Mariah Carey could buy this many houses in Fife with profits from festive hit

The answer is hundreds, according to information released this week.

Carey’s iconic tune is back in the UK Singles Charts again this year, after first claiming the top spot in 2020. With 10.8 million streams recorded in the latest cycle by the Official Charts Company, All I Want For Christmas Is You overtook Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero this week.

It was written in just 15 minutes and recorded nearly 30 years ago, and has earned over£48 million in royalties up to 2016, according to the Economist.

It makes an estimated £2 million a year since – that’s 84 times the median annual salary of £24,400 in Fife.

And that means Carey could, if she was so inclined, buy about 345 houses in Fife with the song's estimated earnings after Land Registry figures showed the average house price in the area was £176,000 in October.

She could of course rent them all out and top up her earnings even further - she’d get more bang for her buck in Fife than in Kensington and Chelsea where should would only be able to afford around 45 homes.

Or she may be tempted to head to Burnley where the property market means she could splash out on 506 homes.

Mayah Riaz, celebrity PR manager, said: “The thing about Christmas songs is that if done right, it can really make artists for life.

"It’s been released for nearly 30 years, so it’s had the longevity to be memorable for many adults as it’s played on most people’s Christmas playlist. It’ll continue to grow with it having already become iconic and it being part of future generations’ Christmas playlist. I very much expect it to keep topping future charts too.”

The song was written and produced by Carey and Walter Afanasief, and was released as a lead single from the album in 1994. Since then, it has sold over 10 million copies and has been streamed over 1.3 billion times on Spotify.