by Michelle Thomas
Newcomers to Sydney can’t help but notice a number of things: the beautiful harbour, the terrible traffic, the sandy beaches, and the pollution that is among it all.
But something else visitors tend to comment on is Sydney’s obsession with real estate.
It dominates our dinner party conversations (or so I hear), and open-house sticky-beaking is a popular Saturday morning sport. Great wads of news-paper are devoted to it, and, of course, it turns up on TV.
What is this city’s most popular show at the moment? It’s The Block (Channel 9), which displays the antics of four couples renovating four units in Bondi. They will ultimately compete for the most profit at auction, and the winner will get their hands on the $100,000 prize. More than once, competitors have mentioned what they intend to do with the money. It won’t be a world trip or a share portfolio. Nah, not in Sydney. It’ll go to the mortgage, naturally.
The Block is just the most recent and most successful among the rash of ‘real estate’ programs. There’s also Hot Auctions, Location, Location and Auction Squad. And the obsession with our homes doesn’t stop at the selling price. Once we have the title deeds in our hot little hands, we need someone to tell us how to renovate, decorate and do up the backyard. That’s where you can take your pick from among these shows: Backyard Blitz, Burke’s Backyard, Better Homes and Gardens, Ground Force, Renovation Rescue and Gardening Australia.
Of course, the best shows combine two or even three elements, such as The Block (renovate, decorate, then sell).
One theory for this obsession with our houses is that we are ‘cocooning’, wrapping ourselves up in the safety of our homes against the chilly, old world. But, less generously and I think more accurately, it could also be interpreted as plain, old-fashioned greed. What can I get? What have you got? Why haven’t I got what you’ve got?
When you think about sinful television viewing, maybe a late-night ‘adult drama’ comes to mind. But I think one of its more subtle manifestations is sitting innocuously in the family viewing timeslot, with a gavel in one hand and a paintbrush in the other.
