Hollyoaks may have won Best British Soap at this year’s British Soap Awards, but it is the long term residents living in and around London’s East End who are the real house price winners.
Average house prices around the location where EastEnders is based have increased by 437% over the last 20 years, outperforming the average 344% increase seen in Greater London as a whole.
Nevertheless, the other three major soaps have all seen average prices around where they are supposedly set rise by around 200% in the last two decades: Coronation Street (204%), Emmerdale (198%) and Hollyoaks (193%).
Despite the house price increases in the last 20 years, having a famous TV programme based in the area is no guarantee that average house prices will actually be higher than those in the wider regional averages.
So while the average house prices in the areas surrounding Emmerdale and Hollyoaks are more than £40,000 above the wider regional averages, in contrast, property prices in Coronation Street and EastEnders remain significantly below their regional averages.
House prices in EastEnders are more than £60,000 below the London average despite their outperformance of the capital’s average over the past 20 years.
Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said: “The UK’s longest running soaps have made the areas where they are based famous; however this doesn’t always translate to high house prices.
“Average house prices in the locations around the settings of some of the UK’s most popular TV series and films have performed well in the past 20 years, but this doesn’t always mean they are now more expensive than surrounding areas.
“While you may pay a premium to live around Emmerdale or Hollyoaks, average prices in the locations around where EastEnders and Coronation Street are based are still below the regional average.”
While house price increases around these famous locations have been strong over last 20 years, it is a more mixed picture in the shorter term.
Looking at the four long-established soaps plus three other popular TV series that were launched between 1997 and 2004 – Midsomer Murders, River City and Shameless – only three have outperformed their regions in terms of house price growth over the last ten years while four have underperformed.
Only the locations where Coronation Street, EastEnders and Shameless are based have seen faster property price growth than in their regions as a whole.
Average house prices around London’s East End have seen the highest average rate of increase during the past decade with an average increase of 62%; comfortably outpacing the average London price gain of 41%.
And in the more immediate term house prices in the localities of popular TV series have shown even more of a mixed performance. Of the 16 series analysed – the four long-standing soaps plus 12 series that have run since 1997 (eight since 2007) – seven have recorded house price gains in excess of the average for their region over the past five years, while eight have underperformed and one has matched the regional average.
In the very short term, EastEnders (46%), The Only Way is Essex (36%) and Midsomer Murders (35%) have seen the biggest house price increases since 2009. At the other end of the spectrum, Game of Thrones (-25%) and Shameless (-1%) have been the worst performers.
