Telly addicts bored with reality and home improvement shows should look away now.

A production company is looking for contestants for its new reality home improvement programme.

The Block, which will be filmed in Brighton, promises to combine the DIY and design advice of Changing Rooms with the confrontational domestic drama of Wife Swap.

Four couples will move into identical two-bedroom properties which have been stripped bare.

They receive equal budgets and three months to revamp the rooms before their property is put on the market.

Each couple will be allowed to keep any profit while the one making the most gets a cash prize. Viewers can enter a competition to win one of the properties.

But like all good ideas, there's a twist.

Every moment of stress - from picking the right colour carpet to making sure the bathroom tilesare put up properly - will be captured on camera 24 hours a day.

The tension is sure to increase as they juggle work, family and social commitments with the pressure to make profit.

The show is being brought to ITV1 by RDF Media, the award-winning company behind Faking It and Wife Swap. It has already been a hit in Australia, where it was broadcast at the same time as Big Brother and got higher ratings.

The company is looking for four very different couples who share one trait.

A spokeswoman for RDF Media said: "The people taking part need to have lots of energy and a passion for property.

"Ideally we would like people who have done up their own property but are not professionals."

How much the couple can spend hasn't yet been decided.

The spokeswoman said: "We are talking to builders and other people in the trade so we can figure out a realistic budget.

"It will be enough to let the couples do interesting things. They'll need to be clever with their money."

The location of the four properties featured on The Block is being kept secret, with the makers only divulging they are in "the heart" of Brighton.

Contestants would move at the beginning of March next year.

The show will be broadcast from July in a prime-time slot on ITV1 and is expected to get ratings of about six or seven million viewers.

Anyone interested in applying should email theblock@rdfmedia.com or call 0207 7517367, leaving their name, number and location of their workplace.