Channel 7’s new renovation format My Reno Rules has been hailed by the network as the ‘biggest giveaway in Australian television history’, a milestone that brings the total number of Australians owning a home via reality TV giveaway to four.
The show, which premiered in the 7.30pm slot last night, features four teams renovating two side-by-side 1970s red-brick homes in the Melbourne suburb of Bulleen. The homes were bought by a self-made billionaire for a reported combined $2.7 million and will be handed to two lucky home viewers via a live televised raffle.
Housing economists described the initiative as ‘broadly speaking, not a housing policy’.
‘We have approximately 170,000 Australians on the social housing waitlist,’ said a senior policy analyst. ‘My Reno Rules will address 0.001 per cent of that demand, which is, to be fair, 0.001 per cent more than the federal Housing Australia Future Fund has delivered this financial year.’
Viewers took to social media after the first episode, with reactions ranging from ‘not bad’ to ‘this is The Block if you ordered it off Temu’. Asbestos was reportedly discovered in both homes during filming, prompting a two-day pause, before producers pressed on in keeping with the national mood…
The winners of the raffle will be announced during the finale, at which point they will be required to sign a document agreeing to pay stamp duty, land tax, utilities and a lifetime of being introduced at dinner parties as ‘the people who won the Channel 7 house’.
A spokesperson for the network confirmed that losing teams would receive consolation prizes including a gift voucher, a framed certificate and twelve months of being tagged on Instagram by people asking why they didn’t win.
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