A Place in the Sun: Laura Hamilton meets the couple
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During Monday’s rerun of A Place in the Sun, Channel 4 host Laura Hamilton was on a mission to find Gloucestershire couple Sarah and Simon their dream holiday home in Fuerteventura, Spain. The pair fell in love with the country 20 years ago and was hoping to find the perfect property with a budget of £200,000. However, just minutes into the programme, Laura knew she had her work cut out as she realised Sarah and Simon had high expectations.
The property expert told the couple they had to lower their expectations because they were going to struggle to find what they wanted with their budget.
However, Sarah wasn’t having any of it and she quickly shut down the presenter.
Sarah explained the reason it had taken them so long to buy a house abroad was because they were waiting for Simon to retire.
“You’ve been coming here for quite a long time,” Laura began. “So, you have quite a clear idea on where you want to be.”
“Yes, we have,” Simon replied as his wife continued: “I know it makes your life very difficult, but we do love the centre.”
“A beach view would be amazing,” Sarah added as her husband chipped in: “Two bedrooms. Possibly one depending on what you can find us.”
“Definitely an outside space,” he told Laura. “Maybe a pool but ideally we would like sea views.”
Trying to get a better understanding of what the couple were looking for, Laura asked: “Would you say sea views are more important than anything else?”
Sarah explained sea views and having a large outside space were more important to them when finding their perfect property.
“The things you are mentioning, a pool, a view, two bedrooms,” Laura began. “These things come at a price.”
She continued: “And a premium price. How much have you got to spend?”
Simon proceeded to tell the property expert they had a budget of £200,000 but said ideally, they wanted to spend less.
As Laura asked Simon if there was any wriggle room, he promptly shut her down by simply saying: “No!”
As Laura tried to lower their expectations, she pointed out that a frontline two-bedroom apartment with views had recently sold for over £300,000.
“I’ll show you the best options and as close to what we can get with your budget,” Laura said.
But with Simon’s shut down ringing in her ears, Laura had a warning of her own: “But I do need you to be realistic.”
“What we are talking about is our ideal property,” Simon explained. “We recognise that we would have to have compromises.
“And I am sure you will come up with the compromises then we will have to decide which ones we prefer and which we don’t”
Sarah was adamant about getting what she was looking for as she hit back at the expert: “Laura, if it was easy, we would have found it ourselves and we wouldn’t have needed your help.”
The first property Laura took the house hunters to, was a two-bedroom apartment with sea views.
The couple appeared to love the property itself, although Sarah wanted it to be closer to the sea.
At the second holiday home, the pair seemed to be dubious at a first glance, but Sarah went on to admit that it had too much space and she wasn’t “wowed” by it.
Things didn’t get much better for Laura when the couple quickly shut down the third property as Sarah and Simon felt they were making too many compromises.
Laura appeared to get frustrated as she told the couple: “I made it clear from the start that you weren’t going to be able to have everything.”
Simon hit back: “We weren’t expecting that, we told you from the beginning that was our ideal. We are able to make compromises, but the compromises so far aren’t there for us to make.”
Laura seemed to have saved the day with the fourth property as the duo seemed to fall in love with it.
And despite being over their budget, the pair put an offer of £190,000 in for the property which unfortunately didn’t get accepted by the current owner.
A Place in the Sun airs weekdays at 4pm on Channel 4.
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