Feb 07, 2023 by HM

House prices in St Albans (AL1 3)

This article reveals price per square metre data and various charts to help you understand current housing market in St Albans (AL1 3).


Price per square metre

Knowing the average house price in St Albans is not much use. However, knowing average price per square metre can be quite useful. Price per sqm allows some comparison between properties of different size. We define price per square metre as the sold price divided by the internal area of a property:

£ per sqm = price ÷ internal area
E.g. 50, Alexandra Road, St Albans, sold for £626,000 on Aug-2023. Given the internal area of 72 square metres, the price per sqm is £8,694.

England & Wales have been officially metric for many decades. However house price per square foot is sometimes prefered by those of sufficiently advanced age. They may want to convert metres on this page to square feet.

The chart below is called a histogram, it helps you see the distribution of this house price per sqm data. To make this chart we put the sales data into a series of £ per sqm 'buckets' (e.g. £6,600-£7,000, £7,000-£7,400, £7,400-£7,800 etc...) we then count the number of sales with within in each bucket and plot the results. The chart is based on 200 sales in St Albans (AL1 3) that took place in the last two years.

Distribution of £ per sqm for St Albans (AL1 3)
Distribution of £ per sqm house prices in St Albans

You can see the spread of prices above. This is because although internal area is a key factor in determining valuation, it is not the only factor. Many factors other than size affect desirability; these factors could be condition, aspect, garden size, negotiating power of the vendor etc.

That said, the spread of prices will give you a feel of the typical range to expect in St Albans (AL1 3). Of the 200 transactions, half were sold for between £5,390 and £7,350 per square metre. Notably, only 25% of properties that sold recently were valued at more than £7,350m2. For anything to be valued more than this means it has to be more desireable than the clear majority of homes.

For the average, we calculate the 'median' or middle price. The median price per square metre in 'AL1 3' is £6,260. The table below shows how 'AL1 3' compares to neighbouring postcode sectors.

Postcode sector Lower quartile Middle quartile Upper quartile
AL1 3 St Albans £5,390m2 £6,260m2 £7,350m2
AL1 2 St Albans £5,560m2 £6,460m2 £7,390m2
AL1 1 St Albans £5,760m2 £6,870m2 £8,310m2
AL1 4 St Albans £6,600m2 £7,770m2 £8,700m2
AL1 5 St Albans £5,550m2 £6,550m2 £7,410m2

Will St Albans house prices drop in 2024?

I cannot tell the future and don't believe anyone who says they can. I can however plot price trends - I have done this in the scatter plot below for AL1 3 (St Albans). From this one could infer a range of reasonable possible future price falls or rises. In the chart below, the red dashed line is the house price trend for AL1 3 and the blue dots are the individual property sales that inform this trend.

Price per square metre in St Albans (AL1 3) over time
House price trends for St Albans

Hover on any blue dot to see details of specific sales

Disclaimer: The data provided throughout this website about St Albans and any other area, is not financial advice. Any information provided does not and cannot ever take in to account the particular financial situation, objectives or property needs of either you or anyone reading this information. Furthermore, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of any data shown. This information is based on sold prices and internal area data provided by Land Registry and other third parties - I do not verify the accuracy of the St Albans data or any other data I am given.

Price map for St Albans

I've just finished coding the map I link to below. I find it useful and I am sure it will help you in exploring St Albans. You can zoom in all the way to individual properties and then all the way back out to see the whole country. The colours show the current estimated property values. I will explain more about the methodology and create a key next week.

Property price heatmap for St Albans
House price heatmap for St Albans

Street level data

Street Avg size Avg £/m2 Recent sales
Newsom Place, St Albans, AL1 3G 63m2 £5,871 35
Alexandra Road, St Albans, AL1 3A 70m2 £7,978 29
Charrington Place, St Albans, AL1 3F 57m2 £5,860 23
Davis Court, St Albans, AL1 3X 47m2 £4,950 21
Hillside Road, St Albans, AL1 3Q 90m2 £6,323 19
Inkerman Road, St Albans, AL1 3B 74m2 £7,669 18
Lemsford Road, St Albans, AL1 3P 85m2 £6,008 16
Avenue Road, St Albans, AL1 3Q 86m2 £6,063 14

Search for your street here.

New build activity

Street Avg size Avg £/m2 New build sales
Gabriel Square, St Albans, AL1 3A 152m2 £5,907 24
Civic Close, St Albans, AL1 3J 48m2 £7,101 24

Gabriel Square, St Albans, AL1 3A has seen 24 new build sales in the last 4 years (average price £952,447). These new build homes typically have an internal area of 152 m2, with an average price of £5,907 m2. This £sqm average is £-353 below the average for AL1 3. New builds typically command a £ per sqm premium. In the case of Gabriel Square the premium seems not to exist. Without more info we can only speculate why this may be. Perhaps it may be greater density and smaller gardens, but this is just a guess.

Raw data

Our analysis of St Albans is derived from what is essentially a big table of sold prices from Land Registry with added property size information. Below are three rows from this table to give you an idea.

Address Paid m2 £/m2
50, Alexandra Rd, St Albans £626,000
Aug-2023
72 8,694
Flat 5 Saxon House, 2, Upper Marlborough Rd, St Albans £390,000
Aug-2023
62 6,290
5 The Apex, Newsom Pl, St Albans £440,000
Aug-2023
71 6,197

See the entire list of all sales in St Albans (AL1 3) here.

About

HouseMetric is a hobby, created out of a desire to see data and analysis not present on any free to use website. It is still a work in progress and I'll add more stuff in the near future.