New Zealand simply can’t get enough of Kirstie and Phil. What is it about watching British people look at houses that keeps us coming back after so many years?

Location Location Location is one of television’s most unlikely comfort watches. It’s also one of the longest running, with property experts Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp having recently filmed their 38th season of the series that helps British house hunters find their next home. LLL returned to TVNZ1 this week, and with previous seasons consistently rating highly with New Zealand viewers, it seems we can’t get enough of watching strangers visit other strangers’ homes and then deciding not to buy them.

What is it about our love affair with an overseas show that – in theory – should be one of the blandest things on television? Every episode of LLL is essentially the same: picky buyers can’t find a house, Kirstie and Phil try to help, and everyone ends up drinking in a beer garden. The properties they visit are ordinary and unremarkable, and sometimes after an hour of television, the buyers walk away without making an offer. It’s been a waste of all our time, and yet, we’re not even mad about it.

That’s because watching LLL is like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket and downing a comforting cup of tea. There’s solace in the show’s predictability, reassurance in its never-ending optimism. Every episode of LLL is a gentle journey of possibility, even if that possibility comes with a huge mortgage and a lifetime of debt. It’s a show about new beginnings, and it purrs with a confidence that no matter how big the challenge, Kirstie and Phil know exactly how to make their buyer’s dreams come true.

LLL is selling a dream, but it’s not the sleek, elaborate fantasy of shows like Grand Designs or Selling Sunset. It’s the dream of ordinary people owning an ordinary home in an ordinary town. Kirstie and Phil’s buyers seek everything from a small one-bedroom flats to big budget family homes, and the show treats both searches with the same importance. Not every house is fancy, not every home a winner, but there’s a charm in the show’s simple, no-frills approach. Like a run down end-of-terrace with a weird shower jammed into a hallway, LLL never claims to be anything it’s not.

Kirstie and Phil are the show’s wow factor, breathing life into every episode with their easy, amiable chemistry and cheeky banter. They’re a constant in a world of change, and I won’t watch LLL Canada because it doesn’t have Kirstie telling people to knock through every kitchen wall or Phil hooning down a child’s slide in a stranger’s garden. Kirstie and Phil know their stuff, and they’re not afraid to politely suggest that everything their buyers have done to this point is wrong.

But that’s the thing: Kirstie and Phil are nearly always right. After 23 years of property matchmaking, they know how to persuade people to fall in love not with what they want, but what they need. And while the buyers traipse around Britain, LLL indulges our secret desire to nosy into other people’s homes and judge their taste in soft furnishings, all from the comfort of our own dodgy soft furnishings. LLL takes us into worlds filled with feature walls and steep stairs, to mysterious places like Tiverton and Darlington and the Home Counties. There are also a lot of “live, laugh, love” signs in Britain, which is an instant sold sign in my book.

Ultimately, LLL (live, laugh, love) celebrates finding somewhere to belong, and that’s why we keep coming back to it, season after season. It knows the housing market is bonkers and recognises how hard it is to buy a home, but it always delivers an hour of comforting, simple telly. It doesn’t matter that the show’s trusted formula is the equivalent of painting your walls magnolia white. In a world of loud, chaotic colour, sometimes a bit of magnolia is a good thing.

Kirstie and Phil’s buyers are looking for the feels, which is exactly what us viewers are looking for, too. I watched four episodes of LLL back to back while writing this, and could easily watch another four. I found myself cheering on the husband and wife looking to move out of their in-laws, and welled up at the joy of the couple who unexpectedly found their perfect flat on their tiny budget. It had a garden, with a gate covered in ivy that led onto a park with sea views. “You’ve just blown my heart open,” the buyer said, weeping. It was the happy ending we’d all been looking for.

Location Location Location screens on Wednesday at 8.30pm on TVNZ 1 and streams on TVNZ+.