£1.6 billion spent on festive sprucing up.
Published On 11 December 2006
Around £1.6 billion is spent by Brits on their properties as they gear up for the festive season, new research has shown.Alliance & Leicester Mortgages' movingimproving index has discovered that house-proud Brits spend 70 million hours sprucing up their homes for the Christmas period.
As well as around five million houses being improved in the run up to December, the research showed the driving force behind such activity could be the fact that 65 per cent of Brits will be inviting friends and family to visit them over Christmas and New Year.
The top tasks that homeowners undertake when preparing their house for Christmas guests are tidying (67 per cent), buying luxury food and drink (47 per cent) and purchasing flowers (21 per cent).
Stephen Leonard, Alliance & Leicester spokesman, said: "Christmas is a time for friends, family and general socialising and we want our homes to look the best when entertaining guests.
"People want to feel house-proud and are putting in the time and effort to achieve house-perfection."
"Christmas may be an excuse to give our homes a face-lift and hopefully this will make this year's festivities a real cracker."
