The cost of renting your favourite fictional TV & film homes

  • By Landed Houses
  • on July 29, 2022

With any film or television show, there is always one distinguishable element that makes people love it that little bit more. Whether it be scene-stealing characters or epic soundtracks, there is always something that leaves people wanting more. 

For us at Landed Houses, it is the iconic houses that we can’t get enough of. 

From feel-good festive films to high-brow period TV dramas, we’ve put together a list of some of our favourite on-screen homes. We also thought it would be fun to find out exactly how much it would cost the characters to rent the memorable properties in real life… 

And, as only a handful of famous houses tend to be open to the public (most are owned and lived in by regular people), we’ve also suggested some alternatives to a few of these properties that you can actually stay at…

1. Jay Gatsby’s Mansion – The Great Gatsby – £435,050 per month

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Great Gatsby – Trullia

Literature lovers know that Jay Gatsby’s mansion hosted many decadent parties. So when the classic novel was turned into a film in 2013, a jaw-dropping 1928 Colonial-style castle in the real-life location of Gatsby’s fictional home – Long Island, New York – was used.

The 14,551-square-foot house sits on 7.7 acres and boasts 18 bedrooms, a hair salon, a wine cellar, and a tasting room. The incredible outdoor amenities include a lazy river, a pool with a slide and multiple swim-up bars, a tennis court, Japanese-English gardens, koi ponds and a private pier that can host a 200-ft yacht.

Being worth £67.8 million, the house would set you back around £435,050 per month or £108,762 weekly

And for anyone looking for a touch of grandeur at a fraction of the price, Northcourt House on the Isle of Wight is an ideal option. It’s an equally impressive stone mansion in a distinguishable Gothic style – but with a rental price tag from only £2,000 for the week.

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
NorthCourt House – Isle of Wight

Set within 15 acres of splendid gardens, the property can host 40 guests across 21 bedrooms and can also be split down into ‘wings’ for anyone planning a more exclusive soirée.

And although there aren’t any Japanese-influenced gardens, Northcourt boasts a three-acre ‘Games Field’ for raucous competition, a grass tennis court and inside, a raspberry-pink ‘Music Room’ for evening fun.

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Garden – Northcourt House

2. Downton Abbey – Downton Abbey – £536,583 per month

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Downton Abbey – Royalty Free

Highclere Castle is most recognisable to the world as the real-life location of the TV show and movie, Downton Abbey, and the home of the Crawley family from the much-loved ITV drama.

With over 200 rooms, 5,000 acres of land and scene-stealing interiors, there is plenty to see in this sprawling stately home.

But such grandeur comes at a great cost. Estimated to be worth an incredible £137,000,000, Highclare would cost roughly £536,583 to rent per month – and £134,146 per week. Not to mention the wages of some 150 staff members…

And if you’ve ever found yourself watching the popular series, wondering what it would be like to be an Aristocrat, why not consider a stay at Carlton Towers

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Carlton Towers – North Yorkshire

The magnificent Grade 1 listed country house is the family home of a real-life Lord and Lady and, at a fraction of the price of Highclare, costs from £49,000 for the week. And unlike Downton Abbey’s film set, this 3,000-acre estate is actually in North Yorkshire and surrounded by 250 acres of parkland. 

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Venetian Drawing Room – Carlton Towers

Carlton Towers is perfect for anyone looking for that sense of nobility, offering an elegant Venetian drawing room, an intimate card room, a grand picture gallery, the Duchesses’ dining room and to the rear of the house, a picturesque walled garden vineyard that produces exquisite sparkling wine.

3. ‘Buckingham Palace’ – The Crown –  £273,789 per month

Buckingham Palace has been the British monarchy’s official residence since 1837 and the setting for one of the most iconic scenes from Netflix’s historical drama, The Crown. Who can forget Diana roller skating through the corridors in season four? Yet this scene, and many others, was actually filmed at a lavish townhouse just a few doors down from the real thing.

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Lancaster House – Netflix

Lancaster House on Pall Mall was built in the 1820s and has its own royal history, being a favourite of Queen Victoria. But royal connections come with a royally high price tag and a value of £69,903,574. Renting this property would cost a staggering £273,789 per month and £68,447 per week.

Unfortunately, the historical house is rarely open to the public now and is managed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, but you’ll be glad to know that another similarly neoclassical property is available to rent.

With similar features to Lancaster House, Kirtlington Park offers party-perfect rooms such as The Hall and Saloon and more intimate spaces such as the Drawing Room, Monkey Room and Library. 

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Kirtlington Park – Oxfordshire

The house also offers a Games Room, Cinema Room and grand hallways (although rollerskating is not permitted). Outside, terraces lead down to vast lawns, a tennis court and further on, woods waiting to be explored.

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Kirtlington Park and Garden – Oxfordshire

Sleeping up to 16 guests across 8 bedrooms, Kirtlington Park is smaller in size, yes, but it is also more gentle on the wallet, starting from £24,000 per week.

4. The McCallister Family House – Home Alone – £10,750 per month

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Home Alone – Airbnb

Home Alone is a cult classic film that is still as present on our TV screens in the festive months as it was when it was first released in 1990. And with a picture-perfect exterior and festive decorations, the McCallister family’s house actually ended up becoming a character in its own right and is now pretty much synonymous with Christmas.

The house used for the film has a perfectly symmetrical red brick and wooden shutters facade typical of Georgian architecture and was built in the 1920s in Winnetka, Illinois. With 4,200 square feet of living space, the McCallister house has five bedrooms, including a four-room master suite that spans the entire west wing of the home, a large kitchen, a detached double garage and a greenhouse.

Although not as grand as a castle or stately home, the property’s £1,675,340 worth means that renting it would cost around £10,750 a month or £2687 a week.

Anyone looking to stay in a similarly iconic Georgian house should look no further than Oakleigh House. Although double the price of the McCallister home at £10,800 per week, the property is also double the size, with 10 bedrooms sleeping up to 22 guests. This just means that more people can get in on the festive fun!

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Oakleigh House – Norfolk

You’ll have to bring your own decorations if you’re staying over Christmas though, as Oakleigh’s interior is more ‘cool’ than ‘yule’. It does have a piano in the grand hall though, if anyone is keen for a sing-a-long.

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Dining Room – Oakleigh House

Downstairs you’ll find a library, formal lounge, another bedroom, dining room and a kitchen, from which guests have access to one of the four gardens. Upstairs has a further nine king-sized bedrooms and four wet rooms.

5. Iris’ House – The Holiday – £2,551 per month

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Honeysuckle Cottage – Hamptons

Keeping with the theme of iconic festive film houses, The Holiday is another Christmas favourite that sees two women swap countries, lives and homes for the festive period. And whilst Cameron Diaz’s luxury Los Angeles pad sure is nice, the real star of the show is the quaint British property she swaps it for – Rosehill Cottage.  

Although fictional, the chocolate-box house featured in the movie was inspired by Honeysuckle Cottage near Dorking, Surrey. And despite the interior looking completely different to the film set, it is just as charming with exposed beams and a fireplace perfect for those chilly winter nights.

The property is full of character too, with exposed timbers and an inglenook fireplace, and offers three bedrooms, a kitchen, lounge and separate dining room. 

Selling four years ago for £650,000, you could expect to rent Honeysuckle Cottage for around £2551 per month or £638 weekly. 

6. Creel House – Stranger Things – £4,719 per month

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Creel House – Netflix

Part two of Stranger Things season four has finally hit Netflix and, arguably, one of the biggest stars from the latest instalment of the sci-fi drama is Creel House. The demonically plagued mansion from the series was filmed in a real-life (non-demonically plagued) mansion in Rome, Georgia, that ​​was built in the late 19th century. 

Inside, the property boasts seven bathrooms and six bedrooms, whilst its exterior central mansard tower and wood framing definitely give it a ‘Psycho’ vibe. Before 2019, the property served as a bed and breakfast but is currently inhabited as a private house and, thankfully, not by monsters!

Real estate agents currently value the property at £735,482, which would equate to rent of £4,719 monthly, or £1,180 weekly.

7. Doyle Family Home – Halloween – £14,597 per month

The Cost Of Renting Your Favourite Fictional Tv & Film Homes
Doyle House – Google Maps

Finally, keeping on the spooky theme, Jamie Lee Curtis’ scary film series ‘Halloween’ makes its return this year. The horror movie has been a cult Halloween film since it was first released in 1978, and the franchise will be wrapping up with its final and 13th film in October 2022. 

Going back to that first film of the cult franchise, the unassuming house that is used as the site of the final showdown between Curtis and Mike Myers is located in Los Angeles – although set in the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois!

Today the four-bedroom, two-bathroom house is valued at just a smidge under £2,275,000 – not too shabby for a place that will give every visitor nightmares! This would equate to rent of £14,597 per month or £3,649 weekly.

Methodology

We used the current average rental yield to calculate an estimated average monthly rent for the famous properties.

For UK properties, we used the average UK 2022 rental yield of 4.71%. For US properties, we used the average US 2022 rental yield of 7.7%.