House prices in AL1 5 (St Albans)

This article reveals price per square metre data and various charts to help you understand current housing market in 'AL1 5' (St Albans) - statistics were last calculated on 30 June 2024.

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Defining 'AL1 5'

This analysis is limited to properties whose postcode starts with "AL1 5", this is also called the postcode sector. It is shown in red on the map above. There are no official names for postcode sectors so I've just labelled it St Albans.

You can click on the map labels to change to a neighbouring sector, or you can enter a different postcode sector (e.g. CM23 4) below.

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FYI, a postcode sector is the full postcode without the last two letters.

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. 55, Drakes Drive, St Albans, sold for £540,000 on May-2024. Given the internal area of 107 square metres, the price per sqm is £5,046.

England & Wales have been officially metric since 1965. However house price per square foot is prefered by some estate agents and those of sufficiently advanced age ;-) They may want to convert square meters 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. £6,150-£6,500, £6,500-£6,850, £6,850-£7,200 etc...) we then count the number of sales with within in each bucket and plot the results. The chart is based on 238 sales in St Albans (AL1 5) that took place in the last two years.

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.

The spread of prices will give you a feel of the typical range to expect in St Albans (AL1 5). Of the 238 transactions, half were sold for between £5,490 and £7,500 per square metre. The median, or 'middle', price per square metre in 'AL1 5' is £6,410. Notably, only 25% of properties that sold recently were valued at more than £7,500 sqm. For anything to be valued more than this means it has to be more desireable than the clear majority of homes.

Price map for St Albans

Do have a look at the interactive price map I created. 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.

House price heatmap for St Albans

Comparison with neighbouring postcode sectors

The table below shows how 'AL1 5' compares to neighbouring postcode sectors.

Postcode sector	Lower quartile	Middle quartile	Upper quartile
AL1 3 St Albans	£5,450 sqm	£6,190 sqm	£7,220 sqm
AL1 2 St Albans	£5,720 sqm	£6,520 sqm	£7,390 sqm
AL1 1 St Albans	£5,760 sqm	£6,820 sqm	£8,180 sqm
AL1 4 St Albans	£6,980 sqm	£7,940 sqm	£8,800 sqm
AL1 5 St Albans	£5,490 sqm	£6,410 sqm	£7,500 sqm

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 chart below for AL1 5 (St Albans) compared with both the wider area AL1 and inflation (CPIH from the Office of National Statistics). The dashed trend lines in the chart show the average over time.

Download time series data as CSV (paying users only).

For the most recent sales activity, rather than a summarized average, it is better to see the underlying data. This is shown in the chart below, where blue dots represent individual sales, click on them to see details. If there is an obvious trend you should be able to spot it here amid the noise from outliers.

Data from Land Registry comes in gradually over time. I update it every month but it takes about 5 months for the majority of sales for St Albans to be recorded. Disclaimer: I do not verify and cannot guarantee the accuracy of any data shown. Outliers exist in the data, typically these are where the EPC registry records the internal area incorrectly, sometimes although very rarely the Land Registry price paid data can be wrong. 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.

Street level data

Street	Avg size	Avg £sqm	Recent sales
Dexter Close, St Albans, AL1 5W	65 sqm	£4,951	25
Park View Close, St Albans, AL1 5T	60 sqm	£5,256	21
Drakes Drive, St Albans, AL1 5A	81 sqm	£5,432	21
Cavendish Road, St Albans, AL1 5E	75 sqm	£7,328	18
Castle Road, St Albans, AL1 5D	85 sqm	£6,922	15
Camp Road, St Albans, AL1 5N	95 sqm	£6,380	14
Granville Road, St Albans, AL1 5B	66 sqm	£5,043	14
Burleigh Road, St Albans, AL1 5D	70 sqm	£6,100	14

Search for your street here.

New build activity

Street	Avg size	Avg £sqm	New build sales
Hansell Gardens, St Albans, AL1 5G	62 sqm	£6,381	11

Hansell Gardens, St Albans, AL1 5G has seen 11 new build sales in the last 4 years (average price £409,235). These new build homes typically have an internal area of 62 sqm, with an average price of £6,381 sqm. This £sqm average is £-29 below the average for AL1 5. New builds typically command a £ per sqm premium. In the case of Hansell Gardens 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	sqm	£/sqm
55, Drakes Drive, St Albans	£540,000 May-2024	107	5,046
56, Cavendish Rd, St Albans	£565,000 May-2024	67	8,432
Flat 3 St. James Court, Park View Close, St Albans	£270,000 Apr-2024	46	5,869

See the entire list of all sales in St Albans (AL1 5) here.