Would you rather have a shoebox in London or a mansion in Wales? One square metre of space hits £12k in Kensington, as Britain's property divide spreads
- One square metre in Kensington and Chelsea costs about £12,000
- The UK average is £2,033 and the cheapest is Aberdare in Wales at £910
- Halifax finds 'marked widening' between North and South in last 20 years
The gulf in property prices between London and the rest of the UK means that for the price of a 40 square metre one-bedroom flat in Kensington and Chelsea, a buyer could instead opt for a 512 square metre mansion in Wales.
Meanwhile, someone buying one property in the most expensive postcodes of the capital could buy half a dozen of the UK's averagely priced homes of the same size.
The London borough of Kensington and Chelsea is the most expensive area in the UK to buy with one square metre costing about £12,000, nearly six times more than the national average.
Expensive area: A square metre in Kensington and Chelsea costs on average £12,000, Halifax said
House prices in London may have shown signs of easing recently but the 10 areas with the highest price per square metre are still all to be found the capital, according to new figures.
The second most expensive borough is Westminster at £9,571 per square metre, while the national average stands at a much lower £2,033.
Halifax, which published the report, said that measuring house prices per square metre is more accurate as adjusts for differences in the size and type of properties between locations.
The report also found that there has been a 'marked widening' in property prices per square metre between London & Southern England and the rest of Britain over the past 20 years.
The ten boroughs with the highest price per square metre are also the ten boroughs that have seen the biggest increase in price per square metre over the last 20 years.
Hackney, in East London, has seen the largest rise since 1995 with an increase of 773 per cent - twice the London average at 388 per cent.
The average price per square metre across Britain has increased by 227 per cent over the past 20 years from £621 in 1995 to £2,033 in 2015, according to the data.
1. Kensington and Chelsea | London | £œ11,635 |
2. Westminster | London | ϣ9,571 |
3. Camden | London | £œ8,829 |
4. Hammersmith and Fulham | London | £œ8,306 |
5. Islington | London | ϣ7,399 |
6. Wandsworth | London | £œ6,761 |
7. Richmond upon Thames | London | ϣ6,265 |
8. Hackney | London | £œ6,196 |
9. Tower Hamlets | London | £œ5,980 |
10. Southwark | London | £œ5,962 |
Top end: A studio on sale in South Kensington with estate agent Foxtons for £450,000
Plenty of space: An 11 bedroom detached house in Aberdare, Wales, for less than £400,000 with estate agent Peter Alan.
In reality, buying property in the most expensive areas can prove much more expensive than the average.
A South Kensington studio flat measuring just 26 square metres is on the market in London, with estate agent Foxtons for £450,000, a Zoopla search showed.
For a similar price a buyer could purchase an 11 bedroom mansion in Aberdare, the UK's cheapest area, on the market for £399,99 with estate agent Peter Alan, Zoopla also showed. Its listing does not reveal its total dimensions.
Even in the last five years, Greater London has experienced substantially faster growth than elsewhere in Britain with an average increase of 45 per cent. This compares to the UK average growth of 18 per cent since 2010.
Halifax made its calculations by looking at average house prices across 331 towns, using its database, and dividing these by typical property sizes, to get the average price per metre squared.
Outside London and Southern England, Altrincham in the North West is the most expensive town at £2,446. Solihull, Warwick and Leamington Spa in West Midland follow, with a square metre costing around £2,300.
Four out of ten least expensive areas per square metre are in Scotland, including Greenock (pictured)
Halifax mortgages director Craig McKinlay said: ‘Parts of central London are substantially more expensive than anywhere else in the country.
‘Nonetheless, there are a number of notable pockets outside the south of England where property prices are also high price per square metre.
‘There has been a clear widening in the gap between southern England, particularly London, and the rest of the country over the past 20 years – a trend that has continued during the last five years.’
1. Aberdare | Wales | £œ910 |
2. Wishaw | Scotland | £œ926 |
3. Merthyr Tydfil | Wales | £œ967 |
4. Accrington | North West | £œ990 |
5. Airdrie | Scotland | ϣ998 |
6. Greenock | Scotland | £œ1,004 |
6. Coatbridge | Scotland | £œ1,004 |
8. Neath, | Wales | ϣ1,005 |
9. Scunthorpe | Yorkshire and the Humber | ϣ1,022 |
10. Blackpool | North West | ϣ1,052 |
Home buyers looking to buy more space with their cash might want to consider Aberdare or Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, Wishaw or Airdrie in Scotland, or head for Accrington or Blackpool in Lancashire, the research suggests.
Aberdare was found to be Britain's cheapest town for property, with one square metre costing £910 on average.
Separate research by Halifax showed that average house prices rose by another 8.6 per cent year-on-year in May as the number of properties available for sale remained at its lowest level for many years.
Prices actually edged slightly lower in May, dropping by 0.1 per cent in May compared with a 1.6 per cent surge in April. The latest movements bring the average house price to £196,067 across the country, up another £12,619 in one year alone, according to the mortgage lender.
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