Every figure on this page comes from the public record: 190,286 sales registered with HM Land Registry in the LU postcode area (Luton) since 1995, each one a completed purchase at a real price, plus current rental figures from the ONS. Nothing here is a valuation, an estimate or an asking price.
Sales data to May 2026. Rents: ONS, May 2026. Regenerated with every monthly data refresh.
LU is the postcode area centred on Luton, taking in 7 districts. Figures this wide smooth over big local differences, so use the district reports below for anywhere specific.
Where LU sits
Click the map to open LU on the live map, with every sale plotted at its address. The average pricing view shades the whole country the same way.
£320,000median sold price, 2026
+8%five-year change (cash)
4,077sales in the last 12 months
4.6%gross rental yield (est.)
What a home in LU sells for
The 2026 median in LU is £320,000, from 1,118 registered sales; the mean, £334,000, sits almost on top of it, so sales bunch tightly around the typical price.
For scale: the England and Wales median is £274,000, so LU trades 17% above the country as a whole.
The price of a typical LU home, 1995 to 2026
The median as recorded at the time, and each year restated in today's money (ONS CPIH), the sharper test of whether homes really got dearer. Hover for the year-by-year figures; click a legend entry to isolate a series.
Price at the timeIn today's money (CPIH)
See this chart as a table
Year
Median (cash)
Median (today's £)
Sales
2026
£320,000
£320,000
1,118
2025
£330,000
£330,000
5,091
2024
£325,000
£337,472
4,963
2023
£317,200
£340,386
4,506
2022
£322,000
£368,763
6,189
2021
£295,000
£364,785
7,383
2020
£280,000
£354,821
4,685
2019
£260,000
£332,839
5,519
2018
£260,000
£338,491
5,589
2017
£250,000
£333,012
6,294
2016
£231,000
£315,624
6,165
2015
£207,500
£286,350
5,975
2014
£183,000
£253,554
5,946
2013
£170,000
£238,900
4,536
2012
£165,000
£237,188
3,747
2011
£165,000
£243,269
3,708
2010
£165,000
£252,719
3,670
2009
£155,000
£243,345
3,346
2008
£165,000
£264,153
3,600
2007
£167,500
£277,491
8,068
2006
£156,000
£264,472
8,404
2005
£147,500
£256,360
6,613
2004
£142,000
£251,877
7,909
2003
£128,000
£230,300
8,022
2002
£108,500
£199,374
9,412
2001
£87,000
£163,347
8,580
2000
£75,000
£143,750
7,362
1999
£65,000
£126,516
8,436
1998
£57,500
£113,357
6,990
1997
£54,000
£108,157
7,212
1996
£50,000
£102,985
6,242
1995
£50,000
£106,154
5,006
In cash terms the typical LU home went from £50,000 in 1995 to £320,000 in 2026, roughly 6 times the price. Even after inflation that is a real rise of about 201%: homes here genuinely became dearer, not just more expensive on paper. Measured in today's money the market peaked in 2022; the current median sits about 13% below that. Someone who bought at the 2022 peak has not yet seen that price back in real terms.
Year-on-year change in the LU 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 2002 (+24.7% on the year before); the weakest, 2009 (−6.1%). Single-year swings like these are why the annualised table below matters more than any one year's headline.
Annualised returns
Period
Cash, per year
Real terms, per year
1 years (since 2025)
−3.0%
−3.0%
5 years (since 2021)
+1.6%
−2.6%
10 years (since 2016)
+3.3%
+0.1%
20 years (since 2006)
+3.7%
+1.0%
Compound annual growth of the median sold price; the real column deflates by ONS CPIH. Annualised figures smooth the cycle (the chart above shows the cycle), and past growth is a record, not a forecast.
Transaction volumes
How many homes change hands
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 last five years, month by month
Monthly registrations. The sawtooth is seasonal; the register runs weeks behind completions at the right-hand edge.
LU recorded 4,077 sales in the last twelve months of data. Like most of England and Wales, turnover never fully recovered from 2008: the market here averaged 8,046 sales a year before the financial crisis and 4,373 a year over the last five. Volume matters as much as price: when few homes change hands, the median gets jumpy and a single street can move the figure. The most recent year is always still filling in, because sales appear in the Land Registry weeks or months after completion.
What homes rent for around LU
LU falls under Luton, the local authority covering most of the LU area (parts fall under Central Bedfordshire, where rents differ), where the ONS puts the average private rent at £1,217 a month (May 2026 figures). A one-bed averages £904 a month here and a four-or-more-bed £1,811, so size does most of the work in setting the rent.
Average monthly rent by size, Luton
ONS Price Index of Private Rents, May 2026.
Set against the £320,000 median sold price, £1,217 a month is £14,604 a year, a gross yield of 4.6%: gross, before letting costs, voids, maintenance and tax, so a ceiling rather than a promise. Rents are published at local-authority level, so nearby districts in the same authority share these figures.
Will LU prices rise from here?
Nobody can tell you that, and this page will not pretend to. What the record shows: the median is up 8% over five years in cash but down 12% after inflation. If you are weighing a purchase, read the volume chart alongside the price one, and remember that every figure here is a completed sale, lagged by the weeks it takes the Land Registry to register it.
Ladders and snakes: five-year risers and fallers
The spread across the LU area is the point: the same five years treated these districts very differently.
Five-year change in the median, LU area districts
The biggest risers and fallers in cash terms; every row links to that district's report.
District by district
The area medians above hide a lot. Here is every LU district with enough sales to measure, dearest first; each links to its own full report.
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.