You and Yours

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You and Yours: First Time Buyers; Quarantine Hotels; Gift Card Scams

13/04/2021

First Time Buyers; Quarantine Hotels; Gift Card Scams

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, First Time Buyers; Quarantine Hotels; Gift Card Scams

Inside the frenzied world of home buying in the most competitive housing market in years.

Inside the frenzied world of home buying in the most competitive housing market in years, plus the people quarantined in hotel rooms who are not fit enough to be confined.

More than 28,000 people have had to isolate in hotels at their own expense this year, even people who are really not fit enough to be confined to a small room for days on end. It costs £1750 per single adult and sometimes, in very poor conditions. We speak to two people who share their traumatic experiences of having to quarantine for 10 days.

Wood panelling is very popular at the moment. Interior designers are posting pictures of rooms covered in it, all over Instagram. Panelling started being used in the 15th century, as a way to insulate rooms. Google says searches for wall panelling DIY have more than doubled in the past year. We look at why their's been a recent resurgence in the trend.

Generic images that are used to illustrate everything from news stories, blogs and websites, to ads and other promotional material. They're called stock photos and are regularly used by lots of different media companies to depict a story. Even though stock images might the lack glamour and prestige of other types of photography, they're still in huge demand and can be very lucrative to make. We hear from photographer who explains why there is money in it...

The stamp duty holiday, which came into effect last July was put in place to help buyers who were financially affected by Covid and to boost the property market during lock-down. It's created a bit of a buying frenzy with many houses seeing more than 10 offers being put on them within just days of being listed. We follow buyers as they try and get their foot on the ladder.

And millions of people sell their possessions on online marketplaces like Ebay or Gumtree, but this programme has learned how people selling their goods online are being targeted in a growing scam involving gift cards, which could result in losing hundreds of pounds.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Jay Unger

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You and Yours

First Time Buyers; Quarantine Hotels; Gift Card Scams

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