Feb 07, 2023 by HM

House prices in Colchester (CO3 3)

This article reveals price per square metre data and various charts to help you understand current housing market in Colchester (CO3 3).

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Price per square metre

Knowing the average house price in Colchester 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. 60, Manor Road, Colchester, Stanway, sold for £300,000 on Oct-2023. Given the internal area of 64 square metres, the price per sqm is £4,687.

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. £3,800-£4,000, £4,000-£4,200, £4,200-£4,400 etc...) we then count the number of sales with within in each bucket and plot the results. The chart is based on 274 sales in Colchester (CO3 3) 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 Colchester (CO3 3). Of the 274 transactions, half were sold for between £2,920 and £4,290 per square metre. Notably, only 25% of properties that sold recently were valued at more than £4,290m². 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 'CO3 3' is £3,640. The table below shows how 'CO3 3' compares to neighbouring postcode sectors.

Postcode sector	Lower quartile	Middle quartile	Upper quartile
CO3 9 Colchester	£3,490m2	£3,910m2	£4,330m2
CO3 4 Colchester	£3,570m2	£4,130m2	£4,710m2
CO3 0 Stanway	£3,600m2	£4,220m2	£4,700m2
CO3 3 Colchester	£2,920m2	£3,640m2	£4,290m2
CO3 8 Stanway	£3,530m2	£3,870m2	£4,350m2

Will Colchester 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 CO3 3 (Colchester). 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 CO3 3 and the blue dots are the individual property sales that inform this trend.

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

Price map for Colchester

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 Colchester. 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 Colchester

Street level data

Street	Avg size	Avg £/m2	Recent sales
Maldon Road, Colchester, CO3 3A	91m2	£2,793	41
Rotary Way, Colchester, CO3 3L	67m2	£2,868	36
Butt Road, Colchester, CO3 3D	79m2	£3,541	30
Maldon Road, Colchester, CO3 3B	134m2	£3,644	22
St Marys Fields, Colchester, CO3 3F	52m2	£2,433	21
Wickham Road, Colchester, CO3 3E	72m2	£3,719	17
Irvine Road, Colchester, CO3 3T	124m2	£3,821	17
Salisbury Avenue, Colchester, CO3 3D	84m2	£3,277	15

Search for your street here.

New build activity

Street	Avg size	Avg £/m2	New build sales
Crouch Street, Colchester, CO3 3H	56m2	£2,947	13

Crouch Street, Colchester, CO3 3H has seen 13 new build sales in the last 4 years (average price £331,750). These new build homes typically have an internal area of 56 m2, with an average price of £2,947 m2. This £sqm average is £-693 below the average for CO3 3. New builds typically command a £ per sqm premium. In the case of Crouch Street 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 Colchester 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
60, Manor Rd, Colchester, Stanway	£300,000 Oct-2023	64	4,687
6, Capel Rd, Colchester, Stanway	£420,000 Oct-2023	88	4,772
5, Keble Close, Colchester, Stanway	£400,000 Sep-2023	79	5,063

See the entire list of all sales in Colchester (CO3 3) here.