House hunters who are put off buying a home on street with a scary name may think again as recent research has shown that many homes with a Halloween connection have seen hair-raising price rises and are leaving the competition for dead.
Estate agent comparison site, GetAgent.co.uk, analysed sold price data from the Land Registry for residential property sales across England and Wales over the last 12 months to reveal which of 13 spooky street names command the highest price and how these market trends have changed over the last year.
The research shows that since last Halloween, roads with Grave in the name command the highest Halloween house prices, with an average sold price of £536,350. This is closely followed by roads with Dead in the name, the only other Halloween road name to command an average sold price of over half a million pounds (£510,000).
Lantern is also proving popular, with homes on streets named as such commanding an average sold price of £385,000, followed by Witch (£325,000) and Sweet (£313,500).
When it comes to Halloween house price growth, Dead and Grave also rank high when comparing current sold prices to those seen the previous year, with respective rates of growth sitting at 17.6% and 15.3%.
However, it’s roads with October in the name that have seen the strongest performance, up by 26.6% in the last 12 months
But not all Halloween homeowners have seen their property deliver a treat when it comes to annual house price growth.
Properties on roads with Spider in the name have plummeted -15.8% on an annual basis, with roads containing Hell (-11.7%), Night (-9.4%), Broom (-4.8%) and Lantern (-2.5%) also seeing a drop.
Colby Short, CEO and co-founder of GetAgent.co.uk, commented: “Halloween may not be as widely celebrated as Christmas, certainly in comparison to those across the pond from whence it came. But for some, spiders and spooks are far more preferable to the fairy lights and sleigh bells that follow for months on end almost immediately after.
"However, if you’re hoping to make a Halloween-inspired property purchase to secure a little spookiness on a permanent basis, the chances are it may cost you as some of the scarier road names command far above and beyond the national average.
"But much like the property market as a whole, there are some bargains to be found, with homes on road names containing Blood commanding a far lower average house price compared to those with Grave or Dead.
"Of course, you do run the risk of a house price fright, with some Halloween house prices falling by as much as 12% so far in 2022.”