One A Place In The Sun buyer broke down in tears outside a stunning apartment in Italy – before flooring the host with a shock U-turn and blunt seven-word verdict
Married couple textile designer Natasha and bathroom designer Tim, from Gloucestershire, wanted to buy a holiday home in the city of Lucca, Tuscany, for £130,000.
The pair enlisted help from Jasmine Harman and asked for 2 to 3 bedrooms with outdoor space, reasonably easy access and as central a location as possible.
The second property stood out to the couple and Natasha couldn’t contain her emotions when she saw it.
Natasha and Tim were very impressed and couldn’t believe it when they were told that the asking price was £103,000.
Tim joked: ‘Right, sold.’
A Place In The Sun buyer breaks down in tears outside stunning apartment – before flooring host with shock U-turn and blunt seven-word verdict
Married couple textile designer Natasha and bathroom designer Tim, from Gloucestershire, wanted to buy a holiday home in the city of Lucca, Tuscany, for £130,000 – and she fell in love with the second property (pictured)
While Natasha fought back the tears as she added: ‘I’m in shock!’
Jasmine asked: ‘Tell me what’s going on Natasha?!’
Natasha replied: ‘Just the architecture, where it is. You’ve blown my mind.’
Despite falling in love with the one-bedroom property, they stunned Jasmine as just minutes later they decided it wasn’t one for them.
After entering the apartment Natasha admitted she was struggling to ‘get a feel for the space,’ while Tim took issue with the small windows, which couldn’t be changed since the building was listed.
Tim said: ‘With deep regrets, it is not a contender.’
Meanwhile Natasha solemnly admitted that she ‘really wanted it to work,’ before stressing that she saw more potential in the first property they viewed.
The first floor apartment had two bedrooms, a terrace, large bathroom and a utility room, over a modern, open-plan design.
After the viewing Natasha and Tim both agreed the property was “in with a chance” of becoming their dream home, with Natasha being “pleasantly surprised”.
However they conceded that the proximity to a busy road was ‘not ideal,’ despite the bargain price of £123,000 – around half the price of properties located within the walls of Luca, according to Jasmine.
In the end, it was the the fifth and final property that showed the most promise.
In Nozzano Castello, the three-bedroom abode was priced under £138,000.
It boasted a large terrace perfect for al fresco cooking and a roomy interior, the viewers left the property pleased.
Natasha said: “We both love it and on the same page, it has knocked the first one off radar.”
Tim later announced that Jasmine had “nailed it” in a promising update.
Unfortunately the praise didn’t last long as the pair ultimately rejected every property because ‘the pros and cons list had more cons.’
Explaining their rationale, Tim, who suffers from MS, expressed concerns about the stairs, admitting he doesn’t know what may happen as the condition progresses in the future.
However they insisted that they would return to look for more properties in the area in the future.
After having time to think about it, the married couple turned down all properties viewed. They stated the reason being that the “pros and cons list had more cons.”
The pair enlisted help from Jasmine Harman and asked for 2 to 3 bedrooms with outdoor space, reasonably easy access and as central as possible
It comes after an A Place In The Sun couple demanded ‘a champagne house with a lemonade budget’ leaving host Craig Rowe exasperated with a damning six-word verdict after their car crash property tours.
An instalment of the Channel 4 show which aired last week saw married couple, Jane and James, ask Craig to help find them a holiday home in Crete.
James, a semi-retired builder, and Jane, a retired dancer, had a budget of £125,000 with wiggle room of £5,000.
However, as the episode went on, the couple failed to be won over by any of the properties Craig presented to them.
In the end, they did increase their budget by £30,000, giving Craig the chance to show them another possibility but they still weren’t impressed.
Sitting down the the Channel 4 star, James and Jane confessed that they had realised they needed to rethink their options.
Jane sheepishly admitted: ‘We got ourselves a bit confused.’
She added: ‘What we thought we wanted, when it came to it, maybe it wasn’t that at all. Maybe we want something different.’
James commented: ‘We like quirky, we like different, but I think as a holiday home we don’t want to come out here and do a lot of maintenance work, we want to come out here and enjoy it.’
The couple revealed they feel they have ‘more of an idea’ what they would be looking for and will still try and find a property in the area.
They thanked Craig, who wished them the best, ‘I appreciate of course you’ve learnt a lot from the journey,’ he said.
Discussing their property dreams, the couple joked, ‘We want a champagne house with a lemonade budget.’
Craig laughed and Jane clarified they were hoping for ‘two bedrooms, two bathrooms, somewhere quite quiet, fishing village something like that by the sea’.
A Place In The Sun airs on Channel 4.
