Ramsay Street house prices outperform UK soaps property market

After 37 years on air, popular Australian soap opera Neighbours is due to come to an end, but a positive for the residents of Ramsay Street is the high rate of house price growth they’ve enjoyed over the last year, outperforming the eight most popular UK based soap streets, according to data from the property platform, Boomin.

Boomin analysed property prices across each soap street, as well as looking at which long-standing soap star has enjoyed the biggest return on their bricks and mortar investment during their time on the show.

Performance of soap streets

While Erinsborough in Melbourne, Australia may be a fictional location, Melbourne house prices have risen over the last year, up 18% and now sitting at an average of $766,500 or £426,647. This rate of growth eclipses the house price performance of our domestic soap streets, with Welsh soap Pobol y Cwm coming the closest with a 13% annual increase.

Emmerdale is the best performing English soap from a property market point of view, up 12% in the last year, followed by Corrie (11%) and Glasgow’s River City (10%).

At the other end of the spectrum, the residents of Walford, Eastenders has seen the worst soap street house price performance, with property values up by just 3% in the last year.

Soap stars property markets

Two of the most iconic soap stars to have graced these onscreen property markets are Neighbours' power couple Scott and Charlene Donovan, played by Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue.

While they no longer live on Ramsay Street, Scott’s brother Paul Robinson does and as the longest-standing cast member, he stands to make a handsome profit when he comes to sell this year. 

Boomin estimates that Paul would have bought his property for around £40,000 when he first appeared in the show in 1985, that’s around £129,000 once adjusting for inflation. With property prices on Ramsay Street now hitting almost £427,000, that’s a 230% increase.

But Paul Robinson isn’t at the top of the table where soap star property appreciation is concerned. That accolade remains firmly in the hands of Ken Barlow and while he hasn’t appeared on the show since March 2021 due to Bill Roache contracting Covid, he is by far the longest-serving having first appeared in Corrie in 1960.

Back then his terraced home would have cost just £1,312, around £32,151 once adjusted for inflation. While the average home on Coronation Street will set you back £199,859 today, this still means Ken Barlow has seen a huge 522% rise in the value of his home during his time on the show.

Eastender Sharon Watts (349%) and Casualty’s Charlie Fairhead (235%) also rank above Paul Robinson when it comes to the house price appreciation enjoyed by each soap's longest-serving character.

Michael Bruce, chief executive officer and founder of Boomin, says: “Despite depicting life on the other side of the world, Neighbours has become a household staple in the UK and it will certainly mark the end of a soap opera era when it ceases production in the summer.”

Bruce continues: “One silver lining for the residents of Ramsay Street is that the local property market has performed very well over the last year.”

Bruce concludes: “That said, a sudden influx of stock within the same street could well see house prices take a hit. So for those wishing to achieve the very best price, getting ahead of the competition and listing now would be the smart move.”