Yahoo News Could YOU afford to live in Albert Square?
You've watched EastEnders so many times, you feel like your family practically belong in Albert Square – but seeing as most of us can't even afford to buy a dolls' house these days, could you actually afford to live there?
Well, with the cost of living and property prices soaring across the country, Solution Loans has analysed the earnings of fictional characters in our favourite soaps including EastEnders and Coronation Street, cross-referencing them with the area and the type of property they live in, to see if they could actually afford to live there in 2017.
And it turns out, they can't – EastEnders living in today's East End would be nearly £700 in the red just to make their rent, as an average London market trader earns £1,746 per month, £684 short of the average rent of £2,431 in trendy East London. Sorry Martin.
The residents of Coronation Street would fair a bit better – earning an average of £1,326 every month and paying an average rent of £1,043, they'd be left with a mere £283 per month. After food and other essentials, they'd barely be able to afford to dampen their sorrows in the Rovers Return, let alone drown them.
The analysis was undertaken by looking at the average monthly earnings of classic soap jobs (market traders and factory workers) and the cost to rent a two-bedroom property in East London or Salford.
Solution Loans also looked at current gentrification in areas of London and the UK and how it would impact classic TV shows from the past. Specifically, they analysed each character's profession, the area and type of property where the show was set, their average monthly earnings today and what they could now afford.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Solution Loans said: "The increased cost of living is something that affects us all. People who may have grown up in one area are now struggling to make ends meet and stay there.
"It's interesting to see that soaps don't always represent how the world's changing, and classic shows if set today just wouldn't work in the same way."
It comes after Which? Mortgage Advisers worked out how much Dot Cotton's house in Walford would actually cost IRL – and it's bloody extortionate.
If you wanted to buy Dot's house at 25 Albert Square, the real-life equivalent would knock you back £875,000 (Ethel the cat not included).
Yep, thanks to being located within walking distance of the daily market and close to the Tube station, the Victorian terraced 3-bedroom house in the "up and coming" London borough of Walford would typically require a larger deposit of £218,750 (25%).
AND a higher-rate stamp duty tax could potentially apply...
Which? Mortgage Advisers calculated the property prices based on valuations of homes in the local area, taking into account other studies and articles that have been produced on the subject in the past. Other factors, such as inflation, were also taken into consideration, where appropriate.
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