Universal Studios could spell trouble for Bedford property market

New data analysis from Yopa, the full-service estate agents, reveals that the planned Universal Studios theme park near Bedford could reduce local house prices by a staggering £50,000.

Yopa has analysed the average current house price data in 14 UK outcode areas* that are home to theme parks - from Alton Towers to Legoland - and compared them to prices in each respective wider local authority area* to understand what impact close proximity to a theme park has on property value. Yopa has then applied these findings to the Bedford outcode areas that will be home to the proposed Universal Studios theme park to forecast what the arrival of the Hollywood giant will do to local prices.

Despite Universal themselves predicting that their new theme park will boost the UK economy to the tune of £50bn, Yopa's house price data analysis suggests its arrival could actually have a detrimental impact on local house prices.

Across the 14 local authority areas that are home to the 14 theme parks in Yopa's study, the average house price stands at £296,149.

Meanwhile, the average price across the 14 outcodes areas in which the theme parks are actually located is £273,626. This is -7.6%, or -£22,523 below the average price for the wider local authority area, suggesting that close proximity to a theme park is detrimental to the value of a property.

For example, Fantasy Island is located in the East Lindsey local authority area where the average current house price is £229,841. However, in the PE25 outcode area that Fantasy Island sits within, the average house price is £175,547. This means homes located close to the theme park are worth -23.6% (-£54,294) less than those in the wider local authority.

Homes located in the The Wizarding World of Harry Potter's WD25 outcode area are -21.3% less valuable than those in the wider Three Rivers local authority district, and homes in the KT9 outcode area of Chessington World of Adventures are valued -19.2% less than the wider Kingston-upon-Thames average.

Universal Studios coming to Bedford

So what does this mean the potential house price impact could be with the arrival of a Universal Studios theme park in Bedford?

The proposed location for the theme park sits within the MK43 outcode area. Here, the average house price currently stands at £373,459. This is 6.8% above the wider Bedford average house price of £349,571.

Therefore, if the arrival of Universal Studios were to reduce MK43 prices to the point where they fall -7.6% below the local authority average, this would mark an overall price drop of -13.5%.

This would have the impact of reducing MK43 prices by £50,473 to leave the average at £322,986.

Yopa's National Franchise Director, Steve Anderson, commented:

"While a new Hollywood theme park might be great news for the UK economy as a whole, attracting millions of people each year to the Bedford area, these hordes of visitors are one reason why local house prices could be quite severely hit.

The arrival of a theme park may well bring with it a number of downsides, including an increase in noise pollution and worsening of traffic congestion on local roads. Over time, things like this can have an impact on the level of buyer demand in the area, and as demand slips, so too will house prices.

This is not, of course, a sure thing - some attractions, such as Oakwood Theme Park, seem to have a positive impact on local prices - but it's far more common for prices to sit below the wider average, and this is something that buyers should have knowledge of before considering a purchase in the MK43 outcode area."