{"id":371196,"date":"2026-04-09T12:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T12:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/371196\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T12:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T12:40:10","slug":"the-rebooted-my-house-my-castle-doesnt-quite-hit-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/371196\/","title":{"rendered":"The rebooted My House My Castle doesn\u2019t quite hit the same"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tara Ward watches a local television classic return to our screens to tackle a very different housing market to the one it left behind.<\/p>\n

In 2001, Helen Clark was the prime minister of New Zealand, the median house price was $177,000<\/a>, and a new television show called My House My Castle<\/a> started on TV2. Hosted by the enigmatic Rob Harte, My House My Castle was a cross between Fair Go, Neighbours at War and The Block, offering information and advice about housing in New Zealand. From the A-to-Z of home ownership to kitchen makeovers to confronting dubious tradies, My Home My Castle sought to improve the lives of ordinary owners and renters, and became such a popular show that it ran for 11 seasons.<\/p>\n

A quarter of a century later, the median house price is now $802,617<\/a> and My House My Castle is back on our screens. A reboot of the local series started on Three last night, returning with the same jaunty theme music but a new presenter in broadcaster Hayley Sproull. \u201cThis show is property, culture and cash, keeping your finger on the pulse of houses in modern Aotearoa,\u201d Sproull promises, and while there\u2019s a nod to Harte in the show\u2019s opening moments, Sproull makes it clear that we\u2019re in new territory. \u201cHey! Hey! This is my show now!\u201d she yells.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Episode one covers the decline of the quarter-acre dream, a concept that defined New Zealand home-owning aspirations for generations. We begin by meeting three siblings preparing to sell their family home on the banks of the T\u0101maki estuary in Auckland. They have fond memories of playing in the big back garden behind their three-bedroom weatherboard house, which their parents bought in 1970 for $17,000. Their 87-year-old neighbour Ngaire still lives in the same home she and her husband built in 1962 for $12,000. That\u2019s approximately the same amount that you\u2019ll pay to fill your car with petrol right now, but it\u2019s fine. We\u2019re all fine.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Architect Ken Crossan pops by to explain that the quarter-acre dream has disappeared in modern urban New Zealand because it\u2019s simply too expensive. \u201cTo maintain a city with rate levels that are reasonable, we need to achieve a certain density of population and housing,\u201d he says. Crossan takes us to an ex-Kainga Ora site in Auckland\u2019s Mt Roskill where he designed a series of terraced townhouses, which he believes are examples of housing density done well. Good urban townhouses need features like colourful front doors, planting margins out the front and a sense of privacy, he says, otherwise it\u2019s like \u201da caged poultry farm\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Townhouses<\/p>\n

One of the buyers of these townhouses just happens to be Crossan\u2019s daughter, who\u2019s made her first step on the property ladder for just over $800,000. Apart from the steep stairs, she\u2019s thrilled with her low-maintenance purchase. The rest of the episode offers a makeover of a tiny townhouse garden and a glimpse inside an award-winning Manawat\u016b home which was built for under $500,000. The builder reckons the quarter-acre dream still exists in the provinces, if you know where to look, although the show doesn\u2019t speak to anyone else living in the provinces to find out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My House My Castle has had a makeover of its own, but in the first episode at least, it\u2019s not clear who this updated version of the show is for. The original My House My Castle fought for the underdog, standing up for homeowners stuck with leaky houses or renters dealing with dodgy landlords. It had a distinct point of view and a strong, quirky voice, but most importantly, it was on our side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The housing market has changed, and so too has My House My Castle. This reboot is easy to watch and looks great, but it\u2019s an odd mix of documentary, lifestyle and history that doesn\u2019t have time to really scratch below the surface. Between more serious interviews, Sproull keeps it light by lurking behind trees and mowing the lawn, though her enthusiastic antics will make more sense if you remember Harte\u2019s original offbeat energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in an era where it\u2019s harder than ever<\/a> for New Zealanders to own a home, the My House My Castle reboot has missed a trick. We already have plenty of nice television shows about nice houses, like Grand Designs NZ, NZ\u2019s Best Homes with Phil Spencer or Find My Country House NZ. What we don\u2019t have are shows that speak directly to the generations of New Zealanders who watched house prices quadruple in 25 years<\/a> and encountered declining affordability<\/a> and housing shortages<\/a>, and who still deserve a fair go at living in their own castle \u2013 however weird and wonderful that might be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Upcoming episodes of My House My Castle promise to look at what happened to the classic New Zealand bach and the rebirth of Christchurch\u2019s housing market. Viewers who fondly recall the original show will likely check this easy, breezy reboot out \u2013 but will they stay? Like a quarter-acre section now jammed full of townhouses, perhaps this new version of My House My Castle is trying to pack a little too much in.<\/p>\n

My House My Castle streams on ThreeNow and screens on Wednesdays at 7.30pm on Three. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tara Ward watches a local television classic return to our screens to tackle a very different housing market…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,194105,111,139,69,194106,72270,1066,1529],"class_list":{"0":"post-371196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-hayley-sproull","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-nz-housing","14":"tag-nz-tv","15":"tag-pop-culture","16":"tag-three"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}