Interior design TV shows multiply with real estate boom

The explanation is, according to Catalina Balasoiu, mass media coordinator for Prima TV, the fact that the real estate market in Romania is in full growth and the public is increasingly keen to learn as much as possible about this field.
Prima TV added its own new show to this series recerntly. Called “Building Site,” it addresses viewers, aged between 15 and 44, a city-dweller, of middle to high-level education and medium to high salary.
The first cut of the reality show “Building Site,” produced by Prima TV and Paprika, took place in September. Up for grabs is a prize amounting to EUR 50,000 for which four couples aged between 20 and 35 will compete against each other. Their mission is to finish building and arranging a house, which will then be sold by auction. In 12 weeks using a given budget of EUR 50,000, which they will not be allowed to exceed, they will have to entirely furnish and decorate the house while at the same time keeping their current jobs. The show, which will be broadcast by Prima TV beginning with October, follows an international format that has been applied in fifteen other countries as well, under the name “The Block.” The program combines the interior decoration component with that of a reality show. In selecting the couples, the organizers focused more on the entertainment component. The idea for organizing this show appeared some time ago but producers felt that only now was it time to launch it on the market, says Prima's Balasoiu. Since it is an extensive project, preproduction lasted for about five months. So far it is still too early to foresee how many seasons it will run for since it all depends on how the first edition goes.
Total production costs amounted to EUR 1 million. “The cost of the show is very high and it surpasses, by a lot, the cost of a one-hour show. At the end of the show, we will try to cover the production costs and obviously make a profit,” Balasoiu told Business Review. The houses that will undergo decoration were bought by the production company and the surplus money coming from the auction will be used to cover the production costs.
In addition to “Building Site,” Prima TV also has another program which tackles interior design entitled “S.O.S. Save My House,” which it also intends to keep in the schedules. According to Balasoiu, what makes these two shows different from each other is the reality show component of “Building Site.”
In “S.O.S…” a team of professionals radically transforms a room in the apartment of the people who applied to the show and comes up with the brightest interior design solutions, while “Building Site” involves members of the public.
The houses that will undergo decoration in “Building Site” are part of the intensive real estate project Greenfield. An entire neighborhood will be built in the northern part of Bucharest, several minutes from the Henri Coanda and Baneasa Airports, which will include apartments and villas for 3,500 families, a business area, and a commercial area which will comprise a mall and shops. There will also be schools, kindergartens, sports facilities, a church and a medical center and much of the surface will be dedicated to green spaces.

Otilia Haraga