Could a festive street name really boost the value of your property?

This Christmas, the name of your street could be the gift that keeps on giving, with festive street names having a surprising impact on property value.

But from Rudolph Street to Tinsel Lane, which festive street names are impacting property value the most?

Keen to find out, the experts at chartered surveyors, Stokemont, compared house prices on festive streets across England and Wales to similar properties in order to learn more.

The festive street names boosting your property value the most

According to the findings, street names containing the word ‘Snowball’ are the most lucrative on the list, increasing the average house price by a huge 11.45% (£17,644on average). 

Following closely behind are streets with the term ‘Reindeer’ in the name, which increase property value by 9.80% on average. 

Coming in a close third, and increasing the average house price by a substantial £28,565 (or 9.25% on average), are Stocking-related street names. 

According to Stokemont’s research, the area where you’re in the most luck if your property sits on a festive street is Newcastle upon Tyne, where the average house price more than doubles on festive streets.

The data shows that properties in the north east city boast an increase of £206,815(102.22%). This is followed by Southampton, with an increase of 62.88%, or £241,277. 

Sadly, not all festive street names will leave owners feeling holly and jolly, as some are said to actually lower property value.

Festive street names lowering your property value the most

The number one festive street name devaluing properties is ‘Rudolph’, knocking a huge £130,337 off the price on average, a shocking 23.02% decrease compared to similar properties.

Next up are street names containing the word ‘Turkey’, which decrease house prices by 9.96%, or £35,539, on average. 

Whilst the third biggest hit to property value is on streets with the word Nicholas in the name, where the average decrease in property value is 5.73%. 

Despite being just a stone’s throw away from Newcastle, where property value rockets on streets with a festive name, property prices in Yarm were found to decrease in value if situated on a street with a festive name, by an average of 30.16% (£75,269). 

It’s similarly gloomy news for homeowners in Warrington where festive streets result in a decrease of 29.78%, equivalent to £54,808 on average.

Methodology:

• Chartered surveyors Stokemont set out to determine the effect of festive street names on property value, by comparing the transaction prices of all properties on a festive street against city averages.
• Price Paid Data for all the property sales in England and Wales between January 2018 to September 2023 were obtained from gov.uk.
• Using a list of festive keywords, the Price Paid Data was then filtered to only properties on a festive named street. Appropriate steps were taken to avoid false positive results, i.e streets containing words like Snowden were not included, despite containing the word snow. 
• The list of festive names that were included in the filter were: Snowball, Reindeer, Tinsel, Sled, Stocking, Santa, Winter, Frost, Carol, Toy, Mistletoe, Jolly, Holly. Cider, Snow, Gingerbread, Nicholas, Merry, Sleigh, Christmas, Turkey, Nativity, North Pole, Rudolph, Gift, and Elf.
• Using the Price Paid dataset, the average sale price of similar properties (the average sale price of the same property type [flat, terraced, semi-detached, detached etc] within the same city/town during the same year of sale) were obtained for each festive street property within England and Wales.
• The percentage sale price difference for each festive street property across England and Wales was then calculated, using the actual property sale price, and the average similar surrounding property price.
• Towns/Cities with less than 20 festive street properties and festive keywords with less than 20 festive properties were excluded.
• The average percentage price difference was calculated using the percentage sale price difference of each property for each Christmas Keyword and city/town.

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