AL3 house prices

AL3 house prices are built from 16,473 sales lodged with HM Land Registry, the oldest in 1995 and the most recent on 18 Jun 2026. The median price paid across the whole record is £311,061. Across the 10 years from 2016 to 2026 the median moved +26.8% in cash — but once inflation is taken out, the change in 2026 money is -9.2%.

HM Land Registry16,473 sales2,463 with floor areaLatest sale 18 Jun 2026

The chart tracks the median AL3 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.

The highest yearly median on record for AL3 is £632,750 in 2025; the lowest is £90,000 in 1995. Across the full 32-year record the cash median has moved from £90,000 to £621,250.

In 2026 money that first median is worth £199,843, so the real change over the whole record is +210.9% — about +3.73% 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: +26.8% in cash against -9.2% 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.

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.

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 AL3 values — no mix of property types can flatter the number.

The mix of property types explains a large part of any area's median. AL3 is dominated by the type at the top of this table, so its overall median leans that way.

Energy Performance Certificates record a floor area for every home that has been surveyed, sold or let — far more homes than have changed hands. 2,915 certificates cover AL3, and their median floor area is 87 m².

The median across the whole register is 76 m², so homes here are larger than average — +14.5%. 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.

2,425 of the sales on record are leasehold and 14,048 freehold — 14.7% 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 £189,500 and the median freehold sale £340,000 — a gap of +79.4%. Most of that gap is property type rather than tenure itself: leasehold here is largely flats, freehold largely houses.

New builds sold for more than the median existing home — +6.5%. 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 528 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.

Every certificate carries an energy efficiency band as well as a floor area. Across Central Bedfordshire, 54.5% of 139,601 certificates sit in bands A to C, and 2.9% in F or G — the bands that cost the most to heat and are hardest to mortgage.

The Office for National Statistics puts the mean private rent in Central Bedfordshire at £1,250 a month as of Jun 2026 — £864 for a one-bedroom home and £1,374 for three bedrooms.

Against the median sale of £311,061 here, that rent is a gross yield of 4.82% 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.

No street-level crime was published for AL3 in Jun 2026 by Hertfordshire. Several forces do not supply street-level data to police.uk, so this is a gap in the source rather than a crime-free month — and printing a zero would say something the data does not.

The 2021 census counted 294,252 residents in Central Bedfordshire across 120,754 households. 72.9% of those households own their home and 27.0% rent — a split the sold record cannot show, because only owners appear in it.

12 state and independent schools have a AL3 postcode: 9 primary, 2 secondary, 1 nursery. Catchment areas do not follow postcodes, so treat this as what is nearby rather than what a child would be offered.

The median across the whole archive is £157,500. AL3 sits above that national figure — +97.5%.

Where an EPC floor area could be matched to the sale, the median works out at £4,024 per square metre, across 2,463 of the 16,473 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 £4,250 to £4,750,000. 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.

AL3 sits in Central Bedfordshire, in the East of England.

The Office for National Statistics puts the median home in Central Bedfordshire at 9.7 times median local earnings of £37,704 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.

Sectors inside AL3

• AL3 4£400,000 median
• AL3 5£320,000 median
• AL3 6£290,000 median
• AL3 7£299,975 median
• AL3 8£238,770 median

The closest districts

• AL54.3 km · £375,000
• AL15.1 km · £280,000
• HP25.4 km · £174,500
• AL45.8 km · £280,000
• AL27.4 km · £267,000
• HP18.1 km · £220,000
• HP38.2 km · £240,000
• LU212.6 km · £145,000

This district mostly covers St Albans.

What is the average house price in AL3?

The median price paid in AL3 across every sale on the register is £311,061. 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 AL3?

16,473 sales are on record for AL3, the most recent completing on 18 Jun 2026. Every one is a completed transfer lodged with HM Land Registry, not an asking price or an estimate.

Have AL3 house prices actually risen?

In cash, the median rose +26.8% between 2016 and 2026. In 2026 money — that is, after inflation — the change is -9.2%. Both numbers are true; only the second one tells you whether buying here preserved value.

When were AL3 house prices at their highest?

The highest yearly median on record is £632,750, set in 2025. 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 AL3?

£4,024 per square metre, from the 2,463 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 18 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, “AL3 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.