West Common, Harpenden house prices are built from 129 sales lodged with HM Land Registry, the oldest in 1995 and the most recent on 19 Aug 2025. The median price paid across the whole record is £372,500. Across the 15 years from 2006 to 2021 the median moved +137.9% in cash — but once inflation is taken out, the change in 2026 money is +68.8%.
Median price paid
£372,500
Change in cash, 2006–2021
+137.9%
Change in real terms
+68.8%
Median per m²
£4,796
HM Land Registry129 sales30 with floor areaLatest sale 19 Aug 2025
Section 01
How West Common, Harpenden prices moved
The chart tracks the median West Common, Harpenden house price for every year with a recorded sale, from 1995 to 2021. 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 | 3 | £145,000 | £321,969 |
| 2000s | 7 | £282,500 | £514,632 |
| 2010s | 2 | £638,000 | £899,580 |
| 2020s | 1 | £785,000 | £802,065 |
The highest yearly median on record for West Common, Harpenden is £785,000 in 2021; the lowest is £135,000 in 1997. Across the full 27-year record the cash median has moved from £145,000 to £785,000.
In 2026 money that first median is worth £321,969, so the real change over the whole record is +208.0% — about +4.42% 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: +137.9% in cash against +68.8% 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 19 Aug 2025 | Terraced | £512,500 | £523,641 |
| Flat 2 42 | 29 May 2024 | Flat or maisonette | £925,000 | £973,321 |
| 44 | 9 Oct 2023 | Semi-detached | £1,416,000 | £1,529,931 |
| 19 | 21 Sep 2022 | Terraced | £660,000 | £764,667 |
| 23 | 7 Jul 2022 | Terraced | £1,300,000 | £1,506,163 |
| 24 | 14 Apr 2022 | Terraced | £525,000 | £608,258 |
| 72 | 28 Feb 2022 | Detached | £2,400,000 | £2,780,608 |
| 44a | 23 Nov 2021 | Semi-detached | £1,600,000 | £2,021,505 |
| 71a | 2 Nov 2021 | Detached | £1,600,000 | £2,021,505 |
| 52 | 30 Jun 2021 | Terraced | £495,000 | £625,403 |
| 6 Maple Cottages | 28 Jun 2021 | Semi-detached | £870,000 | £1,099,194 |
| Flat 1 42 | 24 Jun 2021 | Flat or maisonette | £700,000 | £884,409 |
| 51 | 28 May 2021 | Terraced | £610,000 | £770,699 |
| 67 | 28 Feb 2020 | Terraced | £600,000 | £776,860 |
| Clarence Lodge | 5 Sep 2019 | Detached | £1,270,000 | £1,661,132 |
| 71a | 2 Sep 2019 | Detached | £1,625,000 | £2,125,464 |
| 19 | 25 Jul 2019 | Terraced | £481,500 | £629,791 |
| Flat 3 42 | 19 Jun 2019 | Flat or maisonette | £565,000 | £739,007 |
| 23 | 22 Jan 2019 | Terraced | £970,000 | £1,268,738 |
| Flat 4 42 | 11 Jan 2019 | Flat or maisonette | £552,000 | £722,004 |
| 69 | 12 Apr 2018 | Terraced | £540,000 | £719,660 |
| 42a | 5 Feb 2018 | Detached | £1,115,000 | £1,485,964 |
| 44a | 8 Jan 2018 | Semi-detached | £740,000 | £986,200 |
| 46 | 15 Sep 2017 | Detached | £5,300,000 | £7,213,320 |
| 43 | 30 May 2017 | Detached | £5,860,000 | £7,975,483 |
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 West Common, Harpenden values — no mix of property types can flatter the number.
| Address | First recorded sale | Most recent sale | Cash a year | Real a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 West Common | £245,000 (2004) | £512,500 (2025) | +3.6% | +0.7% |
| FLAT 2 42 West Common | £612,500 (2010) | £925,000 (2024) | +3.0% | 0.0% |
| 44 West Common | £880,000 (2017) | £1,416,000 (2023) | +8.3% | +4.2% |
| 19 West Common | £113,000 (1997) | £660,000 (2022) | +7.3% | +4.8% |
| 23 West Common | £970,000 (2019) | £1,300,000 (2022) | +10.3% | +5.9% |
| 24 West Common | £80,000 (1996) | £525,000 (2022) | +7.5% | +4.9% |
| 72 West Common | £690,000 (2003) | £2,400,000 (2022) | +6.8% | +4.1% |
| 44A West Common | £740,000 (2018) | £1,600,000 (2021) | +29.3% | +27.0% |
| 71A West Common | £1,625,000 (2019) | £1,600,000 (2021) | -0.8% | -2.5% |
| 52 West Common | £125,500 (1998) | £495,000 (2021) | +6.1% | +3.9% |
| 6 MAPLE COTTAGES West Common | £145,000 (1995) | £870,000 (2021) | +7.1% | +4.8% |
| FLAT 1 42 West Common | £310,000 (2000) | £700,000 (2021) | +4.0% | +1.7% |
Section 04
What sells here
The mix of property types explains a large part of any area's median. West Common, Harpenden 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terraced | 67 | 51.9% | £270,000 | £34,500 – £1,300,000 |
| Semi-detached | 25 | 19.4% | £446,000 | £135,000 – £1,600,000 |
| Detached | 24 | 18.6% | £1,435,000 | £310,000 – £5,860,000 |
| Flat or maisonette | 13 | 10.1% | £552,500 | £117,000 – £925,000 |
Section 06
Ownership and new build in West Common, Harpenden
13 of the sales on record are leasehold and 116 freehold — 10.1% 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 £552,500 and the median freehold sale £353,500 — a gap of -36.0%. 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 | 13 | 10.1% | £552,500 |
| Freehold | 116 | 89.9% | £353,500 |
A further 5 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 West Common, Harpenden
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.
| Energy band | Certificates | Share |
|---|---|---|
| A | 1,405 | 1.0% |
| B | 28,531 | 20.4% |
| C | 46,180 | 33.1% |
| D | 45,015 | 32.2% |
| E | 14,404 | 10.3% |
| F | 3,286 | 2.4% |
| G | 780 | 0.6% |
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 £372,500 here, that rent is a gross yield of 4.03% 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 AL5, 109 crimes were recorded in Jun 2026: 19 violent, 3 burglary, 3 vehicle-related and 32 anti-social behaviour. The median postcode district in this archive recorded 167 in the same month, so this one is 1.5 times quieter.
Against the 294,252 residents the 2021 census counted in Central Bedfordshire, that is 0.37 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 West Common, Harpenden
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.
18 state and independent schools have a AL5 postcode: 13 primary, 4 secondary, 1 nursery. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roundwood Park School | Secondary | Academy converter | 1,421 |
| Sir John Lawes School | Secondary | Academy converter | 1,373 |
| St George's School | Secondary | Academy converter | 1,351 |
| Katherine Warington School | Secondary | Free schools | 1,113 |
| Wood End School | Primary | Community school | 457 |
| High Beeches Primary School | Primary | Community school | 420 |
| The Grove Junior School | Primary | Community school | 350 |
| Roundwood Primary School | Primary | Community school | 338 |
| Crabtree Junior School | Primary | Academy converter | 256 |
| The Grove Infant and Nursery School | Primary | Community school | 243 |
| Station | Mode | Distance from the district centre |
|---|---|---|
| Harpenden Rail Station | Rail | 0.2 km |
| Luton Airport Parkway Rail Station | Rail | 7.0 km |
| Luton Airport DART Station | Metro or underground | 7.1 km |
| St Albans City Rail Station | Rail | 7.5 km |
Section 09
How West Common, Harpenden compares
The median across the whole archive is £157,500. West Common, Harpenden sits above that national figure — +136.5%.
Within Harpenden the street ranks 228 of 387 by median price, and its median is below the town figure of £375,000 (-0.7%).
Where an EPC floor area could be matched to the sale, the median works out at £4,796 per square metre, across 30 of the 129 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 £34,500 to £5,860,000. 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.
West Common, Harpenden 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.
Section 10
Nearby on the record
Streets nearby
- Station Road£240,000 median
- Luton Road£325,000 median
- Milton Road£235,000 median
- Roundwood Lane£147,750 median
- Cravells Road£268,000 median
- Southdown Road£250,000 median
- Crabtree Lane£525,000 median
- Cowper Road£409,375 median
- Overstone Road£420,000 median
- Lower Luton Road£247,500 median
- Tuffnells Way£500,000 median
- Grove Road£250,000 median
- Park Mount£395,000 median
- Sun Lane£325,000 median
- Chesterton Avenue£358,750 median
- Piggottshill Lane£450,000 median
Addresses with more than one recorded sale
- 19 West Common7 sales
- 67 West Common6 sales
- 52 West Common5 sales
- 43 West Common5 sales
- 53 West Common5 sales
- 25 West Common4 sales
- 6, MAPLE COTTAGES West Common4 sales
- FLAT 4, 42 West Common4 sales
- 38 West Common4 sales
- 55 West Common4 sales
- 29 West Common4 sales
- FLAT 2, 42 West Common3 sales
- 24 West Common3 sales
- 72 West Common3 sales
- FLAT 1, 42 West Common3 sales
- FLAT 3, 42 West Common3 sales
- 5, MAPLE COTTAGES West Common3 sales
- 66 West Common3 sales
- 56 West Common3 sales
- 54 West Common3 sales
- 44 West Common2 sales
- 23 West Common2 sales
- 44A West Common2 sales
- 71A West Common2 sales
Back to Harpenden house prices.
Quick answers
Common questions about this data
What is the average house price in West Common, Harpenden?
The median price paid in West Common, Harpenden across every sale on the register is £372,500. 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 West Common, Harpenden?
129 sales are on record for West Common, Harpenden, the most recent completing on 19 Aug 2025. Every one is a completed transfer lodged with HM Land Registry, not an asking price or an estimate.
Have West Common, Harpenden house prices actually risen?
In cash, the median rose +137.9% between 2006 and 2021. In 2026 money — that is, after inflation — the change is +68.8%. Both numbers are true; only the second one tells you whether buying here preserved value.
When were West Common, Harpenden house prices at their highest?
The highest yearly median on record is £785,000, set in 2021. 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 West Common, Harpenden?
£4,796 per square metre, from the 30 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 19 Aug 2025. 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, “West Common, Harpenden 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.