Zoopla.co.uk: Kate Middleton's Royal Property Trade-Up

LONDON, April 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite her very comfortable upbringing, Kate Middleton is about to make a trade-up in the property stakes unlike any other bride-to-be, as revealed by research from leading property website Zoopla.co.uk.

Following their wedding, William and Kate will make Clarence House in central London their first official home. Spanning over 40,000 sq feet in SW1, the property is currently valued at over 47m pounds Sterling according to Zoopla.co.uk, which provides free value estimates of every home in the country. And despite the young royals being the same age as the average first-time buyer (29 years old), their first marital digs will be worth 343 times the average newlywed starter-home (137,000 pounds) in Britain.

Having the use of Windsor Castle, valued by Zoopla.co.uk at 171m pounds, as a weekend country retreat is also beyond the wildest imagination of most young couples. With over 1,000 rooms and running to more than 484,000 sq feet, Windsor Castle is the world's largest occupied castle and comes with its own park and chapel.

Whilst the success of Kate's parents' mail order business has afforded them a five bedroom home worth a good deal more than the UK average, Kate will be moving out of the family home in the village of Bucklebury and trading up substantially from a property perspective in the coming weeks. Average house prices on The Avenue, where her parents live, are currently 790,951 pounds and range from cottages worth 470,000 pounds to detached houses worth more than 1.5m pounds, making it one of Bucklebury's most expensive streets.

When the future King William and Queen Catherine finally take up permanent residence at Buckingham Palace in due course, they will occupy the world's most valuable residential property, currently valued at over 982m pounds by Zoopla.co.uk.  With 600 rooms, including 19 state rooms, 52 bedrooms, a cinema, swimming pool, helipad and its own post office and police station, it is the planet's ultimate pad and perfect for what many hope will be a growing family.

But, despite the jaw-dropping values of their property portfolio, the royal family has not been immune to the property market downturn and has seen the values of its various property assets fall over the past few years along with the rest of country. Buckingham Palace has fallen in value by 95m pounds (8.8%) over the last 3 years, whilst Windsor Castle and Clarence House have each lost 27m pounds and 4.5m pounds in value respectively over the same period.

Nicholas Leeming, Business Development Director at Zoopla.co.uk, commented: "Kate is certainly the envy of many, not only landing her Prince but also getting a dream property portfolio at the same time. Luckily for the young royal couple, they will not need to secure a mortgage before moving into their new home, as even they might find it a challenge in the current lending climate and on William's RAF salary."

About Zoopla.co.uk

Zoopla.co.uk is the UK's most comprehensive property website, focused on empowering consumers with the resources they need to make better-informed property decisions. We help our users make sense of the residential property market by combining property listings with market value data, local information and community tools.

Zoopla.co.uk was founded on the principles of transparency and efficiency and everything we do aims to make the market more effective for both property consumers and professionals alike. Our mission is to provide the most useful online property experience by:

• displaying property listings along with value and price trend information
• providing rich property data and local market information in one place
• enabling users to search for property in a variety of customised ways
• allowing users to engage with professionals via our tools like AskMe!
• building relationships between home owners and local estate agents

By combining free, instant value estimates for every UK home with sold prices, local market information and hundreds of thousands of properties available for sale and to rent, Zoopla.co.uk has become the ultimate destination for property consumers to search for property and do their market research. We are the UK's fastest growing property website and are proud to have been named 'Best Property Portal 2009' (Daily Mail UK Property Awards).

Our unique features, like AskMe!™ and TemptMe!™ allow users to gain an insight into the market and discover information they won't find anywhere else. And our AskAnAgent feature has rapidly become one of the most valued sources of vendor leads for UK estate agents. We calculate our value estimates using a proprietary algorithm (secret formula) that continuously analyses millions of data points relating to property sales and home characteristics throughout the UK. Our estimates are constantly refined, using the most recent data available and a variety of methodologies, in order to provide the most current information on any home.

Zoopla Ltd is a privately held company with a highly experienced and proven management team, backed by well-respected angel investors and leading venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Octopus Ventures.

SOURCE Zoopla