AL1 house prices are built from 24,165 sales lodged with HM Land Registry, the oldest in 1995 and the most recent on 22 Jun 2026. The median price paid across the whole record is £280,000. Across the 10 years from 2016 to 2026 the median moved +19.6% in cash — but once inflation is taken out, the change in 2026 money is -14.4%.
Median price paid
£280,000
Change in cash, 2016–2026
+19.6%
Change in real terms
-14.4%
Median per m²
£3,933
HM Land Registry24,165 sales6,025 with floor areaLatest sale 22 Jun 2026
Section 01
How AL1 prices moved
The chart tracks the median AL1 house price for every year with a recorded sale, from 1995 to 2026. The dashed line restates each year in 2026 money, so the two lines separate exactly as much as inflation has eroded the cash figure.
| Decade | Years with sales | Median paid | In today's money |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 5 | £99,700 | £221,381 |
| 2000s | 10 | £240,000 | £437,209 |
| 2010s | 10 | £385,000 | £542,850 |
| 2020s | 7 | £550,000 | £561,957 |
The highest yearly median on record for AL1 is £552,000 in 2022; the lowest is £79,450 in 1995. Across the full 32-year record the cash median has moved from £79,450 to £550,000.
In 2026 money that first median is worth £176,417, so the real change over the whole record is +211.8% — about +3.74% a year after inflation. Cash growth and real growth are not the same story, and the gap is the part most price reports leave out.
Over the last decade alone the difference is stark: +19.6% in cash against -14.4% once inflation is removed. A buyer who sold at the end of that decade would have needed the real figure, not the headline one, to know whether they had actually gained.
Section 02
The most recent sales
Every row is a completed sale as lodged with HM Land Registry. The right-hand column restates the price in 2026 money, which is the only fair way to compare a sale from the 1990s with one from last year.
| Address | Sold | Type | Price paid | In today's money |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 152 Ashley Road | 22 Jun 2026 | Terraced | £395,000 | £395,000 |
| FLAT 22 BENEDICTINE PLACE, 1 Marlborough Road | 19 Jun 2026 | Flat or maisonette | £375,000 | £375,000 |
| 66B Alma Road | 19 Jun 2026 | Flat or maisonette | £325,000 | £325,000 |
| FLAT 5 STABLE COURT Heath Road | 19 Jun 2026 | Flat or maisonette | £237,000 | £237,000 |
| 1 Nunnery Close | 16 Jun 2026 | Semi-detached | £950,000 | £950,000 |
| APARTMENT 2 Old Mile House Court | 12 Jun 2026 | Flat or maisonette | £320,000 | £320,000 |
| 47 Boundary Road | 11 Jun 2026 | Semi-detached | £890,000 | £890,000 |
| 13 Liverpool Road | 11 Jun 2026 | Terraced | £745,000 | £745,000 |
| 27 Upper Heath Road | 11 Jun 2026 | Terraced | £660,000 | £660,000 |
| 63 Castle Road | 8 Jun 2026 | Terraced | £650,000 | £650,000 |
| 8 Luna Place | 8 Jun 2026 | Flat or maisonette | £425,000 | £425,000 |
| FLAT 3 RIDGEMONT HOUSE, 29 Ridgmont Road | 8 Jun 2026 | Flat or maisonette | £395,000 | £395,000 |
| 57 Salisbury Avenue | 5 Jun 2026 | Semi-detached | £1,400,000 | £1,400,000 |
| 20 Royston Road | 5 Jun 2026 | Terraced | £775,000 | £775,000 |
| 9 Ryder Seed Mews | 5 Jun 2026 | Terraced | £725,000 | £725,000 |
| 50 Windermere Avenue | 5 Jun 2026 | Terraced | £585,000 | £585,000 |
| 10 Grasmere Road | 5 Jun 2026 | Semi-detached | £525,000 | £525,000 |
| FLAT 3 APEX HOUSE, 81 Camp Road | 5 Jun 2026 | Flat or maisonette | £290,000 | £290,000 |
| 10A Alma Cut | 2 Jun 2026 | Terraced | £600,000 | £600,000 |
| 3 Berkeley Mews | 2 Jun 2026 | Terraced | £570,000 | £570,000 |
| 22 Lattimore Road | 2 Jun 2026 | Terraced | £560,000 | £560,000 |
| 6 Warwick Road | 1 Jun 2026 | Semi-detached | £760,000 | £760,000 |
| 106 Charmouth Road | 1 Jun 2026 | Semi-detached | £300,000 | £300,000 |
| 18 Albert Street | 29 May 2026 | Terraced | £677,500 | £677,500 |
| 16 Boundary Road | 29 May 2026 | Terraced | £605,000 | £605,000 |
Section 03
Homes that sold twice
These addresses appear in the register more than once, so the same bricks are being priced twice. That makes them the strongest evidence of what actually happened to AL1 values — no mix of property types can flatter the number.
| Address | First recorded sale | Most recent sale | Cash a year | Real a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 152 Ashley Road | £66,500 (1996) | £395,000 (2026) | +6.1% | +3.4% |
| 66B Alma Road | £63,000 (1996) | £325,000 (2026) | +5.6% | +2.9% |
| FLAT 22 BENEDICTINE PLACE, 1 Marlborough Road | £247,400 (2004) | £375,000 (2026) | +1.9% | -0.9% |
| FLAT 5 STABLE COURT Heath Road | £89,950 (2000) | £237,000 (2026) | +3.8% | +1.1% |
| 1 Nunnery Close | £559,500 (2018) | £950,000 (2026) | +6.8% | +3.1% |
| APARTMENT 2 Old Mile House Court | £320,000 (2014) | £320,000 (2026) | 0.0% | -3.0% |
| 13 Liverpool Road | £280,000 (2005) | £745,000 (2026) | +4.8% | +1.8% |
| 47 Boundary Road | £119,950 (1995) | £890,000 (2026) | +6.7% | +4.0% |
| 27 Upper Heath Road | £207,500 (2001) | £660,000 (2026) | +4.7% | +2.0% |
| 63 Castle Road | £125,000 (1998) | £650,000 (2026) | +6.1% | +3.3% |
| 8 Luna Place | £259,950 (2008) | £425,000 (2026) | +2.8% | -0.1% |
| FLAT 3 RIDGEMONT HOUSE, 29 Ridgmont Road | £95,000 (1998) | £395,000 (2026) | +5.2% | +2.5% |
Section 04
What sells here
The mix of property types explains a large part of any area's median. AL1 is dominated by the type at the top of this table, so its overall median leans that way.
| Property type | Sales | Share | Median paid | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flat or maisonette | 8,881 | 36.8% | £215,000 | £7,333 – £1,175,000 |
| Terraced | 7,810 | 32.3% | £284,950 | £9,500 – £4,200,000 |
| Semi-detached | 4,654 | 19.3% | £349,950 | £17,500 – £2,068,000 |
| Detached | 2,820 | 11.7% | £620,800 | £40,000 – £5,000,000 |
Section 05
How big homes are in AL1
Energy Performance Certificates record a floor area for every home that has been surveyed, sold or let — far more homes than have changed hands. 4,863 certificates cover AL1, and their median floor area is 72 m².
The median across the whole register is 76 m², so homes here are smaller than average — -5.3%. Size explains a large part of why one area's median price sits above another's, which is why the price per square metre further up this page is the fairer comparison.
| Measure | Floor area | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| Median floor area | 72 m² | about 775 sq ft |
| Smaller quarter, up to | 53 m² | about 570 sq ft |
| Larger quarter, from | 98 m² | about 1,055 sq ft |
| Under 60 m² | 31.6% | 1,538 homes |
| 150 m² and over | 9.2% | 446 homes |
Section 06
Ownership and new build in AL1
9,122 of the sales on record are leasehold and 15,043 freehold — 37.7% of the market. Tenure is not a detail: a leasehold flat and a freehold house are different assets, and mixing them into one median hides the difference.
The median leasehold sale is £215,000 and the median freehold sale £345,000 — a gap of +60.5%. Most of that gap is property type rather than tenure itself: leasehold here is largely flats, freehold largely houses.
| Category | Sales | Share | Median paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leasehold | 9,122 | 37.7% | £215,000 |
| Freehold | 15,043 | 62.3% | £345,000 |
| New build | 2,082 | 8.6% | £275,000 |
| Existing home | 22,083 | 91.4% | £280,000 |
New builds sold for less than the median existing home — -1.8%. A new-build premium is normal: the buyer gets a warranty and nothing to fix, and the price is set by a developer rather than negotiated between two households.
A further 1,011 transfers for this area are on the register but are left out of every figure above. HM Land Registry marks them as additional price paid entries: repossessions, buy-to-let portfolio moves, transfers between companies or family, and sales at a discount such as right to buy. They are real records but they are not open-market prices, and including them would drag the median somewhere no buyer ever paid.
Section 07
Living in AL1
Every certificate carries an energy efficiency band as well as a floor area. Across St Albans, 46.4% of 67,594 certificates sit in bands A to C, and 2.8% in F or G — the bands that cost the most to heat and are hardest to mortgage.
| Energy band | Certificates | Share |
|---|---|---|
| A | 209 | 0.3% |
| B | 6,886 | 10.2% |
| C | 24,235 | 35.9% |
| D | 25,223 | 37.3% |
| E | 9,132 | 13.5% |
| F | 1,606 | 2.4% |
| G | 303 | 0.4% |
The Office for National Statistics puts the mean private rent in St Albans at £1,931 a month as of Jun 2026 — £1,270 for a one-bedroom home and £2,018 for three bedrooms.
Against the median sale of £280,000 here, that rent is a gross yield of 8.28% a year. It is a measured figure rather than an assumption: a real local rent over a real local price, before any cost of ownership.
Police forces publish every recorded street-level crime. Within a mile of the centre of AL1, 343 crimes were recorded in Jun 2026: 110 violent, 17 burglary, 21 vehicle-related and 68 anti-social behaviour. The median postcode district in this archive recorded 167 in the same month, so this one is 2.1 times busier.
Against the 148,167 residents the 2021 census counted in St Albans, that is 2.31 recorded crimes per thousand people in the month. The count covers a mile around the district centre while the population covers the whole council, so read the rate as an order of magnitude rather than a precise figure.
A count is not a rate. A district with shops and a station records more crime than a residential one of the same size, because more people pass through it. Read this next to the median, not on its own.
Section 08
The neighbourhood around AL1
The 2021 census counted 148,167 residents in St Albans across 58,990 households. 71.5% of those households own their home and 28.5% rent — a split the sold record cannot show, because only owners appear in it.
18 state and independent schools have a AL1 postcode: 14 primary, 3 secondary, 1 all-through. Catchment areas do not follow postcodes, so treat this as what is nearby rather than what a child would be offered.
| School | Phase | Type | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samuel Ryder Academy | All-through | Academy sponsor led | 1,577 |
| The Marlborough Science Academy | Secondary | Academy converter | 1,337 |
| Verulam School | Secondary | Academy converter | 987 |
| Loreto College | Secondary | Academy converter | 952 |
| St Alban & St Stephen Catholic Primary School & Nursery | Primary | Academy converter | 410 |
| St Peter's School | Primary | Community school | 392 |
| Alban City School | Primary | Free schools | 381 |
| Fleetville Junior School | Primary | Academy converter | 358 |
| Mandeville Primary School | Primary | Academy converter | 340 |
| Fleetville Infant and Nursery School | Primary | Academy converter | 304 |
| Station | Mode | Distance from the district centre |
|---|---|---|
| St Albans City Rail Station | Rail | 0.3 km |
| St Albans Abbey Rail Station | Rail | 1.4 km |
| Park Street Rail Station | Rail | 2.8 km |
| How Wood (Herts) Rail Station | Rail | 3.8 km |
Section 09
How AL1 compares
The median across the whole archive is £157,500. AL1 sits above that national figure — +77.8%.
Where an EPC floor area could be matched to the sale, the median works out at £3,933 per square metre, across 6,025 of the 24,165 sales on record. Price per square metre is the only figure that compares a two-bed flat with a four-bed house honestly.
The full range on record runs from £7,333 to £5,000,000. Extremes usually mean something unusual — a plot sold without a house on it, a transfer between family members, or a very large property — so the median is the number to trust.
AL1 sits in St Albans, in the East of England.
The Office for National Statistics puts the median home in St Albans at 15.0 times median local earnings of £41,967 a year, measured to Sep 2025. Across England and Wales the same ratio is 7.6. That number, not the price alone, is what decides whether a place is within reach of the people who work in it.
Section 10
Nearby on the record
Sectors inside AL1
- AL1 1£281,000 median
- AL1 2£250,000 median
- AL1 3£275,000 median
- AL1 4£380,000 median
- AL1 5£243,000 median
The closest districts
- AL43.4 km · £280,000
- AL23.4 km · £267,000
- AL35.1 km · £311,061
- AL57.7 km · £375,000
- HP29.0 km · £174,500
- HP310.3 km · £240,000
- WD610.7 km · £232,000
- AL710.8 km · £197,500
This district mostly covers St Albans.
Quick answers
Common questions about this data
What is the average house price in AL1?
The median price paid in AL1 across every sale on the register is £280,000. The median is used rather than the mean because a handful of very large sales would otherwise drag the average away from what a typical buyer paid.
How many homes have sold in AL1?
24,165 sales are on record for AL1, the most recent completing on 22 Jun 2026. Every one is a completed transfer lodged with HM Land Registry, not an asking price or an estimate.
Have AL1 house prices actually risen?
In cash, the median rose +19.6% between 2016 and 2026. In 2026 money — that is, after inflation — the change is -14.4%. Both numbers are true; only the second one tells you whether buying here preserved value.
When were AL1 house prices at their highest?
The highest yearly median on record is £552,000, set in 2022. That is the cash figure; measured in 2026 money the peak may fall in a different year, because inflation reshapes the series.
What is the price per square metre in AL1?
£3,933 per square metre, from the 6,025 sales where an EPC floor area could be matched to the address. Price per square metre strips out size, so a flat and a house can be compared on the same basis.
How current is this data?
The latest sale shown here completed on 22 Jun 2026. HM Land Registry publishes Price Paid Data monthly and a sale can take a month or two to appear after completion, so the most recent weeks are always incomplete.
Cite this page: Sold Price History, “AL1 house prices”, 2026. Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data © Crown copyright and database right, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Inflation adjustment: ONS CPIH.