A Place in the Sun’s Ben Hillman left open-mouthed as guest compares property to prison cell
PROPERTY expert Ben Hillman was left gobsmacked after an A Place in the Sun guest compared a home to a prison cell.
Ben was showing mother and daughter mother Frankie and Jo around Benalmádena in southern Spain.
The pair had a budget of £130,000 and Ben first found them a two-bedroom apartment not far from the beach.
But the women were not very impressed in the episode that Channel 4 rebroadcast over the weekend.
Jo did not like the size of the bedroom, nor the bars across the windows and compared it to a prison “cell”.
“I’m a little bit disappointed, to be honest,” Jo said at the end of the property inspection.
Frankie added the rooms felt “pokey and claustrophobic”.
Ben was shocked at the reaction and couldn’t get a word in, especially as Frankie said after viewing their fourth property: “I thought you knew me better than that.”
The family duo ended up falling in love with the fifth property Ben showed them, which was £8,000 over their budget.
Frankie and Jo offered £128,000 for the apartment, but after that was rejected they put forward £132,000.
The owner then counter-offered with a price of £133,000, which they would not budge on.
Jo was willing to add the £1,000 to their budget in order to bag their “dream home”.
Along with hosting the popular property show, Ben runs an interior design business in Brighton and Hove.
He recently completed his own self build project in Brighton, facelifting a tired 1970’s purpose built block of flats and adding a new penthouse apartment on the existing flat roof.
In 2010 Ben won ITV’s The Next Big Thing and has presented a series of interior design features on This Morning.
Ben has also filmed three series of The Renovation Game for Channel 4 as well as You Deserve This House, 60 Minute Makeover with Peter Andre and Auction Party.