Property prices: Are TV series worth all the drama?

When a TV drama announced that it’s going to film in an area, it can be exciting for local estate agents and good for property prices. Or at least that’s the theory. As well as the thrill of famous actors mooching about the local area during filming, the saturation media coverage that a famous TV show brings can only be good for business, agents often hope. Recent examples include Broadchurch starring David Tennant and Olivia Coleman (pictured, above), which was filmed on the West Dorset coast; Poldark in Cornwall, Wiltshire and Bristol; and Downton Abbey in Oxfordshire. And for those longer in the tooth, there’s Inspector Morse in Oxford, the Midsomer Murders in Buckinghamshire and Heartbeat in and around Whitby. But does such televisual fame really help make areas more popular with house hunters? Conveyancing firm MyHomeMove.com reckons it does. After crunching Land Registry data the company says popular shows add between 1.2% and 6.6% more to local house values in surrounding areas within a year of the highest ratings for a show. Period dramas “What is particularly interesting in the findings is the correlation between period dramas and the locations they are filmed in,” says Doug Crawford, CEO of…