However, there are pockets outside Southern England where property fetches a high price per square metre, including Altrincham in Cheshire, a number of towns in Warwickshire and the Scottish cities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
Overall there has been a marked widening in property prices per square metre between southern England and the rest of Britain since 1995, according to the research from the Halifax. Indeed, prices per square metre have risen by 388% in Great London compared with a national increase of 227%.
Kensington and Chelsea is Britain's most expensive area with an average price of £11,635 per square meter, nearly six times the national average of £2,033. The borough is the only area in Britain with an average price above £10,000 per square meter with Westminster having the next highest prices at £9,571. Some 16 areas, all in Greater London, have an average price in excess of £5,000 per square meter, four more than last year.
Outside southern England, Altrincham in Cheshire remains the most expensive town with an average price of £2,446 per square meter and is followed by a cluster of towns in the West Midlands with Solihull at £2,367, Warwick at £2,363 and Leamington Spa at £2,353. The Scottish cities of Edinburgh at £2,297 and Aberdeen at £2,281 are the next most expensive areas outside southern England.
Aberdare in south Wales has the lowest average price, at £910 per square meter. This is less than one tenth of the average price per square metre in Kensington and Chelsea and all 10 of the towns with the lowest prices per square metre are outside the south of England.
Four of the ten towns with the lowest average price per square metre are in Scotland with Wishaw at £926, Airdrie at £998, Greenock at £1,004 and Coatbridge at £1,004. Three are in Wales with Merthyr Tydfil at £967 and Neath at £1,005 in addition to Aberdare. The three English towns with the lowest home prices on a per square metre basis are Accrington at £990, Scunthorpe at £1,022 and Blackpool at £1,052.
The 10 areas recording the highest house price growth on a per square metre basis over the last five years are all London boroughs. Hackney at 71% recorded the biggest increase over the five year period closely followed by Southwark at 70%.
Nationally, house prices per square metre have risen by 18% since 2010 from an average of £1,719 to £2,033 in 2015 with increases across all regions. Greater London has experienced substantially faster growth than elsewhere in Britain with an average increase of 45%. The South East at 22% recorded the next biggest rise. Price increases have been much more modest in many other parts of the country with the smallest rises in the North at 3% and Scotland at 5%.
The data also shows that the average price per square metre across Britain has increased by 227% over the past 20 years from £621 in 1995 to £2,033 in 2015. This national figure, however, conceals considerable regional differences. In particular, there has been a marked widening in the north/south property divide since 1995. Prices per square metre have risen by 388% over this period in Greater London; more than twice the increases in northern England, Scotland, Wales and the Midlands.
All 10 areas that have seen the biggest increases in price per square metre over the last 20 years are in London. Over the past five years, Hackney has seen the largest rise since 1995 with an increase of 773%, twice the London average.
Only five towns outside southern England have recorded price gains per square metre in excess of the Great Britain average since 1995. Sale, near Manchester, at 251%, Harrogate at 242%, Leamington Spa at 241%, Rushden in Northamptonshire at 237% and Northampton at 236%.
Craig McKinlay, mortgages director at the Halifax, explained that house price per square metre is a useful measure for house price comparison because it helps to adjust for differences in the size and type of properties between locations.
‘Parts of central London are substantially more expensive than anywhere else in the country. Nonetheless, there are a number of notable pockets outside the south of England where property prices are also high price per square metre. There has been a clear widening in the gap between southern England, particularly London, and the rest of the country over the past 20 years, a trend that has continued during the last five years,’ he said.
