Quantcast
Menu
Save, make, understand money

First-time Buyer

House prices have risen 250% in 20 years

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
23/05/2016

Property prices have shot up an enormous 251% since 1996, according to figures from Halifax. And in London they have surged an eye-watering 432% over the same period.

The lender said that in Chelsea, buyers pay an average of £11,321 for one square metre of a home – five times the national average.

Unsurprisingly, London dominates the country’s list of most expensive property locations on a per square metre basis, although five areas outside southern England fetch a higher property price per square metre than the national average of £2,216 – Solihull and Leamington Spa in West Midlands, Altrincham in the North West, Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh and Harrogate in Yorkshire.

Kensington and Chelsea remains Britain’s most expensive neighbourhood, with an average price of £11,321 per square metre. Seventeen areas – all in Greater London – have an average price in excess of £5,000 per square metre.

Value for money?

The research found that nowhere in Great Britain had an average price below £1,000 per square metre, but Airdrie in Scotland had the lowest average price at £1,019 per square metre, less than a tenth of the average price per square metre in Kensington and Chelsea.

Six of the 10 towns with the lowest prices per square metre are outside England, with four in Scotland: Airdrie (£1,019), Lanark (£1,040), Coatbridge (£1,071) and Kilmarnock (£1,120).

Two are in Wales: Llanelli (£1,028) and Neath (£1,065). The four English towns with the lowest house prices on a per square metre basis are all in northern England – Scunthorpe (£1,036), Accrington (£1,055), Hartlepool (£1,062) and Wallasey (£1,067).

Chris Gowland, mortgages director, Halifax, said: “There has been a marked widening in the North/South property divide over the past two decades as prices per square metre have risen by 432% over this period in Greater London – more than twice the increase in areas outside of southern England. The consistent gap between southern England – led by London – and the rest of the country over the past two decades – is a trend that has embedded itself throughout the last five years.”