Soap characters, property prices, complete blending of fiction and reality... it's the Sun and the Rat and Mouse loves it. The piece ("an exclusive investigation") looks at Eastenders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street, and asks whether the characters could really afford to live there. Obviously, the Rat and Mouse is interested in Eastenders, here, and that will only change when somebody proves to us that the north really exists. Apparently Albert Square is based on Fassett Square in Dalston:

According to a Foxtons agent interviewed by the Sun, Fassett Square prices have risen by 70% in the last three years, with a three-bedroom house costing around the £800,000 mark... not much more than what Max and Tanya Branning would have had to pay for their Albert Square semi. Max is a dodgy insurance salesman, Tanya's a slutty beautician... even if they'd paid a giant deposit, perhaps negotiated by their agents with the BBC (see how I can do that fiction-reality mix-up thing, too?), they'd still be looking at a 17xsalary mortgage. The Sun suggests they're dealing. Wouldn't put it past them.

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