Gullane home on Channel 4's Location Location Location sells for over £660,000 after bidding war; couple misses out despite bid

Claire and Mark, a couple who spent more than two decades in Australia before returning to the United Kingdom, hoped to buy a three-bedroom home within commuting distance of Edinburgh on Location Location Location. In the episode focused on family-sized properties along the East Lothian coast, Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer zeroed in on Gullane as a standout option. The B-listed semi-detached home, priced with offers over £660,000, captured Claire’s imagination: she said she was “dumbstruck” by the property, and Phil noted that Kirstie had “knocked it out of the park” with the initial find.

Despite the early enthusiasm, the couple ultimately did not secure the Gullane home. Their closing-date bid reached £825,000 — £165,000 over the original asking price — but the property went to another bidder. At the end of the show, Kirstie provided an update: “For Mark and Claire, it was bad news on the house in Gullane, even though they upped their closing date offer to £825,000.” Claire described the outcome as a “huge disappointment” and Mark said, “We missed out.” The property had, by the time of the broadcast, already moved on the market, with the listing later shown as sold following an auction in May on the letting agent’s site.

The episode underscored a familiar dynamic in Scotland’s housing market: the dominant “offers over” system and the prevalence of closed-bid or auction-style sales, which can push final prices well beyond the initial listing. Although Scotland overall has some of the UK’s more affordable prices, Edinburgh remains an outlier as the most expensive Scottish city, with property values running about 17% above the UK average. The show’s viewers reacted with astonishment at the Gullane bid, noting that the property was a semi-detached, not a detached house, and wondering how such competition could emerge around a home in a relatively pricey area.

The Gullane sequence portrayed a home with a family-friendly layout: an open-plan kitchen and dining area, a bright living room with potential to convert a space into a fourth bedroom, and a family bathroom. The property offered a dog-secure garden and off-road parking, plus easy access to outdoor spaces and transport links. Kirstie described the downstairs as a bright, inviting zone suited to family life, while still acknowledging the high demand in the area. Claire’s reaction to the home’s overall appeal suggested a strong emotional response, which often accompanies a property purchase decision during a peak bidding moment.

Even as Gullane proved out of reach for Claire and Mark, the episode ended on a note of progress. They returned to the show’s process with a second decision, ultimately securing a different Gullane property for £550,000 — a roughly £250,000 gap below their peak £800,000 budget. The second home, a two-bedroom residence with potential to expand to four bedrooms, still checked several boxes: proximity to the coast, a garden suitable for a dog, and the possibility of future expansion. The shift from a premier, larger option to a more modest, later-found home illustrates the tension between dream targets and market realities on screen.

Separately in the same episode, Phil Spencer helped climate-emissions manager Natasha and engineer Carl search for a home in Edinburgh after years in Aberdeen. Their brief required four bedrooms, walking-distance access to a school, and a garage for Carl’s classic car, all within a £650,000 budget. After viewing a 1950s property in Balermo, they deemed it too small, and Phil cautioned that the Edinburgh hunt was challenging—“like whack-a-mole,” he said, as the right combination of garage, schools, and other criteria proved elusive. They looked at an almost-identical offering in Ratho but decided not to bid, concluding the dream property in the Edinburgh area would remain out of reach. Natasha and Carl ultimately chose to stay in Aberdeen rather than stretch beyond their means for a home that felt right but was unaffordable.

Even as these personal stories played out, the episode reminded viewers of the show’s larger context: a real estate market where high prices and aggressive bidding are common in desirable locales, and where buyers frequently adjust expectations in real time. The show’s narrative of hopeful buyers navigating a competitive market has resonated with audiences, reflecting broader market trends rather than isolated episodes.

The program also included a broader reminder of recent public discussion surrounding property in the UK: a separate feature last week drew criticism from viewers who questioned the logic of a high-budget bungalow purchase near Heathrow, highlighting how viewers weigh location, price, and practicality when assessing what constitutes a good buy on television.

Location, Location, Location airs on Channel 4 at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, and the Gullane episode continues the program’s tradition of pairing dramatic bidding moments with practical insight into what makes a home work for a family, a couple, or a pair of buyers transitioning between countries. In all, the episode captured the emotional highs and market-driven constraints that define today’s UK property scene, from Scotland’s coastal towns to Edinburgh’s city limits, and beyond.