House prices in AL3 5 (St Albans)

This article reveals price per square metre data and various charts to help you understand current housing market in 'AL3 5' (St Albans) - statistics were last calculated on 30 June 2024.


Defining 'AL3 5'

This analysis is limited to properties whose postcode starts with "AL3 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.

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. 26, Bernard Street, St Albans, sold for £455,000 on Apr-2024. Given the internal area of 60 square metres, the price per sqm is £7,583.

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. £7,600-£8,000, £8,000-£8,400, £8,400-£8,800 etc...) we then count the number of sales with within in each bucket and plot the results. The chart is based on 198 sales in St Albans (AL3 5) that took place in the last two years.

Distribution of £ per sqm for St Albans
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.

The spread of prices will give you a feel of the typical range to expect in St Albans (AL3 5). Of the 198 transactions, half were sold for between £6,270 and £8,180 per square metre. The median, or 'middle', price per square metre in 'AL3 5' is £7,420. Notably, only 25% of properties that sold recently were valued at more than £8,180 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.

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

Comparison with neighbouring postcode sectors

The table below shows how 'AL3 5' compares to neighbouring postcode sectors.

Postcode sector Lower quartile Middle quartile Upper quartile
AL3 6 St Albans £5,410 sqm £5,970 sqm £6,900 sqm
AL3 7 Redbourn £4,890 sqm £5,760 sqm £6,700 sqm
AL3 5 St Albans £6,270 sqm £7,420 sqm £8,180 sqm
AL3 8 Markyate £4,450 sqm £4,930 sqm £5,540 sqm
AL3 4 St Albans £6,090 sqm £7,400 sqm £8,790 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 AL3 5 (St Albans) compared with both the wider area AL3 and inflation (CPIH from the Office of National Statistics). The dashed trend lines in the chart show the average over time.

Historic price per square metre in St Albans,St Albans
House price trends for St Albans

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.

Most recent AL3 5 sales
Recent trends for St Albans

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
Cannon Street, St Albans, AL3 5J 91 sqm £7,261 24
Beech Road, St Albans, AL3 5A 95 sqm £6,021 23
Folly Lane, St Albans, AL3 5J 88 sqm £7,480 21
Oster Street, St Albans, AL3 5J 70 sqm £7,685 21
Kimberley Road, St Albans, AL3 5P 85 sqm £8,198 21
Dalton Street, St Albans, AL3 5Q 76 sqm £8,122 21
Carlisle Avenue, St Albans, AL3 5L 89 sqm £6,882 18
Goldsmith Way, St Albans, AL3 5L 118 sqm £6,650 17

Search for your street here.

New build activity

Street Avg size Avg £sqm New build sales
Maryland Place, St Albans, AL3 5F 137 sqm £5,733 17

Maryland Place, St Albans, AL3 5F has seen 17 new build sales in the last 4 years (average price £785,058). These new build homes typically have an internal area of 137 sqm, with an average price of £5,733 sqm. This £sqm average is £0 below the average for AL3 5. New builds typically command a £ per sqm premium. In the case of Maryland Place 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
26, Bernard St, St Albans £455,000
Apr-2024
60 7,583
24, Fontmell Close, St Albans £675,000
Apr-2024
82 8,231
5, Oster St, St Albans £555,000
Mar-2024
66 8,409

See the entire list of all sales in St Albans (AL3 5) here.

About

I created HouseMetric because I wanted to see this data and analysis myself, I also wanted to teach myself to build a website. Please give me feedback or spread the word about it. I'm constantly tinkering and adding more stuff to it.