Episode 4 Young, Rich and House Hunting

I want to live here.

Up and down the country, super rich teens and twenty-somethings

are snapping up the hottest properties money can buy.

-This is where the mistress would be.

-You could hide your lover in here when your husband gets home.

How To Be A Property Millionaire - I like to read that.

Unless you've got a trust fund, or being bankrolled by mum and dad.

Some people work all their life to become a millionaire,

I just adopted it.

The average first time buyer now reaches a whopping 38 years old.

-38?! Bloody hell!

-You're joking. You're practically your dad.

As Britain's youth are in danger of becoming a generation who can't afford to buy their own homes,

this series follows some of the UK's most affluent young people.

I don't care about the money.

80 bottles of Dom Perignon, a few bottles of Cristal - standard weekend, really.

I'll make 100 times as much in 10 years.

As they hunt for their perfect pads...

Yeah, this is a bit amazing.

-Oh, I love this.

-Oh, my god.

And there's a walk-in wardrobe!

..and go on a serious spending spree.

That's the sort of theme I want to be going for, cos £700 is a good bargain.

It's going to be extortionate.

This one is 420,000.

799,950.

On the market for about 2.25 million.

There is no doubt in my mind, I've become obsessed with property.

-Have we got it?

-Yeah!

-Thank God!

In tonight's show, a 17 and 18-year-old brother and sister

with a £600,000 cash budget.

Ideally, we'll buy it tomorrow. That'd be perfect. You go to school, we have a house,

I go to Thailand, we have a house. Go skiing, have a house.

A 25-year-old WAG after the ultimate wardrobe.

This is clearly all of mine,

and this would be Stephen's.

And a 19-year-old cash buyer wants to splash 400 grand

on something as eccentric as he is.

-It was a

-BLEEP

-cave.

Say bonjour to Gai.

Hello, I'm Gai. I'm 19.

I'm looking for a house to buy.

I'm looking at places around 350 or £400,000.

Originally from France, Gai flew the nest four months ago

and landed in London to go to uni.

I don't know why I'm in the UK, I just decided to go study somewhere.

I suppose London was first on my priority list.

Gai prides himself on his impulsivity.

And his latest urge is to buy a place in London's fashionable Notting Hill,

which suits his unconventional taste.

I'm looking for an old property with high ceilings, big windows,

as much wood as possible inside.

He has a cash budget of £400,000,

but at 19, having so much money brings mixed feelings.

You don't just get things by doing nothing.

What have I done?

-I haven't done

-BLEEP.

-I've inherited money from my father.

Property could be a way for Gai to look after his fortune.

Anyone who has a bit of money obviously wants to do good stuff with it.

Eventually, if possible, make it grow.

His challenge is to find a property that's both a sensible investment,

while being as eccentric as he is.

Gai isn't the only teenager who has hundreds of thousands of pounds inheritance.

Hello, I'm Amelia. I'm 18.

-Hello, I'm Henry and I'm 17 and I'm looking to buy a property with my sister.

-With me.

I've got 600,000 to spend.

-You haven't, we've got 600,000 to spend.

-We're chipping in together.

But this pair know nothing about property...

Let's have a look.

..yet.

We used to look at doll's houses together,

when we were really little, when we were, like, five and six. Cut that!

SHE LAUGHS

This is like shopping, but, like, major shopping.

What they lack in experience, they make up for in funds.

Perfect. We're putting 300,000 in each.

Yeah, it's like, inheritance, which I'm really lucky for.

We don't want to go into any mortgage or loans or anything like that,

or ask parents for money or anything like that.

So we just want to be safe. Get, like, on the property ladder

while we're young and it's really exciting.

W-o-o-o-o!

At 17, Henry spends most of his time either at boarding school or playing in a band.

So it's up to 18-year-old Amelia to find them their perfect pad.

Location is everything

and the new home has to be in West London's exclusive Chelsea.

-It's the centre of the world.

-Yeah, exactly.

You can literally just get a tube to King's Cross, St Pancreas and Eurostar.

Exactly.

-Like, to go to Mumbai.

-Yeah, I'm going to Mumbai.

The pair have just seven weeks to buy a flat before Amelia goes travelling.

I'm on my gap year.

When I get back from travelling it'd be really nice to have, sort of, my own flat

and get out into the real world.

I think we're going to go out there and look for a bargain. So, bargain hunt.

-Meet Jess.

-My name is Jessica Lawlor.

I'm 25 years old and the budget that I'm working with

is between one and two million.

Jess is the girlfriend of Premiership footballer Stephen Ireland.

She's spent the last two years perfecting their £4 million Cheshire mansion.

I love the house.

Every room, I feel, has the wow factor.

We had real fun with the kid's rooms.

We've got a little wardrobe in here.

That's one lucky four-year-old.

As well as wardrobes the same size as most people's bedrooms...

So, this is my dressing room.

..Jess thinks that individual bathrooms are a must.

So, this is my bathroom.

You know, I don't use it that much because it just takes so long to, obviously, fill.

Quite a big bath.

But she hasn't always lived in a palace.

The first time I was ever in a house like this was when we started going house hunting.

You know, we're working class background, that's where we came from and that's us.

And now, obviously, you know, it's great to have this.

It's good to be able to make the comparison cos you have to feel that you appreciate it more.

One of the downsides of dating a Premiership footballer is the nomadic lifestyle.

Stephen's recent transfer to Aston Villa means Jess now has to find another home in Birmingham.

We're really family orientated, so it's important that home is perfect.

Never knowing when you'll be uprooted next is a dilemma her fellow WAGS sympathise with.

It's a massive upheaval for the whole family.

You've got to find somewhere that you could potentially sell on,

but you have to make sure it's a home as well.

I don't think we're going to find anything like this in Birmingham for the budget that we'll be using.

Jess ONLY has two million to spend,

just half the value of her current house.

It's the first day of Jess's house hunt and she's drafted her mum, Maureen, in to help.

-That's really country.

-There's some really nice villages in Lichfield,

and it's not that far from the training ground.

No, that's where it is.

I used to live in Birmingham. That's where she wants to move,

so I'm sort of giving her advice

and to, kind of, know what to look for in a house.

Mum and daughter's house experiences are worlds apart.

My first house was 37,000.

That's absolutely nothing now, is it?

It seems nothing now, but then, it was an awful lot of money.

What Maureen spent on her first house, Stephen Ireland earns in less than seven days,

with a weekly salary of around £50,000.

She's going to have so much more choice,

obviously she has a different budget to what...

obviously what we had and probably many other people have,

so she'll be able to have that advantage.

She might have a high budget, but Jess also has high standards,

and as she drives up to this eight bedroom,

£2.9 million house, she spots a problem.

Other people live on the street.

Hi, Bob. Hi, Mary.

It'll be weird. I'm not used to having neighbours.

No self-respecting WAG wants to be overlooked or within the sights of the paparazzi.

Hmmm, it's OK.

Stephen would love this house.

-What would Stephen think to this?

-Excellent.

It's wonderful, isn't it?

Oh.

It's massive.

-So, this is a shared wardrobe, yeah?

-Yeah.

This is clearly all of mine,

and this would be Stephen's.

To me, this is actually, my God, this is a really big wardrobe for me.

And it is to me, too. What do you think I am?

The Queen or something overnight?

I mean, obviously when I used to live at home,

my wardrobe was, like, that size.

What this house lacks in wardrobe space,

it makes up for in other areas.

-Oh, that's gorgeous. The bath is lovely.

-Isn't it?

I've never seen so many bathrooms in my whole life in a house.

-How many bathrooms have you got?

-Um, nothing compared to this.

-Well, wait a minute, you've got nearly seven, Jessica.

-I don't.

You do.

-You've got two upstairs, and then you have...

-Yeah, cos...

..the kids have got one each, so that's five.

Feel like we're sharing a bathroom compared to this house.

With more bathrooms than Jess could ever need,

this house could be perfect.

I keep looking out that window

and the only thing that puts me off is out the front.

That's so open.

Do you know what I mean?

Teenager Amelia's never bought a house before,

so she's asked for advice from an expert.

I walked past the estate agent a few times,

took a deep breath,

went in the door and said "Please may I buy a house?"

and they said,

"OK, you know, she's new. Obviously never done this before."

Amelia's 600 grand budget

doesn't get you much in Kensington and Chelsea,

where the average property costs 1.3 million.

So, the agents arrange for her to see a flat in the much cheaper neighbouring Hammersmith.

It'll be quite exciting. I do like new things.

Amelia's never considered living so far away from her beloved Chelsea.

I'd love to be down there, that we passed.

But, now we're going a bit...

We'll see. We'll see.

-Oh, this is nice.

-Yeah.

No, this is, it's very nice but,

it's just a shame it's in Hammersmith.

I mean obviously Sloane Square and Chelsea,

and just off the King's Road are one of the most expensive in London.

A lot of people do come to Parson's Green and around Fulham,

just cos you get more for your money.

-Let's move the house.

-Plonk it somewhere in Chelsea.

-Yeah.

I don't want to live anywhere else.

I wouldn't want to live this far out.

It's like, I might as well live in Bristol.

Yeah! Rock star.

Unconventional Gai has 400 grand cash to spend on a new home.

He and uni friend, Ari, are viewing a flat in London's Notting Hill.

I think this street is BLEEP cool.

The buildings are quite high and it's only got three floors,

so every floor is, like, really high.

It's got really high ceilings and windows. Right now, I feel in London.

And for Gai, a home should reflect your individuality.

Loads of people who buy old... re-do all these flats, just make...

and it's, like, mass production - they all look the same, they've got the same furniture.

White walls. Why white walls? Why should walls be white? You know?

-Hi, nice to meet you.

-Hi Frances, how are you?

-And you are?

-Ari.

-Hi, Ari. Nice to meet you.

Right, this is the building, OK?

And the flat we're going to look at is in the lower ground floor.

-Is it the basement? OK.

-It's the basement, yeah.

-And so it's a one bedroom?

-One bedroom flat, yeah. It's quite a low ceiling height.

-The bathroom's quite modern.

-Yeah.

And then there's a storage cupboard there.

Then you've got here - this is your living room.

It's tough to big up a cramped, one bed flat with no daylight.

And then you've got here - open-plan kitchen.

Especially when it's priced at 420,000.

So, you don't get a lot of sun.

-Nope?

-OK?

It was a BLEEP cave.

It was funny the way you said, "I want wooden floors and..."

Yeah, wooden floors, high ceilings

and big windows, bay windows.

No windows, no ceilings, no floors. Nothing.

Welcome to London, Gai,

where property prices are 75 per cent higher than the rest of the country.

In Birmingham, you should get more of a bargain.

But with a budget of up to 2 million,

25-year-old Jess can afford to be fussy.

And you've got the formal drawing room in here.

Right, OK.

-But you could still put big, modern sofas in here and then...

-Yeah, definitely...

-..start with your own.

-..have to do that.

-I bet their furniture is worth a fortune. It's all antique, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-I feel like I'm in a museum.

-Like stepping back in time.

It's definitely the wild card, but knowing Jess's penchant for bathrooms,

the en-suites might just bring her round.

Oh, my goodness! It's like...

-I have never, ever seen such a mix match...

-No, never.

-..in my life!

-No.

It's the bathroom is unbelievably modern

and then it's like they forgot about the rest of the house.

You get a shock when you come in here, don't you?

I have never, ever seen a house like that before.

-I think, you know, good to see it. Do you know?

-OK, right.

You remember that programme,

-Through The Keyhole, who lives in a house like this?

-Yeah.

The last people on the list of who lives in...

if that was our house, would be me and Stephen, that they'd pick.

Despite having £400,000 to spend on a new home, Gai's been renting a small bedsit

and Ari is about to see it for the first time.

I took this flat because I didn't have, really,

anywhere to stay and I had to find a flat

before starting school.

I just want to put mirrors and clocks all over.

Makes it a bit spooky.

Paint the walls black.

-You can't have your living room in black.

-I can.

If the state of your home reflects the state of your mind,

Ari is worried about his friend.

Lives every day like it was the last.

Messing about and just, like, smoking cigarettes after cigarettes,

finishing his red wine.

He lives in chaos.

Gai's life might be in disarray,

but he's been comforting himself by buying antique furniture.

Oh, I actually got some, if you look through it. Look in my eyes.

How big do they look to you?

-How cool is that?

-I think this flat is too small for this kind of furniture.

If you're staying in London I would highly recommend that he moves out of here.

It's just terrible. Nothing makes sense in this flat.

-I don't want things to make sense.

-No, but if you just know that...

-Follow my...

-..it's about really bad taste.

..follow my own penchant.

This flat makes sense in a bad way.

In a way that you don't want a flat to make sense, or not make sense.

That made sense.

So far, Jess's hunt for a new home in Birmingham has proved unsuccessful.

-Do you want to have a look at the views from the back?

-Yeah.

She's now viewing a £1.7 million mansion that used to belong to another footballer.

Fingers crossed, this is the one.

So would you consider an older house and then refurbish it inside?

Eventually, maybe. But not now.

We could end up moving again in a year. It's so unpredictable.

-You're looking for something that's...

-Ready.

-..that you can literally move into.

-Yeah. Um, yeah.

-After you.

-Thank you.

-I'll let you go into the master bedroom first...

-Ah, the master bedroom.

..cos it's so wow.

-It's like a round room, isn't it?

-Semi-round room.

-Whoa!

-It's weird in here, isn't it?

-Isn't it great?

I don't think you can help but be drawn to the views.

Oh, my God, is that a riding pen?

Yeah, they've got stables, a menage and a paddock.

You feel like you need to get horses to live here, cos what else are you going to do with it?

There's lots of riding opportunities here,

which is why these people kept horses.

Jess hasn't ridden a horse since she was eight.

-OK?

-OK. Come on, then.

-Just not for me.

-Yeah.

-The whole house is just based around horses.

-Yeah, absolutely.

I'd be embarrassed bringing people and they're like, "What's that over there?"

and it's like, "Oh, well, stables, a pen, a walkway for the horses"

-and they're like "Where's your horses?"

-Yeah.

Amelia is under pressure.

There's only five weeks left to find a flat before she goes travelling.

She's been told it's almost impossible to find a two bedroom flat in Chelsea

within her 600 grand budget.

I'm just really excited. Why? Because it's off the King's Road.

-That's all she cares about.

-Yeah.

-She won't move anywhere other than the King's Road.

-Yeah.

But this 18-year-old seems to have come up trumps

and has arranged a viewing with her brother for exactly that.

-It's nice, isn't it?

-Yeah. No, it's lovely.

They've got the lighting just right.

-Yeah, they've got the atmosphere.

-It is really good.

No, it's great. Like, I love all the trimmings.

THEY LAUGH

This is everything Amelia has dreamt of.

Two bedrooms, period property, just off the King's Road, and all within budget.

And this is bedroom two.

There must be a catch.

Yeah, this room is...

quite small.

Ever the optimists, these teenage house hunters won't let a small thing like space

get in the way of their dream location.

-OK, I'd have this as, like, a sofa. Like, the room is a sofa.

-The room as a sofa.

So everyone can just sit on the sofa.

-You could eat...no, you couldn't.

-What?

-I was going to have a table in here, but you couldn't...

-Dining room!

Luckily for Henry, he's still at boarding school,

otherwise this would be his bedroom.

-How much is it?

-It's about six.

-Is it 595?

-Six what?

-600,000.

Cool.

-So, what do you think to that?

-I love it.

That went really well. I think I'm going to put in an offer.

It's pretty perfect. What I thought it would be.

After the disappointment of the previous cramped property,

Gai's still on the hunt for a home as eccentric as he is.

Welcome to the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum,

where a unique flat has come onto the market for 385,000.

And Gai is being shown around by the proud owner.

DOOR CREAKS

-It's quite large, but it's full of furniture at the moment, as you can see.

-Yeah.

PARROT CAWS

-Hello.

-He's talking to me.

-Hello.

Him and I understand each other.

It was used as an asylum, apparently, as well, was it?

Um, it was built as an orphanage for the daughters

of the soldiers who died during the Crimean War.

-Oh, OK.

-Yeah, it wasn't... It didn't have any...

mental patients.

This is the secret panel with the fake books to hide the bathroom.

It's probably haunted.

-It's very quiet.

-No ghosts?

-No ghost.

-Do you want a ghost?

-Yes.

Well, then, you know, I think there is one in the cellar.

But it seems there are limits to the level of madness that even Gai is willing to embrace.

-I'll be in touch.

-Thanks, bye.

-Thank you. Bye. Sorry, take care.

It makes no sense.

An asylum flat with asylum people.

BIRDS CAW

With asylum birds everywhere.

Yesterday, Amelia put an offer on her dream home,

but she's hit an obstacle.

Yeah, I had a huge argument with Daddy last night.

Because it's a basement flat he said that they'd just put a lick of paint over the walls to hide everything.

-Oh, really?

-They're a nuisance for damp.

Amelia's running out of time before she goes travelling.

She's pinning her hopes on a period property just a five minute cab ride from the King's Road.

-Although it has a garden, on ground level.

-That's cool.

-If it's basement.

-Let's hope it's not.

-Let's hope it's not.

Please don't be a basement.

-Hello. Fine, thank you.

-Right, we are down here.

Ah, not another basement flat.

-Oh.

-Sorry.

-Thank you.

It's exactly what they dreaded.

But after a lifetime of good breeding,

Henry and Amelia are far too polite to hurt anyone's feelings.

-It's a double bedroom...

-That's nice.

..with built-in storage on the left hand side.

I like the decoration.

Yeah.

Bathroom.

I like this.

-Mm.

-It's all... It's lit up and...

-Kitchen.

-Kitchen.

-It's small, but...

-Yeah, I know, but then...

Yeah, definitely.

-It's really stylish.

-It's got a bit of charm, a bit of character.

-It's very French.

-Very...

-Very Parisian.

-..chic.

Daddy told me last night not to buy a basement flat.

Go to see a flat, it's a basement flat, really nice,

but ultimately it is a basement flat.

I'd love to find it before I go travelling.

-Ideally, we'll buy it tomorrow.

-Yeah.

-That'd be perfect.

Then you go to school, we have a house. I go to Thailand, we have a house.

Go skiing, have a house.

I want to go on the internet right now cos this is getting stressful,

and then when I go see it I'll just buy the first one I see. Fab.

Amelia is a woman on a mission.

If she's going to buy a flat in three weeks, she's got a lot of work to do.

I'm looking for a two bedroom flat in Pimlico,

not lower basement.

Is it SW1V?

It has to be SW1V, not P, cos as close to Sloane Square as possible.

I've looked round a few, but they were basements and I'm not allowed basements.

So, what's going on here?

They're all really excited to have me as their customer,

so they've all taken my details.

OK, bye. Bye. I almost said lots of love.

I've never been asked my number so many times in a day.

Meanwhile, Gai has received some bad news,

which makes his house hunt all the more urgent.

I got evicted.

I left a pan on the gas.

After hearing the fire alarm going off like five or six times, I didn't realise it was mine.

Smoke was getting out under the door and the whole building was full of smoke.

After almost setting fire to the entire building,

Gai has been given just two weeks to find a new home.

They just don't want me to set the building on fire,

which probably makes sense and so...

Back up in Cheshire and Jess has also had some shocking news.

Stephen is no longer, you know, down in Birmingham

because he's moved clubs from Villa to Newcastle United.

That's just literally changed plans for everything.

There's no point having a property in Birmingham cos we won't be there.

I'm in Manchester at the moment, Stephen's in Newcastle, we were in Birmingham,

it's split between three different cities,

so just have to wait till the summer.

I'm kind of glad, in the end, right now, that we hadn't just,

you know, rushed into it and literally bought a house,

cos we would have been stuck with a house and not even living there.

In London's Notting Hill, Gai's on the move.

Last week, the 19-year-old French student with a £400,000 cash budget,

was forced to find a new home after being evicted.

Just moved everything that was at my place. I'm going to the flat now.

But it could be a blessing in disguise as he's moving from this...

Wow!

..to something far worthier of his antique furniture.

What do you think?

I think it's nice.

In a rush to get a roof over his head, he's ended up with another rental.

-1,300 a month.

-Per person?

-Oh, yeah.

It turns out, that for all his talk of dark interiors,

these white walls are putting a smile on the 19-year-old's face.

I'm very happy to have moved in here.

Not sure I wanted to buy

anything at all in London, at the moment.

Now isn't the time to buy. Definitely not.

Finally, Gai has found his home in London.

Since I moved here, it has changed my mood quite drastically.

For the past two months, he was sleeping all day

and he was not really coming to university,

so I felt like there was something wrong with him.

Every day when he wakes up, there's, like, sparkles in his eyes.

He really likes it, I can tell.

No, it actually did. It changed my life.

Changed my... yeah, it did.

Next time, 18-year-old Amelia continues her house hunt

and spends over half a million on a flat she's never seen.

I don't think I have to look round it either.

This is spontaneity.

We meet 19-year-old businessman Johnny,

with 400 grand to spend on his very first flat.

Next little complex won't be ready till next August.

I'll have to wear a hard hat every time I go out.

And 24-year-old property investor Ed, has a massive 1.5 million

to build his own property empire.

Something like that would go with the theme.

It's got the diamantes, which I really like.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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