The sprawling suburban Chicago home featured in Home Alone would cost over $2.69 million. Photo / 20th Century Fox
The sprawling suburban Chicago home featured in Home Alone would cost over $2.69 million. Photo / 20th Century Fox
Have you ever dreamed of living in a scene from your favourite Christmas movie?
Perhaps the picture perfect suburban mansion that Kevin McCallister fought to defend in Home Alone, Kate Winslet's fairy-tale country cottage in The Holiday, or Hugh Grant's slick city flat in About a Boy?
It's time tostart saving then, as the Daily Mail revealed the most familiar properties are now worth in excess of $1.7 million - including the humble terrace at the "dodgy end of Wandsworth: where Hugh Grant eventually found Martine McCutcheon in Love Actually.
Herne Hill in south east London stood in for the 'dodgy' part of Wandsworth where Love Actually's Natalie lived. Photo / Google Maps
This list reveals how much the homes featured in the best-loved Christmas films would set us back today, including Susan's dream home from the 1994 movie Miracle on 34th Street and Buddy's father's plush Manhattan pad in Elf.
Back when Love Actually was released in 2003, Martine McCutcheon's home in the "dodgy end" of Wandsworth would have sold for around $456,673.
The scene in which Hugh Grant shows up at his love's door was actually filmed in Herne Hill, but more than a decade's worth of gentrification later, similar properties in Wandsworth sell for around the $2.97m mark.
One of the most iconic Christmas movie homes is the McCallister family's Chicago mansion from Home Alone.
A new list, compiled by online estate agent eMoov, reveals that anyone hoping to buy themselves a similar slice of the suburban American dream would be looking at a price tag in excess of $2.6m.
"Although it is not currently on the market, the cost is estimated at $2,814,132," the estate agent said.
Fluctuating property prices in Chicago suggest the sprawling property would have been almost as pricey when the film was released in 1990 - around the $2.6m mark.
In Elf we see the hapless Buddy arrive at his grouchy father Walter's luxurious Manhattan apartment, at 55 Central Park West.
In the movie Elf, Buddy's father Walter lived in the prestigious building 55 Central Park West. Photo / Google Maps
Today, a one bedroom property in the pre-War, Art Deco building, built in 1930 would cost $1,886,190.
It cost an average $3022 per sq ft to live in the prestigious building last year, compared with $1531 per sq ft when the film was released in 2003.
The figures suggest a similar property would have cost around $955,377 when Elf first hit cinemas.
In another US favourite, Miracle on 34th Street, little girl Susan memorably asks Santa Claus for a father, a baby brother, and a family home.
Susan's dream home in the film is a property in Lake Forest, Illinois, that was on the market in 2015 for $4,927,446.
Susan's dream home from the classic movie Miracle on 34th Street is in Lake Forest, Illinois. Photo / Google Maps
Property prices in Illinois are understood to have risen by almost 100 per cent since 1990, meaning the house could have been worth half as much - around $2.46m - when the film came out.
On this side of the pond, the sort of chocolate box Surrey cottage that Kate Winslet lent to Cameron Diaz in The Holiday would set you back around $1,298,262.
When the film was released in 2006, the average cost of a home in Shere was $849,799.
The cosy Surrey cottage featured in The Holiday. Photo / Sony Pictures
The list features two properties from another festive favourite, About a Boy; Hugh Grant's bachelor pad in EC1, and Marcus and his mother's more modest home in Kentish Town.
A flat that measured up to wealthy Will's exacting standards in the same postcode could cost around $2.69m in today's market, eMoov said, compared with an average $622,786 for a home in the area when the film was released in 2002.
Marcus and his mother's Kentish Town home. Photo / Google Maps
A two bedroom Kentish Town apartment today could cost a still substantial $1,329,320, compared with an average $545,166 14 years ago.
In another corner of London, Bridget Jones' flat overlooking Borough Market - from which she chased Colin Firth through the snowy streets ahead of their long-awaited kiss - has also rocketed in value.
Bridget's one-bed was estimated at $340,234 when the first film came out in 2001.
Properties in Snowshill, which stood in for Bridget's parents village in the films. Photo / Universal
In today's property market, the gaffe-prone journalist could expect to fork out closer to $1,163,959 for the bijou property.
Homes in the idyllic Cotswolds village of Snowshill, served as the location for scenes at Bridget's parents country home, sell for an average of $858,187 in 2016.
In London's Kensington Court, which served as the scene of Nat and Josh's home in the film I Give It a Year, properties sell for an average $3,007,267.
Home in Kensington Court, W8, which featured in the movie I Give it a Year. Photo / Google Maps
Home Alone isn't the only Christmas movie that used suburban Chicago as a backdrop - scenes at the Callaghan family house were filmed at a property in La Grange.
The average house price in the area in 2016 is $571,235 - a substantial increase on when the film came out in 1998.
The first Sex and the City movie counts as a festive favourite for many fans of the franchise, thanks to the moment Carrie runs into the street in her pyjamas to ensure that her friend Miranda isn't alone when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve.
Carrie lived on East 73rd Street on the Upper East Side, but the iconic stoop where so many scenes unfolded is actually on Perry Street, in Manhattan's West Village.
In the Sex and the City movie, Carrie dashed out of her brownstone in the dark to ensure her friend Miranda didn't spend New Year's Eve alone. Photo / Google Maps
The apartment changed hands in 2014 for $13.95m but the identity of the new owner of this piece of pop culture history was never made public.
In the 2005 Christmas movie The Family Stone, which also starred Sarah Jessica Parker as an uptight woman meeting her boyfriend's family for the first time, a picture perfect Connecticut home stood in for the Stones' New Jersey house.
The Family Stone gathered at a picturesque Connecticut home for Christmas in the Sarah Jessica Parker movie.
The five bedroom property, which is in the Hill area of Madison in the film but in Greenwich, Connecticut in reality, is understood to have changed hands for around $5.78m back in 2008.
