Astounding £18,000 difference between highest and lowest home prices per square meter
The highest property price per square metre in England and Wales is in London and the lowest in Wales with a clear North/South divide, according to official figures. In London the average cost per square meter of both houses and flats is over £6,500 and between 2004 and 2016, price per area in London nearly doubled, the data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows. Over the same time the price per square meter increase by around 55% in the East of England and the South East while there was a small increase in the floor space of properties purchased over this period of 2.7% increase for England and Wales. Overall, the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea is the most expensive area to buy a house, with an average price of £19,400 per square metre, around eight times the England and Wales average. At the lower end the price per square meter in Blaenau Gwent in Wales is just £777, a third of the England and Wales average and less than 5% of the prices in Kensington and Chelsea, a difference of over £18,000 per square meter. The disparity in price between each end of the market is quite astounding, according to Russell Quirk, chief executive of eMoov. ‘Of course, it is no surprise that an over-inflated London market leads the way in terms of highest price, despite a slowdown in price growth in recent times and while £2,305 a square metre is a high price to pay to get on the housing ladder, but this research also shows that across England and Wales there are many far more affordable options,’ he said. ‘It is the affordability that has seen many pockets of the nation’s property market remain buoyant despite uncertainty slowing growth in other areas such as London,’ he added.
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