Channel 4 Orders The Great House Giveaway

Channel 4 has commissioned a new daytime series that will give two strangers the opportunity to own a property of their own for the first time.

The Great House Giveaway sees the two individuals, who have never met and have never owned a home before, provided with a lump sum of money to buy a property at auction. The pair will then have six months to revive the property into a habitable and desirable home and make a sale. Simon O’Brien (Find It, Fix It, Flog It; Lost and Found), a successful property developer himself, will present the series and be on hand to offer tips and tricks to help the teams come away with a profit.

The 20×60-minute series is made by Welsh independent production company Chwarel. It will launch on Channel 4 Daytime later this year.

O’Brien said: “I’m really excited to be fronting this hugely ambitious series for Channel 4. There are loads of rundown properties across the U.K. with huge potential for first-time buyers ready to be brought back to life with some hard work and imagination. I know from experience that renovation can be both challenging and rewarding and I can’t wait to see what our budding developers achieve in their six months.”

Kate Thomas, commissioning editor for Channel 4 Daytime, said: “For many people in the U.K., owning their own property feels like an impossible daydream. In The Great House Giveaway, we are giving some of those people the potentially life-changing opportunity to get their foot on the property ladder, but only if they work hard and work together. This is an extraordinarily bold and ambitious concept, and it’s been pulled off brilliantly by Welsh indie Chwarel, who have been impressively nimble in getting these shows edited and delivered safely.”

Sioned Morys, executive producer at Chwarel, added: “Channel 4 gave us the space and opportunity to get this format right. Over the past year—we have bought and sold 20 houses—in very challenging conditions. We have edited the majority of the series during the Coronavirus pandemic, putting in place remote systems to enable us to do so when we knew that lockdown was a possibility. It’s been brilliant working with Kate and her team–long may it continue.”