, and found the more viewers hated House Hunters, the more they watched.

It found a whole community online who complained about everything from the “flaws and faults in the people, demands, agents [and the] final house choice”.

And Flinders University psychologist Michael Wenzel says it’s all about “self-affirmation”.

“I assume people who ‘hate watch’ get a form of self-affirmation out of it, because an act of despising something else, and particularly shared conversations with others in which they jointly criticise or ridicule the despised show, can affirm who they are, what they believe in, and the superiority of their identity and values,” he told The New Daily. 

Enticing

For many fans of lifestyle reality TV, it’s an enticing guilty pleasure.

And the reason why is best explained by Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud, who will be celebrating 25 years of the much-loved home building show.

He described a typical storyline to the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year: “The first part is exposition, the second part is ‘oh no, will they, won’t they, they’re idiots’. Part three is ‘oh wait, they’re heroes’.”

McCloud insists the success of the show, which has been sold to more than 140 countries and one with our own version, “is its essential truth”.

“These people are doing this voluntarily. They’re not being paid, and they’re letting us into their lives.”