A TV Series Could Boost The Value Of Your Home!
So, Downton Abbey is back for the 6th and final series and there will be many weeping into their lace handkerchiefs by the time the last episode airs.
Not so however, the villagers of Bampton in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds who should be rubbing their hands with glee at the way in which the cost of the average home in their village has risen by over 22% since the film makers arrived 5 years ago.
You see, Bampton is the place they chose to become the village in Downton where the common folk live and according to the online estate agent, eMoov, house prices in the pretty Cotswolds spot have soared.
Russell Quirk, founder of eMoov said "With a population of less than 3,000, a picturesque village on the edge of the Cotswolds and Oxford is always going to have a certain level of demand. However the 'Downton Effect' has helped property prices in Bampton outperform the wider local area. It's not unusual to see a spike in demand for a popular prime time ITV show. Earlier this year Rightmove highlighted that buyer activity in West Bay, Dorset had trebled with the return of Broadchurch." He said.
Such is the power of television images that Bampton, with its classic Georgian houses, and St Mary's church, where Downton characters get married, has become a celebrity in its own right. This summer alone, there were an estimated 23,000 extra visitors to the village which has to be good for local traders. Residents have also been used as extras throughout the filming process. How quiet life will seem after the cameras have departed!
There is only one estate agent in the village of Bampton, Damian Leahy of Abbey Properties and he concedes that Downton has had a positive impact on the village. "It has definitely increased our popularity. People include us in their search who wouldn't have bothered ten years ago."
However, the "Downton Effect" is not without its drawbacks, continued Mr Leahy, "The trouble is that the market has become distorted. I might value a property at £650,000, based on my knowledge of the local market, but then an out-of-area agent will come in, make a big play of the Downton connection, and value it at £800,000. Nine times out of ten, the vendors will go for the higher valuation and end up disappointed."
If living within the set of Downton Abbey doesn't excite you, then you could always try, Port Isaac in Cornwall, where Doc Martin is filmed, the Yorkshire Dales, immortalised in Last of the Summer Wine or the National Trust village of Lacock in Wiltshire, where Pride and Prejudice, Cranford and certain scenes in the Harry Potter films were shot.
Personally, I'm off to Corsham in West Wiltshire, where they film some scenes for the new Poldark. With any luck I might catch a glimpse of the shirtless torso of Aiden Turner!
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Written by Deb Roberts
Source Estates IT Ltd
