Ahhhh celebrities. We’re a nation obsessed. Even I can’t help craning over someones shoulder on the tube to sneak a peak at a celeb caught without make-up, flashing their knickers or doing something else that generally shouldn’t be printed in our newspapers.
But would you want to live next door to one?
It’s an interesting question, you could certainly get a lot of mileage out of the story round the watercooler. “Yeah I live next door to [insert celebrity name here], she’s a lovely girl really, very misunderstood.” You may find a lot more people inviting you to dinner parties, hoping you’ll reciprocate and they’ll catch a glance of the latest starlet parking their car.
But really, imagine it. The guys from Heat Magazine camping outside your driveway...nutters going through the rubbish bags trying to find a discarded toothbrush...parties 'til 5 am when you’ve just gotten your teething baby off to sleep. You get the picture.
Well we took our curiosity a little further and put the question to the people. We asked 1000 people if they’d pay more for a house next to a celebrity they like. A whopping 81% said 'No'. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 55% of the people who said 'Yes' were under 17. Bless the children, they obviously hadn’t thought it through. Living next to a celebrity isn’t going to permanently increase the value of your home, what if they move? Are you going to tell prospective buyers that 7 years ago an actor from Eastenders lived next door? The way celebrity is these days, they probably wouldn’t even know who you were talking about.
We then asked 1000 people what they’d do if a celebrity with a notorious party lifestyle moved in next door. 27% of people said they’d consider moving away, which is quite a lot considering what a big decision moving house is. Interestingly, 46% of those who would move were aged 35-49, so maybe the older we get the less patient we are with the Pete Doherty types. In an ideal world the disgruntled 35-49 year olds could sell their property to the kids who are willing to pay over the odds to live next to a celebrity - then everybody’s happy!
Perhaps an interesting question to ask would have been ‘Would you pay more to live in a property that a celebrity had lived in?’
I’m sure some people would. Would you?
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