A UK mortgage broker has analysed all 124 projects that have featured on Grand Designs UK since the show began in 1999, and it has comes to some surprising conclusions.
The show makes no bones about the emotional and financial stress caused by these works of architectural passion. In fact, seeing couples tear their hair out and break down in tears after a supply chain nightmare or cost over-run is what many of the show's viewers tune in for.
Grand Designs UK host Kevin McCloud. Photo / Getty Images
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Breaking the budget on a renovation is nothing new but the stakes are considerably higher when project is your life's work and the bills are for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Mojo Mortgages found out just how many Grand Designs projects ran into budget woes and break the bank. The research shows 80 percent of homes that featured on the show stretched beyond initial estimates.
"Everyone who builds a house on Grand Designs sets out a budget that they intend to keep within [but] overall, 80 percent of the projects go over budget, with only 8 percent under budget and 7 percent on budget," Mojo Mortgages says.
According to the research, the average starting budget for projects on the show is £371,214 (NZ$690,232). But the final spend is much higher at £495,577 (NZ$921,472).
That means that the average Grand Designer goes over budget by 34 percent - or £124,356 (NZ$231,226).
The research did not take into account house price inflation, but the percentages were calculated using the information at the time of the build.
Mojo Mortgages found that a seaside house on Isle of Wight that featured in the 2014 season of the show went over budget the most - £1.35 million more than originally planned.
The property is currently for sale for £2,949,999, having seen its asking price drop from the original price tag of £3.95 million.
On average, a completed Grand Designs house goes on the market at £1.29 million, according to the research.
Grand Designs NZ has had its fair share of cost blow outs as well. The $450,000 budget for David Fitzmaurice and Joyce Wee's container house on the edge of Christchurch almost doubled in size when they choose to double the size of the home mid-build. And Brendon Poole and Nikki Cliffe's budget for a mixed use build in Auckland's Ponsonby went from around $2 million to more than $5 million.
