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Most people probably don’t pay too much attention to street names when house-hunting.
But it turns out the first line of your address can affect how much your home is worth. Astonishingly, this is particularly true if it sounds rude.
On average, many naughty names appear to actually boost property value by £44,000, according to the latest study.
Maybe it’s because the address is memorable and has become famous. None of your friends and relatives will forget where you live, that’s for sure.
After examining hundreds of head-turning road names across the UK, SellHouseFast found many of them drove the value of your home up by £44,460, on average.
But there are some that are still a turn-off, as we mention below.
(Image: PA)
Of course we all know about Bell End in Rowley Regis, where some residents claim the ‘offensive’ name makes them a laughing stock and their children a target for bullies.
Some residents asked for the name to be changed, but an even larger petition wanted it to stay the same and the council confirmed they had no plans to rename it.
But, according to this latest analysis, it boosts house prices by nearly £8,00 above the average for that postcode, according to SellHouseFast.
The research found the West Midlands had 42 eyebrow-raising street names, with the most commonplace rude words seen on street signs being Butt (16), Bush (11), Beaver (4), Bottom (3), and Cock (2).
The naughtiest road name with the highest added value is one of America’s favourite swear words, jackass.
Jackass Lane has an average selling value of £869,866 and is the most popular in London and the South-East of England.
Of course, property prices tend to be higher in London and the South-East anyway.
Other names that increased property values, along with the regions where they occurred the most, are as follows:
- Jackass : increased property value by £869,866, most common in London and SE
- Hoe : £209,258, South-East
- Cock : £125,921, East of England
- Thong : £111,429, South-East & Yorkshire and the Humber
- Bottom : £101,158, East Midlands
- Dick : £56,215, Scotland
- Slag : £39,169, North West
- Butt : £30,076, South-West
- Spank : £8,642, East Midlands
- Bell End : £7,963, East Midlands & West Midlands
However, it seems some suggestive street signs were definitely off-putting and could lower property value.
These negative names were Backside, Beaver, Crotch, Cummings, Busty, Fanny, Minge, Hardon, Hooker, Pratt and Shag.
Two of those appear in the West Midlands. There’s a Hardon Road in Wolverhampton and a Minge Lane in Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire.
The analysis suggested that Hardon in a street name lowers house prices by £21,984 and Minge by £62,789.
Hooker was among the worst offenders, devaluing homes by just over £123,000, second only to Shag which appears to be so shameful it takes a whopping £152,582 off the price.
On the other hand, that’s great news for those wanting a cheap purchase, though Shag street names seem to occur only in the North West.
This fits with an earlier survey several years ago for website NeedaProperty.com which found Britain’s top ten most embarrassing streets are on average a fifth lower in price than neighbouring roads with fancier names.
(Image: Google Street)
Regions and their rudest names
South East: (84) – the top five were Butt (19), Beaver (18), Bush (11), Hoe (11), and Bottom (8).
East of England (68) – the top five were Butt (21), Bush (14), Cock (14), Hoe (7), and Bottom (5)
Yorkshire and the Humber: 57 – top five were: Butt (28), Beaver (6), Bottom (5), Dick (4), and Fanny (3)
East Midlands: 53 – top five were: But (25), Bottom (13), Hoe (3), Bush (3), and Beaver (3)
South West: 46 – top five were: Butt (30), Bush (5), Cock (4), Hoe (3), and Beaver (2)
West Midlands: 42 – top five were: Butt (16), Bush (11), Beaver (4), Bottom (3), and Cock (2)
North West: 39 – top five were: Beaver (10), Butt (7), Bottom (6), Bush (4), and Pratt (3)
London: 25 – top five were: Bush (8), Beaver (6), Hoe (5), Pratt (3), and Cock (1)
Scotland: 20 – top five were: Dick (10), Bush (4), Cumming (4), Butts (1), and Pratt (1)
North East: 13 – top five were: Beaver (3), Busty (3), Butt (3), Bush (1), and Cock (1)
(Image: Google Maps)
The most popular rude word appearing in street names across the UK is butt. It makes an appearance in 151 different road names and increases property value by £30,076 on average.
Coming in second is bush, mentioned 79 times across England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Bush is closely followed by beaver which is found in 57 roads in the UK.
Thereafter, the most popular rude street names in the UK are Bottom (41 street names), Cock (33). Hoe (29), Dick (19), Pratt (16), Cumming (12) and Busty (4).
Robby Du Toit, managing director of SellHouseFast, said: “It can be off-putting to purchase a home on a road that sounds rude, so when looking into the data collected, we did find government guidelines and tips on how residents can change their street name, as not everyone finds Bush Lane as comical as others.
“Different cities and counties across the UK will have different rules as to how you can change your street name. Yet, there are some general tips and procedures.
“The council will consider requests from residents, but there must be a good reason. A handful of council guidelines state that one good reason includes a group of residents being unhappy with the street name.
“This is a very time-consuming process as it isn’t just the council’s decision. For instance, Royal Mail are also asked whether they agree it is necessary.
“You must also ensure you obtain permission from most residents on your street, so gathering enough signatures is essential.”
Find properties for sale in your area by putting your postcode in our interactive tool below:
How the study was carried out
To find the names of the rudest streets, SellHouseFast used an online thesaurus to gather as many known rude words as possible.
After amassing a list of 150 words, the team then entered the names onto Streetlist.co.uk to discover whether there were streets with the rude words in their names, and where they were located.
They chose streets with just the rude word in their name, there were no unrelated words included. For example, the street name Cock Farm Lane was not selected, whereas Cock Lane was.
Using Zoopla.co.uk, SellHouseFast were able to find the average house price on the rude street, as well as the average house price within that postcode. They then used the average value of homes to find out if there was an increase or decrease in value.
