Local market reports › LU
Luton market report LU
The LU (Luton) house price history in full, 1995 to 2026, in cash and in today's money. Underneath every chart here sit 181,196 registered sales in the LU postcode area (Luton) 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 recorded to August 2026; rents are ONS figures for May 2026. The page rebuilds with each monthly release. Page updated 19 October 2026.
In short: a typical the LU postcode area (Luton) home changed hands for £333,500 in 2026 (median of 1,800 registered sales, up 10% on five years earlier), with the mean at £353,500, and by floor area homes here have averaged about £4,000 per square metre over the last five years. Source: 181,196 completed sales on the HM Land Registry record since 1995, updated with each monthly release. No valuations, no asking prices.
The figures for LU centred on Luton run across 7 districts, the broad sweep by design. For a specific place, drop down to its district report below.
Where LU 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.
Today's LU prices, from the sold record
Across 1,800 registered 2026 sales, the typical (median) LU home went for £333,500. The mean is £353,500, somewhat above it, as happens wherever a market carries an expensive tail.
House prices per square metre in LU
Measured by floor area, the last five years of LU sales average about £4,000 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.
For scale: the England and Wales median is £285,000, so LU trades 17% above the country as a whole.
A typical LU home, priced year by year (1995 to 2026)
Two lines: the median in the money of its day, and the same years restated by ONS CPIH into today's money, which is the truer test of getting dearer. Hover for exact figures; click a legend entry to isolate a series.
See this chart as a table
| Year | Median (cash) | Median (today's £) | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | £333,500 | £333,500 | 1,800 |
| 2025 | £340,000 | £348,130 | 4,463 |
| 2024 | £332,500 | £353,516 | 3,971 |
| 2023 | £325,000 | £357,096 | 3,706 |
| 2022 | £330,000 | £386,963 | 5,311 |
| 2021 | £302,000 | £382,371 | 6,233 |
| 2020 | £285,000 | £369,793 | 3,951 |
| 2019 | £265,000 | £347,352 | 4,644 |
| 2018 | £265,000 | £353,250 | 4,679 |
| 2017 | £260,000 | £354,614 | 5,277 |
| 2016 | £236,000 | £330,166 | 5,401 |
| 2015 | £210,000 | £296,730 | 5,457 |
| 2014 | £185,000 | £262,455 | 5,566 |
| 2013 | £172,500 | £248,210 | 4,418 |
| 2012 | £165,000 | £242,859 | 3,747 |
| 2011 | £165,000 | £249,087 | 3,705 |
| 2010 | £165,000 | £258,762 | 3,669 |
| 2009 | £155,000 | £249,164 | 3,343 |
| 2008 | £165,000 | £270,470 | 3,600 |
| 2007 | £167,500 | £284,127 | 8,068 |
| 2006 | £156,000 | £270,796 | 8,404 |
| 2005 | £147,500 | £262,491 | 6,613 |
| 2004 | £142,000 | £257,900 | 7,909 |
| 2003 | £128,000 | £235,807 | 8,022 |
| 2002 | £108,500 | £204,142 | 9,412 |
| 2001 | £87,000 | £167,253 | 8,580 |
| 2000 | £75,000 | £147,188 | 7,361 |
| 1999 | £65,000 | £129,542 | 8,436 |
| 1998 | £57,500 | £116,068 | 6,990 |
| 1997 | £54,000 | £110,743 | 7,212 |
| 1996 | £50,000 | £105,448 | 6,242 |
| 1995 | £50,000 | £108,692 | 5,006 |
In cash terms the typical LU home went from £50,000 in 1995 to £333,500 in 2026, roughly 7 times the price. Inflation explains only part of it: in today's money the rise is still about 207%, a genuine increase in what a home here costs. The real-terms peak came in 2022, and today's median remains roughly 14% under it: a 2022 buyer is still waiting to get that price back in today's money.
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 year (since 2025) | −1.9% | −4.2% |
| 5 years (since 2021) | +2.0% | −2.7% |
| 6 years (since 2020) | +2.7% | −1.7% |
| 10 years (since 2016) | +3.5% | +0.1% |
| 20 years (since 2006) | +3.9% | +1.0% |
The table annualises median growth over each period, with the real column deflated by ONS CPIH. Smoothing hides the cycle (see the chart above for it), and none of this forecasts: it is the record.
Detached, semi, terraced, flat: four markets in one
A single median hides the split beneath it. Sales of semi-detached homes dominate the record here, 36% of the typed total. A detached home currently trades at £490,000 against £172,000 for a flat, 2.8 times the price.
Median by property type, LU
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 | £490,000 | 366 | 30,901 |
| Semi-detached | £354,000 | 674 | 64,707 |
| Terraced | £295,000 | 516 | 58,412 |
| Flats | £172,000 | 244 | 27,176 |
Sales activity in LU
The year-by-year sales count
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, 3,313 sales completed in LU. 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 3,850 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 £333,500 median sold price, £1,217 a month is £14,604 a year, a gross yield of 4.4%: 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.
Asked and answered: LU (Luton)
Is LU (Luton) a good place to buy a house?
How much did a house sell for in LU (Luton)?
Are property prices falling in LU (Luton)?
Are LU prices heading up or down?
Prediction is not this page's business. Its business is the record, which says: the median is up 10% over five years in cash but down 13% after inflation. Read the volume chart with the price chart before acting on either, remembering that registrations trail the deals themselves by weeks.
What is for sale in LU right now
Everything above is what homes in LU sold for. The live side of the market holds 284 homes at the moment, listed by 9 agents publishing to HomesIndex, at a typical asking price 8% above the LU median sold price.
Set against 3,313 registered sales in the last twelve months, the 284 homes on the market here are roughly 4 weeks of supply at last year's pace, and more in reality, since only agents who publish to HomesIndex are counted. That is a thin shelf: buyers here are choosing from little, and a well priced home is unlikely to wait long.
Of everything listed here, 9% asks less than the sold record of comparable homes. Every listing is measured against recent recorded sales of similar nearby homes.
- Marley Fields, Leighton Buzzard, Leighton Buzzard
- Warbler Road, LEIGHTON BUZZARD
- Hydrus Drive, Leighton Buzzard, Leighton Buzzard
"Under comparable sales" means the asking price sits below what similar homes nearby actually fetched. Treat it as the start of a conversation, never a valuation, and always view the home.
See every LU 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.
Month by month: when LU sells
March is when LU changes hands most (10.7% of the 23,684 sales dated 2021 to 2025); April is the quiet end at 6.4%. That is a marked seasonal rhythm. A sale completes weeks after it is agreed, so the busy month reflects deals struck earlier in the year; a seller who wants competition should be on the market ahead of it.
Sales by month, 2021 to 2025
| Month | Sales | Share |
|---|---|---|
| January | 1,575 | 6.7% |
| February | 1,957 | 8.3% |
| March | 2,544 | 10.7% |
| April | 1,505 | 6.4% |
| May | 1,631 | 6.9% |
| June | 2,515 | 10.6% |
| July | 1,714 | 7.2% |
| August | 1,913 | 8.1% |
| September | 2,365 | 10.0% |
| October | 1,968 | 8.3% |
| November | 2,043 | 8.6% |
| December | 1,954 | 8.3% |
What another bedroom costs in LU
What homes of each size actually sold for across the LU area, from the Land Registry record. Size steps are fiercely local. A third bedroom adds a quarter to the price in some areas and close to four fifths in others, which is why no national rule of thumb survives contact with a real market.
| Type | 1 bed | 2 bed | 3 bed | 4 bed | 5 bed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | £307,000 | £360,000 (+17%) | £410,000 (+14%) | £500,000 (+22%) | £645,000 (+29%) |
| Semi-detached | £265,000 | £305,000 (+15%) | £350,000 (+15%) | £400,000 (+14%) | £470,000 (+18%) |
| Terraced | £228,000 | £275,000 (+21%) | £307,500 (+12%) | £345,000 (+12%) | £405,000 (+17%) |
| Flat | £145,000 | £193,000 (+33%) | £220,500 (+14%) | — | — |
Four years of recorded sales, split by built form and bedroom count. The register does not state bedrooms, so sizes come from each home's EPC record and a few homes will land one size out. Blank cells mean too few homes for the figure to mean anything.
The risers and the fallers
The spread across the LU area is the point: the same five years treated these districts very differently.
Winners and losers across the LU area, five years
Cash-terms risers and fallers across the area; click any row for that district's full 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.
| District | Median (2026) | 5-year | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| LU7 Leighton Buzzard, Bragenham | £365,500 | +6% | 520 |
| LU6 Dunstable (West), Eaton Bray | £360,000 | +13% | 201 |
| LU2 Luton (East), Chiltern Green | £334,000 | +17% | 313 |
| LU3 Luton (North), Lower Sundon | £325,000 | +16% | 226 |
| LU5 Bidwell, Chalgrave | £320,000 | +7% | 240 |
| LU4 Luton (West), Chalton | £315,000 | +19% | 153 |
| LU1 Luton (South), Aley Green | £268,000 | -4% | 147 |
Selling a home in LU? 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 LU, use the average prices map for a rough value: zoom from LU's shading down to the sold homes on your own street. The figures above are every recorded LU sale; agents price with this same Land Registry record, and now you have it too.
Go deeper
Behind the answers sits the same Land Registry record as this page, with LU already set as the subject. Free, one click sign in.
See every individual LU 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.
Method, briefly: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (Crown copyright, OGL v3.0) supplies every sale, geocoded to address level; CPIH from the ONS restates prices in today's money; ONS local-authority figures supply the rents. Medians of real sales, not valuations. No part of this page is financial advice.