House prices in AL5 4 (Harpenden)

This article reveals price per square metre data and various charts to help you understand current housing market in 'AL5 4' (Harpenden) - statistics were last calculated on 30 June 2024.


Defining 'AL5 4'

This analysis is limited to properties whose postcode starts with "AL5 4", 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 Harpenden.

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 Harpenden 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. 16 Arcadian Court, Sun Lane, Harpenden, sold for £490,000 on Apr-2024. Given the internal area of 65 square metres, the price per sqm is £7,538.

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. £8,050-£8,500, £8,500-£8,950, £8,950-£9,400 etc...) we then count the number of sales with within in each bucket and plot the results. The chart is based on 178 sales in Harpenden (AL5 4) that took place in the last two years.

Distribution of £ per sqm for Harpenden
Distribution of £ per sqm house prices in Harpenden

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 Harpenden (AL5 4). Of the 178 transactions, half were sold for between £5,580 and £7,870 per square metre. The median, or 'middle', price per square metre in 'AL5 4' is £6,730. Notably, only 25% of properties that sold recently were valued at more than £7,870 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 Harpenden

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 Harpenden. 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 Harpenden
House price heatmap for Harpenden

Comparison with neighbouring postcode sectors

The table below shows how 'AL5 4' compares to neighbouring postcode sectors.

Postcode sector Lower quartile Middle quartile Upper quartile
AL5 5 Harpenden £5,820 sqm £6,690 sqm £7,800 sqm
AL5 1 Harpenden £5,990 sqm £6,890 sqm £7,710 sqm
AL5 3 Harpenden £5,500 sqm £6,690 sqm £7,990 sqm
AL5 4 Harpenden £5,580 sqm £6,730 sqm £7,870 sqm
AL5 2 Harpenden £7,050 sqm £8,170 sqm £9,260 sqm

Will Harpenden 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 AL5 4 (Harpenden) compared with both the wider area AL5 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 Harpenden,Harpenden
House price trends for Harpenden

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 AL5 4 sales
Recent trends for Harpenden

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 Harpenden 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 Harpenden 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
Station Road, Harpenden, AL5 4X 65 sqm £6,027 20
Station Road, Harpenden, AL5 4F 64 sqm £5,037 16
Sun Lane, Harpenden, AL5 4E 70 sqm £8,618 13
West Way, Harpenden, AL5 4R 152 sqm £8,130 13
Ox Lane, Harpenden, AL5 4P 131 sqm £7,619 11
Carlton Road, Harpenden, AL5 4S 84 sqm £5,538 11
Wroxham Way, Harpenden, AL5 4P 86 sqm £8,255 10
Lea Road, Harpenden, AL5 4P 133 sqm £7,943 9

Search for your street here.

Raw data

Our analysis of Harpenden 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
16 Arcadian Court, Sun Lane, Harpenden £490,000
Apr-2024
65 7,538
172a, Station Rd, Harpenden £370,000
Apr-2024
69 5,362
12, West Way, Harpenden £1,673,500
Feb-2024
114 14,679

See the entire list of all sales in Harpenden (AL5 4) 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.