In our era of rapid cultural decline, there’s still one form of entertainment that never disappoints: House Hunters International. The HGTV reality show allows us to envisage two largely unattainable goals—buying a house and fleeing America for somewhere with socialized medicine—while watching couples who kind of hate each other passive-aggressively fight over whether they want modern or traditional decor.
Every episode mimics the sensation of slipping your brain into a pair of sweatpants, but any devoted fan can tell you that the ones set in England are when the show is elevated to its highest form. This is thanks to one man, myth, and legend: Richard Blanco.
Armed with a formidable beard and a preposterous level of charm, Blanco is the London-based property expert responsible for showing new transplants homes there. (His parents are Spanish, so he will occasionally pop up in a Madrid episode too.) He maintains a perfect balance of poise and barely-concealed sass when faced with impossible requests, such as, say, finding a place with the “right vibe.” He projects reliable warmth and verve even when watching marriages disintegrate in front of his very eyes. Behind the scenes, he is apparently equally delightful.
“I always used to bring in cakes, but unfortunately during this COVID and post-COVID period, we’re not allowed to do that,” Blanco tells me. “Hopefully the cakes will come back.”
Here, GQ has a rare chat with the greatest of House Hunters realtors.
Richard Blanco listening intently.
Photograph courtesy of Gibson BlancGQ: How’d you first get involved with House Hunters International?
Richard Blanco: I was sitting in my office in London and the phone rang. It was one of the producers and she said, would I be interested in doing an episode of House Hunters? This was 2014. I hadn’t really heard of it. I thought it would be a one-off. We had a great time, then one of her colleagues called me to do another one and it sort of snowballed from there.
And now you’re the fan favorite.
I still am trying to come to terms with that, because I do get emails from people and now when the couples kind of turn up for the house hunt, they’re often quite excited to meet me. They’re spotting me in Rome, Montreal, all over the place. It’s always great fun to meet people who are fans of the show.
What do people usually say?
I was cycling through Bloomsbury a few months ago and someone shouted at the top of their voice, “Richard!” I thought it must be someone I was at school with or hadn’t seen here for a long time. He sort of calmed himself down and said, “Sorry, you won’t know who I am.” He was a House Hunters fan.
How do you go about finding the apartments that you show people?
I find properties through contacts and friends and it’s a team effort, really. The producers help find properties too. We are limited sometimes, because it’s not just the properties we’d like to show—it’s the properties we’d like to show and those that are prepared to let us film. Not everyone wants their properties to be filmed, so that sometimes reduces our pool of properties a little bit.
What sort of conversations do you have with the participants ahead of time to suss out what they want?
Usually the producers will have quite a long conversation with them at the beginning. I don’t have too much involvement until we have the meet and greet so that it’s a surprise and it’s as natural as possible. We’re always aiming for that, really.
You’re known for always keeping a calm and cheerful demeanor even when the participants are being extremely demanding. Would you say that you’re more annoyed on the inside than you let on?
People often ask me about this. I never forget that it’s a big decision choosing a home. Also, people coming on the show are going on a big adventure, aren’t they? They want to get it right. They’re spending a lot of money traveling across the world. What I love about the show is it’s not just looking for a property, it’s also a transition from one culture to another. So that’s why I’m very generous, really, about people’s persnicketiness. In a way, it makes the show more interesting, doesn’t it, if people ask ridiculous things? I try my best to stay as calm as possible.
I mean, the classic things that people want are massive refrigerators. People have to get used to the fact that we don’t tend to have laundry rooms in properties in London, for example. We often have quirky things like dryers that you pull up on ropes, so stuff like that that I try to have as much fun as possible with.
Do I get exasperated sometimes? Perhaps sometimes a little bit frustrated, but what’s the point in showing that frustration? We do those side interviews sometimes and the director can be a bit cheeky sometimes to try and get me to confess how I might really be feeling. But my job is to try and make the client as happy as possible. I try to be a bit cheeky and ironic sometimes with some of the stuff I say on camera but, at the end of the day, you want to be as accommodating as possible.
The big refrigerators! I’m glad you brought that up. Nobody ever thinks the fridges are big enough.
Everything ends up being a bit smaller here, particularly with Victorian properties. The appliances are inevitably in the same dimensions as the room, aren’t they? They’re in proportion to the room, so I assume you guys are just used to big refrigerators.
Not so much in New York. One of my favorite requests you once got was that a couple wanted the “right vibe” when they walked in. How do you even approach that?
Yes, I know. The right vibe. This is often quite a challenge because we’ll often have one person wanting period features and another person wanting modern, so getting the right vibe is quite tricky. But I know what people mean. I always remember it happened once when we were doing a show in Derbyshire. We moved into this beautiful 17th century property, walked into the living room, sat on the sofa with this massive period fireplace. It was like the property gave us a big hug.
There are times when that happens, but I suppose it’s quite rare to get that. The vibe. What is a vibe? A vibe is a cross between all those things on their wishlist and what’s going on for them personally in their own psychology, plus the tensions in the relationship that somehow they’re trying to resolve with said property. It’s very scientific in many ways, scientific and artistic simultaneously.
Do you ever encounter a couple that is completely on the same page or are they weeded out early on by the producers?
I think in many ways the producers are quite keen for there to be a bit of conflict. We all know that conflict makes more interesting TV and we want to make entertaining shows. So, inevitably, when they edit the show, they’re going to pull out the differences. I definitely get couples that are more of a team than others. I’ve definitely had couples where I think, “Oh, I don’t want to probe too hard here because we might see some cracks in the relationship.” Whereas when you’ve got a kind of couple that always holds hands and are often touching one another, you know there’s a really strong bond there and they’re a very tight team and they just naturally stick together. It’s always interesting to see it and I’m always fascinated by that stuff as well.
Can you usually tell which half of the couple is going to be the one who’s more willing to compromise?
Yeah. You usually get someone who is very hung up on the budget, for example, and they really don’t want to go over budget. We often get a dreamer, you know? They’re not always women, but they’re often women. Occasionally there’ll be a guy who wants to live in a 19th century novel, you know, wants lots of classic English stuff that they’ve read about and is super disappointed when we can’t make that happen and they realize they’ve just got to compromise.
The great modern vs. traditional battle. Which style do you lean towards in your own decor?
I used to buy Victorian properties that we call wrecks over here that needed totally refurbishing. But I must admit, I’ve kind of Victoriana’ed myself out and I’ve recently moved into a Victoria house that doesn’t have any period features, so what I decided to do was to go quite contemporary with it. I’m still very much in the early stages. I’ve got lots of aluminum and glass. I’ve got the classic bifold doors. I’ve got a lovely big balcony with aluminum and glass sliding doors, and so on. That’s my taste, really, I guess. I like quite classic and timeless, but with some contemporary dimensions.
What’s the most ridiculous request you’ve received?
Oh gosh. I think it’s when people get obsessed with dishwashers. It’s like, you can buy a dishwasher for $300. Why are we getting so obsessed with a dishwasher?
I guess one really interesting show was Andre and Sebastian, who had two pugs and were looking for a two bed property. We almost had to interview the dogs to find out what the dogs wanted because the dogs were just the center of these guys’ worlds. I think the other one we did recently where the couple had a cat they could only take out on a lead, so they needed, ideally, some sort of garden space where they could walk the cat on a lead. I take these things in my stride, and I know that they’ll make for more interesting shows.
On a broader, existential level: do you think that witnessing all of these couples’ angst has taught you anything about love or communicating within relationships?
Absolutely. I’m very interested in the psychology of coupledom and relationships. I’m probably more of a pop psychologist like many of us. Instantly I’m thinking, “How does this couple work?” and “What keeps them together?” “Will this last?” sometimes, if it’s a new relationship or a new marriage. Sometimes there’s a kind of, “Isn’t it lovely to see young couples in love?”
What I’ve learned is how the place where you live is very much a manifestation of the functionality of your relationship. If people have a well functioning relationship, then that will precipitate a property that works well for them and mirrors the success of the relationship. If people’s relationship is fractious and difficult and poorly functioning, then they might well end up with a poorly matched property that doesn’t quite work for them and exacerbates some of the problems. I’m very interested in how the property can reflect or be a manifestation of what’s going on in a relationship.
Do you ever hear from people down the road?
Yes. We made The Adventure Continues series, and I did one episode of that with Mac and Giulia, who had been living in a loft style apartment in East London. The episode found its way briefly onto YouTube, and there were quite a lot of comments about how people couldn’t believe how this relationship was working. People can get a bit catty online, can’t they? I just wished them all the best because I thought they were a lovely couple. The producers got back in touch with them, and they had indeed split up.
If house hunters ever get back in touch, I’m always delighted to hear from them and find out what they’re up to, because one of the great things about them is they’re all kind of on an adventure, aren’t they? They’re adventurous people, so it’s interesting to find out what their next adventure is.
This interview has been edited and condensed.