MUSIC legend Mariah Carey could buy more than 180 York homes with profits from her best-selling festive song, All I Want For Christmas Is You.

Although written in just 15 minutes and recorded by Carey nearly 30 years ago, the song earned over £48 million in royalties up to 2016, according to the Economist. Making an estimated £2 million a year since then – 74 times the median annual salary of £27,600 in York – the song has earned about £61 million up to and including this year.

Carey, often referred to as the "Queen of Christmas", could purchase about 184 houses in York with the song's estimated earnings – with recent Land Registry figures showing the average house price in the area was £330,000 in October.

Across the UK, the American singer could purchase the most homes in Burnley with the song, affording her 506 houses, while she would get the fewest in Kensington and Chelsea at 45.

The song was written and produced by Carey and Walter Afanasief and was released as a lead single from the album in 1994. It received critical acclaim with The New Yorker saying it is "one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon."

Since then, it has sold over 10 million copies and has been streamed over 1.3 billion times on Spotify.