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Animal Crossing homes
Animal crossing addicts can spend hours in-game pruning their gardens and decorating their interiors, but what is the real value of your virtual Animal Crossing house?
Animal Crossing in one format or another has been around since 2001 with various iterations from Wild World and New Leaf to its latest release New Horizons. The game is centred around tending your land, building a community of villagers and developing your home.
If you are planning on relocating to a home more like your virtual one, then you may need to compare mortgages to find the best deal for you.
Our experts have looked at mortgages in the Animal Crossing universe but for those who want to know more about the comparison between their real life and pixelated pads, here’s a look at what it might cost to develop your home in real life, it’s value and an insight into the lender, who helps you along the way.
How much would it cost to build your Animal Crossing house in real life?
The origins of your animal crossing house start humble, with just a 4x4 tent plot. As your island develops, you move on to a brick and mortar structure and from there the home expansion begins.
| Home mod | Room Size Width | Room Size Length | Sqm | Expansion cost (bells /¥) | Expansion cost ($) | Expansion cost (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tent | 4 | 4 | 16 | 5,000 | 38 | 31 |
| House | 6 | 6 | 36 | 98,000 | 753 | 611 |
| Ground Floor Expansion | 8 | 8 | 64 | 198,000 | 1,521 | 1,235 |
| First Room | 6 | 6 | 36 | 348,000 | 2,674 | 2,170 |
| Second Room | 6 | 6 | 36 | 548,000 | 4,211 | 3,417 |
| Third Room | 6 | 6 | 36 | 758,000 | 5,825 | 4,727 |
| Second Floor | 10 | 10 | 100 | 1,248,000 | 9,590 | 7,783 |
| Basement | 10 | 10 | 100 | 2,498,000 | 19,195 | 15,578 |
| Total | Total | Total | 424 | 5,701,000 | 43,807 | 35,552 |
A fully modified 424 square metre plot, including large front entry space, three ground floor rooms, second-story space and a basement, will set you back just over 5.7 million bells. In-game, that’s quite a lot of shell sales. When translating Animal Crossing “irl”, the cost to build this property is estimated at just £35,552.
What is the value of your Animal Crossing home in a real city?
The Animal Crossing house upgrades for a fully modified property are relatively low, but when it comes to the value of a square metre in the real world, the estimates start to get interesting.
Based on price per square metre in some of Europe’s best-known cities, the value of a fully modified Animal Crossing home makes for some pretty prime real estate.
| City | Average Price per sqm ($) | Average Price per sqm (£) | Cost of ACNH full mod home in location ($) | Cost of ACNH full mod home in location (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paris | 13,950 | 11,060 | 5,913,351 | 4,689,358 |
| London | 8,549 | 6,778 | 3,623,912 | 2,873,806 |
| Oslo | 7,380 | 5,851 | 3,128,119 | 2,480,636 |
| Berlin | 6,696 | 5,309 | 2,838,335 | 2,250,834 |
| Amsterdam | 6,139 | 4,868 | 2,603,028 | 2,064,232 |
If the fantasy and real-life worlds were to collide, players would be in for some precious property assets, especially if you are located in Paris where the estimated value is near £4.7 million.
Which of your favourite villagers is investing the most in their homes?
Whilst living in the New Horizons world, not only do you spend time sorting your own home but you also welcome some of the most popular animal crossing villagers to theirs.
Each villager has a unique style (whether it is a smart office type or a cutesy pink vibe) which translates into their interior decoration. But which of the most popular villagers are investing the most into their homes?
| Villager | Annual SV | Contents value (bells) | Contents value($) | Contents value(£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ankha | 122,840 | 364,050 | 3,204 | 2,564 |
| Merengue | 30,000 | 260,100 | 2,289 | 1,832 |
| Marshal | 41,000 | 233,060 | 2,051 | 1,642 |
| Molly | 33,000 | 180,265 | 1,586 | 1,270 |
| Raymond | 52,200 | 150,970 | 1,329 | 1,063 |
| Marina | 32,000 | 103,200 | 908 | 727 |
| Fauna | 29,880 | 25,250 | 222 | 178 |
| Stitches | 42,600 | 14,628 | 129 | 103 |
| Bob | 30,900 | 14,470 | 127 | 102 |
| Coco | 37,400 | 6,860 | 60 | 48 |
Of our favourite villagers the highest roller is Ankha, an Egyptian cat with a soft spot for gold. She has invested 364,050 bells in making her house a home and although this equates to a modest £2,564 in real life, she boasts a personal pyramid, golden dishes, and even a golden toilet.
The raccoon tycoon behind your Animal Crossing home
Players of Animal Crossing will know Tom Nook as the head of all island affairs, from general island management to construction services but unbeknown to many, this savvy entrepreneur has his paws in many aspects of island living and might just be one of the richest fictional characters. Mr Nook facilitates a lot of elements players use on a regular basis, such as their mobile phones, the banking services, and even the island’s access to the skies, Dodo Airlines. But what does this mean financially for the island mogul?
What is Tom Nook’s net worth?
When examining his multiple income streams to real-world examples, Tom can firmly claim his “raccoon tycoon” title. Nook inc has more than £13 billion coming in from the Nook’s cranny network alone, which means with that alone he is already a beloved billionaire and one of the richest fictional characters.
Nook inc portfolio value
| Enterprise | Value (USD) | Value (£) |
|---|---|---|
| Nook's Cranny network | 165,528,000,000 | 13,251,012,984 |
| Cost of home loans | 1,885,694,976,000 | 1,509,555,399,137 |
| Island portfolio | 302,653,502,672,400 | 242,283,208,494,336 |
| Airline fleet | 13,090,000,000 | 10,478,937,700 |
| Phone services | 32,672,000,000 | 26,154,916,160 |
| Banking services | 1,753,070,000,000 | 1,403,385,127,100 |
| Total | 306,354,582,448,400 | 245,246,033,887,418 |
Tom Nook the world’s first trillionaire
Ever wondered how many trillionaires there are in the world? Well, just one. With assets now totaling over £245 trillion, the island entrepreneur’s dedication to his endeavours has paid off (quite literally), and now Tom Nook’s net worth makes him just under 1,276 times richer than Elon Musk (the world’s current richest person) and the world’s first trillionaire.
From your first step on the island to developing your dream home, the New Horizon world has much to offer both figuratively and in actuality. One thing we know for sure that all those hours spent playing will do is keep us dreaming up ways to transport our virtual homes into reality.
And in other fictional property news…
If the realm of the unreal interests you and you’re intrigued by how much your mortgage would be underwater or even on the moon, then look no further than our imaginative campaigns below.
The cost of living underwater
In response to the rising sea levels, our mortgage experts reveal the best spots for subaquatic settlements and how much they’ll cost you.
Read MoreMethodology and sources
These calculations are based on the notional assumption the value of 1 bell is 1 yen and is not based on any real-world value a bell might have. This was based on this article fromAnimal Crossing fandom.
All financial conversions were taken using live Google Finance data to get the current value as of 10/05/2022.
Cost to fully modify home
To calculate the overall cost of a fully modified player home in the real world, we used thecost of each stage of the development process to reveal the total cost of a full house modification in bells, which was then converted to pounds.
In order to convert these findings into real-world property prices, the dimensions of each room (a square = to 1 meter) were multiplied by the average price per sqm in each city to reveal the total price per sqm in each location.
Villager home contents
Using search volume data from Google, a list of the most searched villagers around the world was collated. The top 10 villagers and their properties were then examined to reveal the value of their contents. Sites likeNookipedia andAnimal Crossing Fandom were used to calculate the full value of items in each villagers' home. The contents of each villagers' home were valued on the inventory each NPC has at the start of a new game.
Nook Inc valuation
To calculate the value of Tom Nook's portfolio a number of factors were taken into consideration...
Nook's Cranny
Based on the cost of relocatingNook's Cranny within the game (50,000 bells) we used the bell to USD formula to calculate the total cost in USD, which was then multiplied by the total number of global players to reveal the value of the Nook's Cranny shops globally.
Home loans
Islands
Using the island property siteVladi Private Islands an average of all islands available was taken to determine the overall average cost of an island. Local currencies were converted to USD initially to keep consistency.
Airline
Usinga list of the most profitable airlines in the world, we were able to calculate the average value of an international airline business.
Phone services
Using a list of the world's largest telecom companies by total revenue, the average asset value of a telecom company was determined.
Banking services
Using insights from S&P Market Intelligence's annual report on The World's Top 100 Largest Banks 2020, an average asset value was calculated from the top 50 banks to determine Tom Nook's estimated banking assets.
About James Andrews
James has spent the past 15 years writing and editing personal finance news, specialising in consumer rights, pensions, insurance, property and investments - picking up a series of awards for his journalism along the way.