Average British home costs £211 per square foot, study finds

The average home in Britain now costs £211 per square foot – an increase of £44 or 26% over the past five years, according to analysis from a property website.

Homes in Kensington and Chelsea in London are typically priced at £1,382 per square foot – making this the most expensive area in the research from Zoopla.

At the other end of the spectrum, Blaenau Gwent in South Wales was found to offer buyers the most space for their money – with an average price per square foot of £79, followed by Burnley in Lancashire at £87 per square foot.

East Ayrshire in Scotland and Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales were also found to be areas where home buyers are likely to be able to make their budgets stretch further.

Outside London, Surrey’s Elmbridge is the most expensive area of Britain, with properties there costing £495 per square foot, followed by St Albans in Hertfordshire at £489 per square foot, according to Zoopla, which used figures from property analysts Hometrack for the research.

Meanwhile, Slough was identified as having seen a particularly high growth rate in prices, with the average price per square foot having surged by 64% or £145 over the past five years, to reach £374.

The commuter area of Stevenage has also seen a jump of 59% or £105, with homes there now priced at £282 per square foot on average.

Meanwhile, in Hartlepool in the North East of England, the average house price per square foot has decreased by £7 over the past five years to reach £102.

Within London, the east has seen the sharpest price rises over the past five years, with the average house price per square foot in Newham now at £422 – an 86% increase.

Lawrence Hall, a spokesman for Zoopla, said: “Analysing property prices per square foot is an effective way of seeing where you can achieve the most space for your money and can help steer you to areas you may want to focus your search on.

“The Home Counties have performed very well since 2012 in addition to some London boroughs, such as Newham and Waltham Forest, which have seen increases of over 80% per square foot.”