BEENY THERE, DONE THAT; Sarah's seen it all but she still gets ignored.

W ITH the housing market downturn, and lending still in crisis, there's never been a harder time to develop. So listening to the delightful Sarah Beeny when she tells you how to make a killing from a humble home, would seem like a sound idea.

In a new series called Property Snakes and Ladders, Sarah helps two property novices who have big problems with their plans.

Will it be enough to save them from the biggest and quickest housing crash in living memory? Viewers might wonder how Sarah keeps her cool and restrains herself from giving the would-be entrepreneurs the truth with both barrels? "It's their money," she says.

"There's the odd little triumph that you win, but I don't really mind too much that they don't do what I suggest. Occasionally I have thought 'you really are mental', but then that's their problem."

The move back towards doing it for ourselves is something she's delighted about.

"It's easier than you think, building work. There's a feeling surrounding it that it's so hard, but when you think of how a house stays up there's no science to it."

For the uninitiated, this is how Property Ladder works. People buy what they think are bargain houses, do them up, sell them on for a vast profit and then start again. Beeny's role is to gee-up builders, nag plumbers and give good steady advice about the best way to minimise risk and costs and maximise profit.

And then she gets ignored. But, if nothing else, she's become a household name along the way.

Property Snakes And Ladders C4, Tuesday, 8pm

CAPTION(S):

Sarah Beeny