Feb 07, 2023 by HM

House prices in St Albans (AL4 9)

This article reveals price per square metre data and various charts to help you understand current housing market in St Albans (AL4 9).


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. 4, Chancery Close, St Albans, sold for £895,000 on Sep-2023. Given the internal area of 138 square metres, the price per sqm is £6,485.

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 276 sales in St Albans (AL4 9) that took place in the last two years.

Distribution of £ per sqm for St Albans (AL4 9)
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 (AL4 9). Of the 276 transactions, half were sold for between £5,630 and £7,510 per square metre. Notably, only 25% of properties that sold recently were valued at more than £7,510m2. 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 'AL4 9' is £6,680. The table below shows how 'AL4 9' compares to neighbouring postcode sectors.

Postcode sector Lower quartile Middle quartile Upper quartile
AL4 9 St Albans £5,630m2 £6,680m2 £7,510m2
AL4 0 St Albans £5,430m2 £6,400m2 £7,540m2
AL4 8 Wheathampstead £5,390m2 £5,940m2 £6,920m2

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 AL4 9 (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 AL4 9 and the blue dots are the individual property sales that inform this trend.

Price per square metre in St Albans (AL4 9) 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
The Ridgeway, St Albans, AL4 9T 65m2 £4,590 18
Hughenden Road, St Albans, AL4 9Q 66m2 £4,590 18
Langley Grove, St Albans, AL4 9D 88m2 £5,941 17
Harness Way, St Albans, AL4 9H 66m2 £6,524 15
Newgate Close, St Albans, AL4 9J 64m2 £4,938 15
Harvest Court, St Albans, AL4 9Q 61m2 £4,708 15
Windmill Avenue, St Albans, AL4 9S 87m2 £6,806 14
High Street, St Albans, AL4 9D 71m2 £5,584 13

Search for your street here.

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
4, Chancery Close, St Albans £895,000
Sep-2023
138 6,485
86, Windmill Avenue, St Albans £595,000
Sep-2023
86 6,918
54, Elizabeth Court, St Albans £525,000
Aug-2023
73 7,191

See the entire list of all sales in St Albans (AL4 9) 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.