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Britain’s property hot spots are university cities

Sam Dickinson·17 October 2012·3 min read

Britain’s property hot spots are university cities
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Student landlords are likely to pay the most per square metre for homes in popular university towns, according to house price analysis by The Halifax. The top 10 prices per square metre (M2) are all in London and the South East. Westminster tops the list for the most expensive per M2 as well as having the smallest properties. Salisbury, Wiltshire, scrapes in to the list in 10th place, but has no university. Outside London and the South East, all the other most expensive cities to buy or own property have big universities as well. In Northern England, York is the most expensive city with an average price per m2 of £1,830, followed by Worcester (£1,730 per m2) and Chester (£1,636 per m2). Cardiff (£1,504 per m2) and Belfast (£1,064 per m2) top the list in Wales and Northern Ireland. The full list is: 10 Most Expensive UK cities based on price per square metre
City Region Price per M2 (£) 10 Year change - % Average Size M2
Westminster Greater London 7,586 81% 71
St Albans South East 3,227 46% 111
Oxford South East 2,821 39% 101
Winchester South East 2,813 48% 120
Chichester South East 2,638 56% 110
Cambridge East Anglia 2,634 56% 96
Brighton South East 2,549 50% 99
Bath South West 2,376 54% 121
Edinburgh Scotland 2,125 63% 93
Salisbury South West 2,060 39% 140
Source: Halifax; 12 months to July 2012 Martin Ellis, housing economist 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. "Several towns in Aberdeenshire have seen significantly higher growth in average price per m2 than the UK average over the past decade; this, on the main, has been driven by the booming oil industry, which is a key part of the local economy. "Westminster has the most expensive prices in the UK on a price per square metre. Interestingly, it also has the smallest average property size in the country. Not only has Westminster got one of the highest population densities per square kilometre among UK cities, but it also has a large proportion of properties that are flats."
Sam Dickinson

Sam recently joined AFS on a full time basis, after completing a masters degree. Sam currently works in our accounts department and contributes to our blog alongside that work.

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