Homes Under the Hammer shock as buyer drops £1million on house they've never seen

In an episode of BBC’s Homes Under the Hammer, host Martel Maxwell was left astounded. During the show, viewers were introduced to Doug and his wife Sophie.

Doug, who was a property developer, joiner and builder, decided to buy a four-bedroom home in Brixton.

When the South London home went up for auction on the BBC show, it had a guide price of £668,000.

Although Doug splurged a whopping £908,000 on the place to turn into a home for himself and his wife. Speaking to Martel about the purchase it seemed as though he had no regrets.

He told the BBC star: “We're going to move in here, a bit of an upgrade from the one-bedroom flat we're in at the moment."

However, Martel was a bit stunned at the high price tag as she questioned him more about it. She said: “I'm guessing you'd viewed it and really knew that you wanted it to commit that amount of money?"

Although Doug confessed: "We hadn't viewed it. We viewed it from the outside! I only knew about it the day before the auction," he explained. "I definitely wouldn't recommend not viewing it but..." Stunned, she replied: "It's funny isn't it, committing almost £1m without seeing it..."

It seemed as though Doug was still happy with his decision, despite being slightly disappointed to discover there were some leaks in the roof.

However, as he highlighted his professions, Doug explained it would have taken a lot to make him upset. The BBC host told people watching that the duo had taken a ‘monumental risk' to buy a home without seeing it properly.

Martel added: “And nearly a million quid, I think that's the most egregious breaking of our Hammer golden rule yet."

Doug and his wife moved into the Victorian property while work was being carried out, which he did mostly himself. In the end, it cost around £75,000 to renovate as they spent a year and a half to transform it.

Their hard work paid off as an estate agent revealed the property was worth £1.5m. However, Doug confessed they were already thinking of selling up because of "changes in working from home".

Homes Under the Hammer is available to watch on BBC iPlayer