Albert Square house prices are 'unreal': How most soap characters wouldn't be able to afford their homes in real life
06-15-2014
National Housing Federation compared characters' salaries to home costs
Same applies to Yorkshire Dales in Emmerdale and Chester in Hollyoaks
Average house price in the East End of London is now £355,000
By Daily Mail Reporter
From the East End to the Dales, our favourite soaps are supposed to reflect the people who live there.
But actually, if the characters of EastEnders, Emmerdale, Coronation Street or Hollyoaks had to pay real-life prices for the homes they live in they would be homeless, according to statistics revealed yesterday.
The National Housing Federation came to its conclusion after comparing property prices in East London, Salford, the Yorkshire Dales and Chester to the characters’ average salaries as listed by the ONS.
Fantasy land: The cast of Eastenders appear to live happily on their modest salaries and pay the mortgage
A spokesman said the characters’ modest wages wouldn’t even cover the cost of rent, never mind a mortgage.
Ruth Davison of the National Housing Federation said: ‘Without more affordable homes across the country, people on modest incomes will continue to face the real-life drama of being unable to put down roots.’
The figures were revealed in the wake of Chancellor George Osborne announcing he wants the Bank of England to ‘intervene’ to cap mortgages handed out to homebuyers to avoid a property bubble.
As far as residents of EastEnders are concerned the average house price in the ‘East End’ is £355,000, according to the NHF.
In Fassett Square - the square in Hackney which was the model for EastEnders’ Albert Square - a three-bed home with two bathrooms is worth around £1m and the average price for a house in the square is £662,565.
Real life: Prices in Hackney, east London, are soaring with houses on the model for Albert Square worth £1m
Whether in the East End or Fassett Sqaure, most of the characters in the BBC soap wouldn’t have a hope of buying a house in the area - or even renting, as average rents are around £1,250 a month.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), a marker trader like Alfie Moon or Bianca Butcher would earn around £20,500 a year.
Most mortgage lenders offer house buyers four times their salary, meaning Alfie and Bianca could only afford a home worth £82,000, and would struggle to pay rent of £1,264 a month.
Car lot boss Max Branning, likely to pull in around £26,000, and laundry manager Dot Cotton - on around £16,000 - would also struggle to afford to buy in the East End.
The same goes for most of the cast, including restaurant boss Ian Beale - on around £40,000 - with the only one who could possibly afford to buy a house in the area being grease monkey and businessman Phil Mitchell with his dodgy deals.