How building a “gayborhood” can pay off

English comedian Joe Lycett didn’t like it one bit when he found out he’d overpaid for his house. 

Especially given the circumstances. 

Lycett said he had a rude awakening when a friend brought her boyfriend, Greg, to his home in Kings Heath, a suburb of Birmingham, England. Greg, a real estate agent, walked into Lycett’s kitchen and proclaimed he’d overpaid by £20,000 to £30,000.

A self-proclaimed bad negotiator, Lycett knew he was right, which bothered him, because he didn’t like Greg. 

“Greg cannot win,” said Lycett during a performance. “So I’ve spent the last four years trying to get my house price up simply to fuck-off Greg.”

Lycett, who bought in 2014,  isn’t the first homeowner to overpay for his house. Surveys show many buyers, particularly during the pandemic, overpaid for homes, which has resulted in more lawsuits filed against agents, according to Realtor.com. But few of them go to the lengths Lycett did to increase their home values. 

While the finer details of Lycett’s story couldn’t be verified (comedians have sometimes been known to stretch the truth for the sake of a joke), many of his escapades were documented by local media.

Lycett tried going the traditional way. He demolished the asbestos-ridden outhouse in his backyard and remodeled his kitchen. He read that homes with commemorative plaques on them were worth more, so he invited the Lord Mayor of Birmingham (a ceremonial position) for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, sold tickets to the event for charity, and put up a plaque commemorating the event, all of which was covered by local news.

But, by Greg’s estimation, he had only driven up the value of the house by £10,000.

Then Lycett stumbled onto a Newsweek article about how living in a gay neighborhood drives up home prices, sometimes by as much as four times. 

“I realized this was the solution to both of my problems,” said Lycett, who is pansexual. “I want to live in an LGBT-friendly neighborhood, and I want to get my house price up to fuck-off Greg.”

So Lycett created an organization called The Gayborhood Foundation, a group ostensibly dedicated to identifying the most LGBTQ-friendly neighborhoods in the world. The list on its site included all the usual suspects and Kings Heath.

To make sure nobody connected him to the stunt, Lycett created an LLC and registered it under a pseudonym, Ken Roberts. He used the LLC to create a bank account for his alter-ego and bought a burner phone from that bank account.  

It gained attention when a local news outlet Birmingham Live, picked up The Gayborhood Foundation’s list. A local business foundation put out a supportive statement on social media, and local restaurants soon after started highlighting some of their gay customers with the tag #Gayborhood. 

Lycett, posing as Roberts, sent out promotional packs to those businesses that included pro-LGBTQ themed doormats and rainbow stickers proclaiming the premises to be under a “Gayborhood Watch”. He also created an anonymous Grindr account and started casually referring to Kings Heath as a “gay village”. 

Finally, Lycett staged a gay pride parade in Kings Heath with just two weeks’ notice, a process that involved Ken Roberts dodging phone calls from the local police, who were concerned about the unpermitted gathering. Two thousand people showed up and Lycett declared victory. 

“I spoke to one of the local estate agents recently,” said Lycett. “She said more gay people have been looking to live here and in her exact words, Kings Heath pride has undoubtedly increased house prices in the area. I fucking win, Greg.”