London homes cost six times national average

SURGING house prices mean that £12,000 would buy just one square metre of property in Kensington and Chelsea, according to a report.

The London borough was named by Halifax as Britain’s most expensive place to live on a square metre basis.

One square metre of a property in Kensington and Chelsea costs nearly six times the national average of £2,033.

All of the top 10 most expensive areas were in London, with Camden, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Wandsworth and Hackney also on the list. Outside southern England, Altrincham in Cheshire was the most expensive town, with properties costing around £2,446 per square metre, while Solihull, Warwick, Edinburgh and Aberdeen also figure among the most expensive towns for property in the north.

Home buyers looking for more space for their cash might want to consider Aberdare or Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, Wishaw or Airdrie in Scotland, or Accrington or Blackpool in Lancashire, the research suggests.

Aberdare was Britain’s cheapest town for property, with one square metre costing £910 on average.

Craig McKinlay, mortgages director at Halifax, said: “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. 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.”

Halifax said that across the country house prices per square metre had surged by 18 per cent since 2010.

London has experienced substantially faster growth than elsewhere in Britain with an average increase of 45 per cent.

Halifax made its calculations by looking at average house prices across 331 towns using its database and dividing them by typical property sizes.