Ever dreamed of living in a scene from your favourite Christmas movie?
Perhaps the picture-perfect suburban mansion that Kevin McCallister fought to defend in Home Alone, Kate Winslet’s fairytale country cottage in The Holiday, or Hugh Grant’s slick city flat in About a Boy?
Online estate agent eMoov reveals it’s time to start saving. The most familiar properties will set you back at least $A1.7m ($NZ1.79m) – including the humble terrace at the ‘dodgy end of Wandsworth’ where Grant eventually found Martine McCutcheon in Love Actually.
eMoov’s list reveals how much the homes featured in the best-loved Christmas films would set us back today, including Susan’s dream home from the 1994 movie (okay, the remake of the 1947 classic) Miracle on 34th Street and Buddy’s father’s plush Manhattan pad in Elf.
When Love Actually was released in 2003, McCutcheon’s Wandsworth home would have sold for around $A436,000 ($NZ456,000).
The scene in which Grant shows up at his love’s door was actually filmed in Herne Hill, but more than a decade’s worth of gentrification later, similar properties in Wandsworth sell for around the $A1.88m ($NZ1.96m) mark.
One of the most iconic Christmas movie homes is the McCallister family’s Chicago mansion from Home Alone.
eMoov reveals that anyone hoping to buy themselves a similar slice of the suburban American dream would be looking at a price tag in excess of $A2.56m ($NZ2.68m).
“Although it is not currently on the market, the cost is estimated at $A2.685m ($NZ2.81m),” the estate agent said.
Fluctuating property prices in Chicago suggest the sprawling property would have been almost as pricey when the film was released in 1990.
In Elf we see the hapless Buddy arrive at his grouchy father Walter’s luxurious Manhattan apartment at 55 Central Park West.
Today, a one-bedroom property in the 1930 Art Deco building would cost $A1.8m ($NZ1.88m).
The figures suggest a similar property would have cost around $A911,500 ($NZ955,000) when Elf first hit cinemas.
In another US favourite, Miracle on 34th Street, little Susan memorably asks Santa Claus for a father, a baby brother, and a family home.
Susan’s dream home in the film is in Lake Forest, Illinois, on the market in 2015 for $A4.7m ($NZ4.925m).
Property prices in Illinois are understood to have risen by almost 100 per cent since 1990, when the film came out.
In England, the sort of chocolate-box Surrey cottage that Kate Winslet lent to Cameron Diaz in The Holiday would set you back around $A1.23m ($NZ1.24m).
When the film was released in 2006, the average cost of a home in Shere was $A810,000 ($NZ850,000).
The list features two properties from another festive favourite, About a Boy; Grant’s bachelor pad in EC1, and Marcus and his mother’s more modest home in Kentish Town.
A flat that measured up to wealthy Will’s exacting standards in the same postcode could cost around $A2.56m ($NZ2.68m) in today’s market, eMoov said, compared with an average $A595,000 ($NZ622,500) when the film was released in 2002.
A two-bedroom Kentish Town apartment today could cost a substantial $A1.268m ($NZ1.328m), compared with an average $A520,000 ($NZ545,000) 14 years ago.
In another corner of London, Bridget Jones’ flat overlooking Borough Market – from which she chased Colin Firth through the snowy streets ahead of their long-awaited kiss – has also rocketed in value.
Bridget’s one-bed was estimated at $A325,000 ($NZ340,000) when the first film came out in 2001.
In today’s property market, the gaffe-prone journalist could expect to fork out closer to $A1.1m ($NZ1.16m) for the bijou property.
Homes in the idyllic Cotswolds village of Snowshill, the location for scenes at Bridget’s parents’ country home, sell for an average of $A818,000 ($NZ857,000) in 2016.
In London’s Kensington Court, which served as the scene of Nat and Josh’s home in the film I Give It a Year, properties sell for an average $A2.87m ($NZ3m).
Home Alone isn’t the only Christmas movie to use suburban Chicago as a backdrop – scenes at the Callaghan family house were filmed at a property in La Grange.
The average house price in the area in 2016 is $A545,000 ($NZ570,000) – a substantial increase on when the film came out in 1998.
The first Sex and the City movie counts as a festive favourite for many, thanks to the moment Carrie runs into the street in her pyjamas to ensure that her friend Miranda isn’t alone when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Carrie lived on East 73rd St on the Upper East Side, but the iconic stoop where so many scenes unfolded is actually on Perry St in Manhattan’s West Village.
The apartment changed hands in 2014 for $A13.3m ($NZ13.9m), but the identity of the new owner of this piece of pop culture history was never made public.
In the 2005 Christmas movie The Family Stone, which also starred Sarah Jessica Parker as an uptight woman meeting her boyfriend’s family for the first time, a picture-perfect Connecticut home stood in for the Stones’ New Jersey house.
The five-bedroom property, which is in the Hill area of Madison in the film but in Greenwich, Connecticut in reality, is understood to have changed hands for around $A5.5m ($NZ5.78m) back in 2008.
