Sometimes a television format is overtaken by the market. Martijn Krabbé came up with the program Postponement of Execution in the days when houses were still ‘under water’ – which meant that the mortgage was higher than the market value of the house. People then said things like, “We bought at the right time.” By which they meant that their house was worth less than they once paid for it. Not a disaster in itself, as long as they didn’t move and could stay where they were.
But anyone who wanted (or had to) sell the house due to illness, a divorce, dismissal, debts, or everything at once, had a problem. Just for today’s aspiring buyers who outbid in vain on anything with four walls and a floor: not so long ago, homeowners couldn’t get rid of their bricks on the paving stones. Or yes, but then they were left with a residual debt. Martijn Krabbé jumped into that gap between mortgage and house price fifteen years ago. It was 2007, the financial markets had collapsed, so had the housing market, the banking crisis was imminent and people were gasping in their flooded homes.
In fourteen seasons, 113 episodes, Krabbé helped people who had gotten into financial trouble “through no fault of their own.” Femke, barely an adult, who lost both parents, and was left with her father’s apartment. Or Maarten who got bone marrow cancer and could no longer work. His wife Mirjam took care of him, worked less, earned less and therefore had a mortgage arrears. Dramas and misery abound.
In most cases, the unsaleable owner-occupied house was the millstone and the first step towards a solution. But then it had to be sold for a good price. Permanent contractor Duncan renovated, regular real estate agent Alex cleverly put the renovated house on the market, and financial expert Eef begged banks and mortgage lenders if they would please show a little bit of leniency and wait a while before putting the house up for auction and the residents street. Her motto: “Banks change lives.” Sometimes for the worse, but after her intervention mostly for the better.
Feeling for the housing market
In the last episode of Monday evening, Krabbé looks back on fifteen years of auxiliary television that is no longer needed. He certainly has a good feeling for the housing market, because the program Buy without Looking also comes out of his tube. Not the seller, but the buyer needs help now.
There are still plenty of people left without a house to buy, but with money worries. You see something of that with the poor people who are allowed to figure in the program Chateau AssistanceMonday night. In the last episode, next week, Martien, Erica and daughter Maxime throw a big party to celebrate that they have been released from their month on rations in a terraced house in Uithoorn. They receive a ‘social assistance benefit’ of 476 euros per week. The fixed costs are deducted from this, leaving 58 euros, or 8.30 euros per day for a household of three people. Oh no, because in week three they had money left over (how?!), and there is 14 euros to spend in a day. So you don’t throw a party for a hundred people with that. Unless, like them, you “shop” everything for free. Sponsored bitterballen from the snack bar, three minutes of free shopping in the supermarket, a free party room in the community center. Glorified begging, so to speak, but anyone who really has nothing to do will probably find it humiliating. Just like it is embarrassing to bring collected baby clothes to a mother and her child of 1 and gloat beforehand about how happy she will be with it. “I’m so curious how she reacts.” For example, the good feeling of giving television is very much at the expense of the receiving party.