Feb 07, 2023 by HM

House prices in Bolton (BL5 1)

This article reveals price per square metre data and various charts to help you understand current housing market in Bolton (BL5 1).

---

Price per square metre

Knowing the average house price in Bolton 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. 825, St Helens Road, Bolton, Westhoughton, sold for £277,000 on Aug-2023. Given the internal area of 111 square metres, the price per sqm is £2,495.

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. £2,800-£3,000, £3,000-£3,200, £3,200-£3,400 etc...) we then count the number of sales with within in each bucket and plot the results. The chart is based on 61 sales in Bolton (BL5 1) 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.

That said, the spread of prices will give you a feel of the typical range to expect in Bolton (BL5 1). Of the 61 transactions, half were sold for between £2,380 and £3,030 per square metre. Notably, only 25% of properties that sold recently were valued at more than £3,030m². 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 'BL5 1' is £2,780. The table below shows how 'BL5 1' compares to neighbouring postcode sectors.

Postcode sector	Lower quartile	Middle quartile	Upper quartile
BL5 2 Westhoughton	£1,970m2	£2,480m2	£3,040m2
BL5 1 Bolton	£2,380m2	£2,780m2	£3,030m2
BL5 3 Westhoughton	£1,790m2	£2,130m2	£2,830m2

Will Bolton 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 BL5 1 (Bolton). 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 BL5 1 and the blue dots are the individual property sales that inform this trend.

Disclaimer: The data provided throughout this website about Bolton 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 Bolton data or any other data I am given.

Price map for Bolton

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 Bolton. 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.

House price heatmap for Bolton

Street level data

Street	Avg size	Avg £/m2	Recent sales
Salford Road, Bolton, BL5 1B	100m2	£2,071	20
Newbrook Road, Bolton, BL5 1E	106m2	£2,693	18
Plodder Lane, Bolton, BL5 1A	136m2	£2,503	12
Newland Drive, Bolton, BL5 1D	104m2	£2,838	11
Reynolds Drive, Bolton, BL5 1H	95m2	£2,610	10
Rutherford Drive, Bolton, BL5 1D	100m2	£2,847	10
Braddyll Road, Bolton, BL5 1D	104m2	£2,790	9
Manchester Road, Bolton, BL5 1E	86m2	£2,293	9

Search for your street here.

Raw data

Our analysis of Bolton 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
825, St Helens Rd, Bolton, Westhoughton	£277,000 Aug-2023	111	2,495
99, Salford Rd, Bolton, Westhoughton	£195,000 Jul-2023	91	2,142
33, Rutherford Drive, Bolton, Westhoughton	£285,000 Jul-2023	94	3,031

See the entire list of all sales in Bolton (BL5 1) here.