Only Fools and Houses

How the properties featured in Britain's favourite sitcoms have soared in value (and that three-bed Peckham flat is up 1000%)

House price data last week showed values stalled in September for the first time in 19 months, even in London. But such months are statistical anomalies in the steeply upward trajectory taken by the British property market over the last three decades.

Many of the UK's most popular situation comedies are, if not housebound, then revolve around a familiar domestic setting. This week marked 20 years since the launch of American TV series Friends, which showcased one of the best-known flats in the world. 

Estate agent eMoov.co.uk has looked at property price of a number of well-known properties from British sit-com history. 

ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES

Local authority three-bed flat in Peckham: Price in 1981 - £30,000 ¦ Price in 2014 - £330,000 ¦ Increase - 1,000%

Nelson Mandela House, one of the most iconic buildings from British TV screens. The home of the Trotter family was actually Harlech Tower which was in Acton, not Peckham. 

Sixties tower blocks on the sprawling South Acton Estate were used as the location for the long-running sitcom. But the 17-hectare site was bulldozed a few years back as part of a £500million regeneration project.

Only Fools and Horses started in 1981, the year after Margaret Thatcher introduced the Housing Act extended right-to-buy council homes. Over 30 years on and Del Boy wouldn’t quite have been a property millionaire with his flat in Peckham - which has come up in the world but still has a mixed reputation - but he would be a third of the way there.

This type of local authority three bedroom flat in the Peckham area would have set you back just £30,000 in 1981, but with the floor space in the Trotters' on-screen example it’s likely this would now be worth £330,000 - a rocketing of 1,000 per cent.

BREAD

Two-bedroom terraced house in Elswick Street, Liverpool: Price in 1986 - £18,000 ¦ Price in 2014 - £90,000 ¦ Increase - 400%

The BBC sitcom Bread ran from 1986 to 1991 and followed the Boswell family, who like the Trotters embarked on various scams and larks as they made their way through life in Thatcher's Britain. 

They lived on the typical terraced street in Liverpool and the properties used for filming can still be seen in Elswick Street. Back in 1986 a two-bedroom terraced house in Toxteth would have cost roughly £18,000 with the UK average at that time £35,647. 

These days, it would set you back £90,000. 

SPACED

Four bedroom house in Tufnell Park, North London: Price in 1999 - £350,000 ¦ Price in 2014 - £2million ¦ Increase - 470%

Another cult classic from the 90s and only 14 episodes were created. Spaced was the brainchild of Jessica Stevenson and Simon Pegg. 

Launched 15 years ago it centred on the main two charters played by Pegg & Stevenson in their flat in Meteor Street, Tufnell Park, London. 

The flat was owned by eccentric landlady Marsha who lived upstairs, and a fourth bedroom was occupied by troubled artist Brian. 

A four-bedroom property in Tufnell Park back in the late 90s when the show launched cost £350,000 and now would set homebuyers back a cool £2million, a rise of 470 per cent.

THE ROYLE FAMILY

Three bedroom house in Manchester: Price in 2000 - £36,000 ¦ Price in 2014 - £ 125,173 ¦ Increase - 250%

It was not everyone's cup of tea, but there were lots of cups of tea made and drank in this sitcom from the turn of the millennium, focused on a low-income, TV-watching family living in Manchester in 2000.

The Royle family property was the focus of the entire series with most of the scenes taking place in the living room. 

A three-bedroom property in Manchester in 2000 would have cost £36,000 with the Royle family home now worth £125,173, a rise of 250 per cent.

GAME ON

Three-bedroom flat in Battersea, SW London: Price in 1994 - £130,000 ¦ Price in 2014 - £650,000 ¦ Increase - 400%

Maybe not one of the best known British sitcoms, but Game On had a cult following back in the 90s. The characters were three childhood friends living in flat in Battersea, South West London, which Matthew, who had acute agoraphobia, bought with his inheritance. 

Battersea was known as a pretty rough area of London right up until the late 1980s. Gentrification began then as house-buyers realised how close it was to central London, with its stretch of the river, beautiful park and overland rail stations.

When the show was being broadcast the three-bedroom flat would have been worth £130,000, move forward twenty years and it is now valued at £650,000.

MEN BEHAVING BADLY

Two-bedroom flat in Ealing, W London: Price in 1992 - £125,000 ¦ Price in 2014 - £550,000 ¦ Increase - 340%

Settling down and domestic bliss - or resistance to - were constant themes in this immensely popular comedy from the 90s featuring Martin Clunes, who went on to star in the equally popular Doc Martin. Neil Morrissey meanwhile has various business ventures, and property investments and lives in Crouch End, N London. 

Back in the show, the  two beer-guzzling, video game-playing flatmates shared a two-bedroom flat in Ealing. The price of this flat would have jumped from £125,000 to £550,000.

Source:- http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2770622/Only-Fools-Houses-How-properties-Britains-favourite-TV-shows-soared-time.html