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Scott Pape: Facing the media after bushfires was tough

Seven's Scott Pape lost his home in February bushfires, but giving media interviews was nearly as tough.

Scott Pape-94Under the Hammer host Scott Pape knows as well as anybody how a home is one’s castle.

He lost his Romsey home in Victorian bushfires in February.

“We lost the whole lot, which was tough,” he says.

“It wasn’t the biggest and brightest house but it was the house I had planned on living in for the next 40 years. I never wanted to leave.”

Pape’s house north of Melbourne was one of 6 homes lost in the area, and was the place where he had his wedding and was raising his young family with a 10 month old son.

“I had left and I came back because I had sheepdogs chained up. But I got caught there and it was too late to evacuate so we had to take cover. I’m a member of the local CFA so I was fighting the fires myself. I aw a big, black thick plume of smoke and I was on the back of a fire engine when they said, ‘Get out. Don’t grab anything.’

“It reinforced how emotional your home is. It’s not just an investment.

“The whole thing had been levelled to the ground, but my wife and I just looked at each other and said ‘We’re going to rebuild. This is our home.’”

Pape, who has been a finance expert for Seven News since August, said footage from the Seven News chopper was able to show him his house burning down before anyone else. Media interest in the story meant he had to give interviews shortly thereafter.

“There was a lot of media attention on me in those days and it was quite tough,” he admits.

“And there tends to be a lot of anger once the news cycle moves on. I’m in the media so I understand how that works. But there are a lot of people who get a bit frustrated by that.

“Looking back it will be therapeutic because there are images of what we went through. My wife has been a producer for The Project and Channel Seven so of anyone who was going to face this, she and I knew what we were getting ourselves into. But I don’t think anyone is really prepared for the onslaught of media, taking photos of your house and asking all those things.”

But he looks to his latest project, Seven lifestyle series Under the Hammer, with more optimism.

The show captures all the drama of auctions for television cameras at a time when property shows are proving to be a winning formula with audiences.

“It’s not a renovating show. It’s something that most of us have to do probably 2 or 3 times in our lives, so therefore the ability to monumentally stuff it up is always there,” he explains.

“The story is really about the drama of buying and selling and the emotions as they go through that. I was able to voice it and do pieces to camera throughout it, but the people carry the show because it really is their journey that we’re watching.

“It’s very expensive for first home-buyers to crack the market. Studies have shown our housing is one of the most over-valued in the world and it’s been that way for years.”

But Pape says not everybody is smiling at the end of some auctions.

“Not everyone makes a motza out of property.

“The thing that I like about the show is we show people making money because that’s the nature of the housing market. But we also show people losing money, not on the first episode, but we show it,” he insists.

“There’s a whole range of emotions that overtake people and I think that’s what this show shows.

“Interest rates have never been as low as they are right now and people have taken on a lot of debt.

“I’m pretty blunt about these things. People always talk about Chinese investment and that may be a factor. But the other factor is we’ve just borrowed a heap of money and we’ve had a lot of baby boomers who have taken the equity out of their home and bought two or three investment properties. That’s why first home buyers are at a record low right now.”

Under the Hammer is the first primetime series Pape, who has built a successful brand as the ‘Barefoot Investor’, has hosted. He’s grateful the opportunity from Seven could not have come at a better time.

“This has been my annus horribilis so I want that part of my life to be over. I’m really proud of Under the Hammer and my stuff on Channel Seven News.”

Under the Hammer premieres tonight at 8pm on Seven.

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