Properties located on streets that have silly or rude names tend to cost significantly less than those situated on roads with inoffensive names, new research has found.
A group of students from Sacred Heart College in Geelong looked at how the silliness of street names in certain parts of Victoria affected property prices throughout the state, identifying a clear link between road names and house values.
Using information from Google Maps, as well as collaborating with staff from the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the students found that homes up for sale on streets with daft names - for example, Butt Street or Beaver Street - had on average been 20 per cent cheaper than those on ordinary-named roads during the last 47 years.
Based on Melbourne property prices, this would amount to an average saving of $140,000.
This therefore indicates that there could be some good deals to be had by property investors on these streets.
However, the research also found that some people are wary of living on a street with a rude or silly name, with the students surveying 323 local residents to establish whether this was a factor that would affect their willingness to buy in a particular area.
Overall, one-third of those questioned said they would not be comfortable living on a street with a rude name, with examples given including Willys Avenue and Wanke Road - both of which are real streets in the state of Victoria.
Dr Adam Cole, head of science at Sacred Heart College, explained: "We think that there is a proportion of people that would not be comfortable living in those streets, so they don't compete for those properties and that would drive prices down."
The students also discovered that people were more likely to shun streets with silly names in the cities than in more rural areas, most likely due to the fact that there is more choice in the cities and their suburbs, giving residents this option.
