Local market reports › AL
St Albans market report AL
The standing AL (St Albans) property market report, rebuilt from the full public record every month. Underneath every chart here sit 135,139 registered sales in the AL postcode area (St Albans) since 1995, the HM Land Registry record of what buyers really paid, with ONS figures covering rents. Nothing is a valuation, an estimate or an asking price.
Sales data to July 2026. Rents: ONS, May 2026. Regenerated with every monthly data refresh.
In short: the typical home in the AL postcode area (St Albans) sold for £516,000 in 2026, the median of 1,219 registered sales, up 3% on five years earlier. The mean was £612,300, and by floor area homes here have averaged about £6,100 per square metre over the last five years. The figures cover 135,139 sales recorded by HM Land Registry since 1995 and refresh with each monthly release: completed sale prices, not valuations or asking prices.
The AL postcode area centred on St Albans covers 10 districts. At this scale the figures average away real local contrasts; the district reports below are the place for anywhere specific.
Where AL sits
Shaded by median price on the same scale as the average prices map. Click any shape to open it on the live map with every sale plotted at its address, or zoom in past street level to see the sold homes right here.
AL sold prices: where the market stands
Take the 1,219 registered 2026 sales in AL and the middle price, the median, is £516,000. The mean lands at £612,300, well above it, the signature of a heavy top tail: a handful of expensive sales lifting the average.
House prices per square metre in AL
Measured by floor area, the last five years of AL sales average about £6,100 per square metre. Price per square metre is the fair way to compare a one-bed flat with a four-bed house, and it comes from the Energy Performance Certificate on each sold home.
Against a national (England and Wales) median of £285,000, AL runs 81% above it.
A typical AL home, priced year by year (1995 to 2026)
Year by year: the median as it was recorded, and the same figure brought into today's money with ONS CPIH, which is where "did homes get dearer" actually gets answered. Hover shows each year; the legend isolates a series.
See this chart as a table
| Year | Median (cash) | Median (today's £) | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | £516,000 | £516,000 | 1,219 |
| 2025 | £535,000 | £547,793 | 3,466 |
| 2024 | £538,400 | £572,430 | 3,130 |
| 2023 | £550,000 | £604,316 | 2,908 |
| 2022 | £540,000 | £633,212 | 3,936 |
| 2021 | £500,000 | £633,065 | 4,711 |
| 2020 | £490,000 | £635,785 | 3,281 |
| 2019 | £472,000 | £618,679 | 3,361 |
| 2018 | £460,000 | £613,189 | 3,488 |
| 2017 | £460,000 | £627,394 | 3,619 |
| 2016 | £435,000 | £608,569 | 3,944 |
| 2015 | £380,000 | £536,940 | 4,343 |
| 2014 | £350,000 | £496,536 | 4,754 |
| 2013 | £317,000 | £456,131 | 4,228 |
| 2012 | £310,000 | £456,281 | 3,468 |
| 2011 | £300,000 | £452,885 | 3,585 |
| 2010 | £309,500 | £485,376 | 3,696 |
| 2009 | £270,000 | £434,027 | 3,223 |
| 2008 | £270,000 | £442,587 | 2,777 |
| 2007 | £264,000 | £447,818 | 5,678 |
| 2006 | £250,000 | £433,968 | 6,012 |
| 2005 | £235,000 | £418,205 | 5,114 |
| 2004 | £237,000 | £430,438 | 5,600 |
| 2003 | £219,700 | £404,741 | 5,148 |
| 2002 | £194,000 | £365,009 | 5,753 |
| 2001 | £167,500 | £322,010 | 5,390 |
| 2000 | £150,000 | £294,375 | 4,838 |
| 1999 | £129,800 | £258,685 | 5,840 |
| 1998 | £112,900 | £227,897 | 5,042 |
| 1997 | £96,000 | £196,877 | 5,041 |
| 1996 | £87,500 | £184,534 | 4,706 |
| 1995 | £81,000 | £176,082 | 3,840 |
In cash terms the typical AL home went from £81,000 in 1995 to £516,000 in 2026, roughly 6 times the price. Inflation explains only part of it: in today's money the rise is still about 193%, a genuine increase in what a home here costs. In inflation-adjusted terms the high-water mark was 2020. The market now sits about 19% below it, so a peak-time purchase has yet to recover its real value.
Year-on-year change in the AL median
Each bar is the change on the year before, in cash. The zero line is the boundary between rising and falling.
The strongest year on record here is 1998 (+17.6% on the year before); the weakest, 2026 (−3.6%). Single-year swings like these are why the annualised table below matters more than any one year's headline.
Detached, semi, terraced, flat: four markets in one
A single median hides the split beneath it. Sales of terraced homes dominate the record here, 32% of the typed total. A detached home currently trades at £845,000 against £280,000 for a flat, 3.0 times the price.
Median by property type, AL
One line per type, years with too few sales omitted. Hover for the year's figures; click a legend entry to isolate a type.
| Type | Median (2026) | Sales that year | All-time sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | £845,000 | 227 | 28,249 |
| Semi-detached | £655,000 | 294 | 31,944 |
| Terraced | £465,000 | 427 | 42,868 |
| Flats | £280,000 | 271 | 32,078 |
The long view: annualised growth
| Period | Cash, per year | Real terms, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 years (since 2025) | −3.6% | −5.8% |
| 5 years (since 2021) | +0.6% | −4.0% |
| 10 years (since 2016) | +1.7% | −1.6% |
| 20 years (since 2006) | +3.7% | +0.9% |
Each row is compound annual growth of the median; ONS CPIH supplies the real-terms deflator. Annualising irons out the cycle, which the chart above shows in full, and past growth records what happened rather than predicting anything.
Sales activity in AL
Sales per year, counted
Recorded sales per year. The dip after 2008 is the financial crisis; the last bar is still filling in as recent sales get registered.
The monthly pulse, last five years
Monthly registrations. The sawtooth is seasonal; the register runs weeks behind completions at the right-hand edge.
Over the last twelve months of data, 2,602 sales completed in AL. Like most of England and Wales, turnover never fully recovered from 2008: the market here averaged 5,442 sales a year before the financial crisis and 2,932 a year over the last five. Price without volume misleads: a median built on few sales jumps around, and one street can tilt it. Keep in mind too that the latest year is still filling in, since sales reach the register weeks or months after completion.
Rents around AL
The local authority for AL is St Albans, the local authority covering most of the AL area (parts fall under Welwyn Hatfield, where rents differ), and its ONS average private rent currently stands at £1,925 a month (May 2026 figures). A one-bed averages £1,266 a month here and a four-or-more-bed £2,897, so size does most of the work in setting the rent.
Average monthly rent by size, St Albans
ONS Price Index of Private Rents, May 2026.
Against the £516,000 median purchase price, a rent of £1,925 a month (£23,100 a year) works out at a 4.5% gross yield, a ceiling figure that ignores letting costs, voids, maintenance and tax. Because rents are local-authority statistics, districts sharing the authority share the figure.
What people ask about AL (St Albans)
Are property prices falling in AL (St Albans)?
Is AL (St Albans) a good place to buy a house?
How much did a house sell for in AL (St Albans)?
Where do AL prices go next?
The record answers a different question than "what happens next": the median is up 3% over five years in cash but down 18% after inflation. Put the volume chart beside the price chart before drawing conclusions, and allow for the register's lag behind actual completions.
On the market in AL today
Everything above is what homes in AL sold for. The live side of the market holds 1,096 homes at the moment, listed by 10 agents publishing to HomesIndex, at a typical asking price 42% above the AL median sold price.
25% of current listings sit under the prices comparable homes actually fetched. Each listing is compared with recent recorded sales of similar homes nearby.
- Howlands, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, Welwyn Garden City
- Aldock, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire
- Sandridge Road, St. Albans, AL1
"Under comparable sales" compares each asking price with what similar homes nearby actually sold for. It is a starting point for a conversation, not a valuation. Always look at the home itself.
See every AL home for sale on the map →
These asking prices come live from estate agents publishing feeds to HomesIndex, refreshed each Monday and Thursday. They are a sample of the market rather than its entirety, and an asking price is not a sale price.
Moving up a bedroom in AL: the cost
Real sold prices by size across the AL area, straight from the Land Registry record. The jump between sizes is local: in some areas a third bedroom adds a quarter to the price, in others nearly four fifths, so a national rule of thumb will mislead you here.
| Type | 1 bed | 2 bed | 3 bed | 4 bed | 5 bed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | — | £605,000 | £792,500 (+31%) | £1,160,000 (+46%) | £1,685,000 (+45%) |
| Semi-detached | £397,500 | £490,000 (+23%) | £640,000 (+31%) | £865,000 (+35%) | £1,150,000 (+33%) |
| Terraced | £375,000 | £440,000 (+17%) | £506,250 (+15%) | £739,000 (+46%) | £950,000 (+29%) |
| Flat | £250,000 | £335,000 (+34%) | £552,500 (+65%) | — | — |
Built from the last four years of recorded sales by form and bedroom count. Bedroom counts are estimated from EPC records (the register carries none), so expect a small number of homes one size adrift. Where too few homes exist to say anything meaningful, the cell is blank.
The risers and the fallers
The spread across the AL area is the point: the same five years treated these districts very differently.
Winners and losers across the AL area, five years
The biggest risers and fallers in cash terms; every row links to that district's report.
District by district
The spread inside AL matters more than its average. These are its districts with enough sales to measure, priciest first, each with a full report of its own.
| District | Median (2026) | 5-year | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| AL5 Harpenden, Kinsbourne Green | £725,000 | +2% | 145 |
| AL6 Welwyn, Ayot St Peter | £705,000 | -3% | 54 |
| AL4 St Albans (east), Blackmore End | £638,000 | +9% | 123 |
| AL3 St Albans (west), Childwickbury | £623,800 | +5% | 150 |
| AL8 Welwyn Garden City (west), Lemsford | £560,000 | +27% | 69 |
| AL1 St Albans (centre) | £550,000 | +4% | 215 |
| AL2 St Albans (south), Bricket Wood | £545,000 | +5% | 132 |
| AL9 Hatfield (Old Hatfield), Brookmans Park | £540,000 | -7% | 53 |
| AL7 Welwyn Garden City (east) | £403,000 | +9% | 172 |
| AL10 Hatfield (new town) | £365,000 | +8% | 106 |
Selling a home in AL? Price it on the evidence
Start from what homes here actually sold for, not an estimate. Before booking a house valuation or flat valuation in AL, use the average prices map for a rough value: zoom from AL's shading down to the sold homes on your own street. The figures above are every recorded AL sale; agents price with this same Land Registry record, and now you have it too.
Estate agents working AL: the featured spot on this report is free for founding agents, one per district. Claim AL.
Dig further
Answers come from the same Land Registry data behind this report, and the AI knows you are asking about AL. Free, with a one click sign in.
See every individual AL sale on the live map, mapped to the exact address, or zoom the average prices map from neighbourhood shading down to single homes. The report tool writes a custom answer to a specific question, and the mortgage and rent calculator on any sale runs the numbers on a real purchase.
How this page is made: the statistics are computed from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (Crown copyright, OGL v3.0), geocoded to address level; inflation adjustment uses the ONS CPIH index; rents are the ONS Price Index of Private Rents at local-authority level. Medians of recorded sales, not valuations. Nothing on this page is financial advice.