Property type & size implications

It will come as little surprise that the nature and size of housing stock contributes to its average value. As an average across the regions, more expensive areas have progressively higher proportions of detached housing stock. While there is variation in the proportion of flats and semi-detached housing in each group, this is typically at the expense of terraced housing which is increasingly prevalent in lower value markets.

In the most valuable housing markets of each region, detached housing takes up 39% of the housing stock on average. This is four times the proportion in the least expensive markets. By contrast, terraced housing accounts for 14% of housing stock in the most expensive markets but as much as 40% in the least expensive.

This pattern is fairly consistent across each of the regions though, for example, in the affluent South East, detached housing makes up more than half of the housing stock in the most valuable housing markets. In this region, flats and terraced housing make up two-thirds of the housing stock in the least valuable areas.

London bucks the trend

The most valuable housing markets in London are dominated by flats, which become less prevalent in lower value markets where terraced housing becomes increasingly common.

Taking the regions together, the average size of property (measured by the total number of rooms) falls as prices become less expensive. In the most valuable markets across the regions of England and Wales, on average there are over 6.5 rooms in each house, a figure which falls to below 5.0 rooms in the least expensive areas of each region on average.

Again London bucks the trend, with fewer rooms per property in each of the 10 price bands. This is particularly true in the most expensive areas which have the smallest number of beds of any of the tiers of any of the regions – an average around 4.5 rooms per dwelling.

This reflects a prime London market where value is heavily driven by location. Here, limited levels of large family housing that come at a high cost, underpins a flow of housing wealth to less expensive suburban and commuter markets which offer more space at a substantially lower cost.

These trends mean that the value per room is generally less accentuated than simple average house prices. However, a significant price gap still exists.

For example, the average price per room varies from £16,000 to £48,000 in Yorkshire & the Humber and from £30,000 to £94,000 in the South East. In London it varies from £42,000 to a staggering £262,000.

Cost per household member shows a similarly wide range varying from £31,500 to £106,000 in the North East and £63,000 to £264,000 in the South East.

In the most expensive parts of London the average cost per household member is over £560,000.

Taken from
Spotlight: A Housing Market Divided