20 Cheapest Areas of London to Buy a House or Flat
On average asking price, the cheapest area of London to buy a house or flat is Barking's IG11, at £319,170, the lowest of the 210 London postcode districts with a figure. Belvedere's DA17 is second at £327,183. DA1 is third at £342,168, but four in five of its postcodes are outside Greater London. Erith's DA8 comes next at £345,273.
Take whole council areas and what homes actually sold for, and Barking and Dagenham was the cheapest of London's 33, at £375,604 on the latest Land Registry figures. Croydon had the lowest average for first-time buyers. Across all 210 districts with an asking price, the averages start above £300,000. Among postcode districts with 30 or more sales in a year, Thamesmead's SE28 had the lowest median sold price, £348,500.
Article updated: September 2026
Where London's Cheapest Postcode Districts Are
The shading shows each district's average asking price band, houses and flats together, September 2026. The outlined districts are the 20 cheapest. Tap a district to see its figure.
The map will load as it approaches the viewport.
- Below £400,000
- £400,000 to £499,999
- £500,000 to £649,999
- £650,000 to £899,999
- £900,000 and above
- No asking-price figure
- Outlined: the 20 cheapest
Sources: PropertyData postcode key stats, September 2026; District boundaries derived from OS Code-Point Open: contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026, Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026, National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2026; District coverage names from the Wikipedia postcode area lists (BR, CR, DA, E, EC, EN, HA, IG, KT, N, NW, RM, SE, SM, SW, TN, TW, UB, W, WC), CC BY-SA 4.0.
The most affordable parts of London on asking price cluster in East London, which on the London Plan's map includes Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham. Ten of the cheapest twenty districts are there, in five of its council areas: Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham. South London has four, in Croydon, Bromley and Sutton, and West London four, in Ealing, Hillingdon and Hounslow. North London has two, both in Enfield. Central London has none.
Barking and Dagenham alone has four of the twenty, IG11 and the three Dagenham districts.
Top 20 Cheapest Places to Buy in London
These are the twenty districts with the cheapest house prices in London on September 2026 asking-price data, with flats and houses counted together. The ranking covers the 210 postcode districts with an asking price that have at least one postcode in twenty inside Greater London. The second price column is what buyers paid per square foot on completed sales, a separate sample from the homes on the market.
| Rank | Postcode and areas covered | Average asking price | Sold price per sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IG11: Barking, Thames View | £319,170 | £430 |
| 2 | DA17: Belvedere, Lessness Heath | £327,183 | £433 |
| 3 | DA1: Crayford, Dartford (mostly outside London) | £342,168 | £437 |
| 4 | DA8: Erith, Slade Green | £345,273 | £418 |
| 5 | SE25: South Norwood, Selhurst | £354,140 | £499 |
| 6 | CR0: Croydon, Addiscombe, New Addington | £355,095 | £447 |
| 7 | SE28: Thamesmead | £355,752 | £457 |
| 8 | RM10: Dagenham, Becontree | £370,683 | £458 |
| 9 | EN3: Enfield Highway, Ponders End | £373,607 | £475 |
| 10 | UB5: Northolt | £374,563 | £513 |
| 11 | SE20: Anerley, Penge | £377,590 | £559 |
| 12 | N9: Lower Edmonton | £379,097 | £466 |
| 13 | RM8: Dagenham, Becontree Heath | £380,856 | £472 |
| 14 | RM9: Dagenham, Beam Park (west) | £381,362 | £472 |
| 15 | UB7: West Drayton, Yiewsley | £383,238 | £507 |
| 16 | SM6: Wallington, Hackbridge | £394,118 | £487 |
| 17 | TW13: Feltham, Hanworth | £396,392 | £505 |
| 18 | UB3: Hayes, Harlington | £397,778 | £539 |
| 19 | RM3: Harold Hill, Harold Wood | £398,150 | £462 |
| 20 | SE13: Lewisham, Hither Green | £399,840 | £600 |
Only 268 of DA1's 1,266 postcodes are inside London, which makes it the one district in the twenty that is mostly outside. Postcode districts do not follow council lines, so each one counts in the council area that holds most of its London postcodes.
Another 78 districts have no asking price, so they are not ranked. Most are the lettered central London codes, such as W1J and EC1A. Fifteen are PO box and large-user codes, and the remaining few include E1W and DA18.
Rents and yields, borough by borough, are in our guide to the London property market.
Barking, Belvedere and Erith are cheapest on price and on space
Barking (IG11) leads Belvedere (DA17) by £8,013 on asking price, and Erith (DA8), fourth, is £26,103 above Barking.
On sold-price-per-square-foot data retrieved in September 2026, buyers in Erith (DA8) paid less per square foot on average than anywhere else in the 210, at £418. Barking (IG11) was next on £430 and Belvedere (DA17) on £433, with DA1 fifth lowest at £437. The four cheapest districts on asking price are four of the five cheapest per square foot. In London the two measures agree at the bottom of the list.
The other district in that bottom five is Thornton Heath (CR7). It is 28th on asking price at £410,005, and buyers there paid £435 a square foot on average, the fourth lowest of the 210.
Each of those figures is an average of a wide spread. Behind Barking's £430 are 328 sales, the middle 70% of them between £360 and £508 a square foot. HM Land Registry's free price paid search shows recorded sale prices street by street.
Buyers in Lewisham and Penge paid far more per square foot
Lewisham's SE13 only just made the twenty, at £399,840. Its sold price per square foot was £600, which puts it 114th of the 210 on that measure, in the middle of London rather than at the cheap end. On average, buyers in Lewisham paid £182 a square foot more than in Erith, 44% more.
Anerley and Penge (SE20) sits 11th for asking price but 89th of 210 for price per square foot, at £559. If floor space for your money matters to you, buyers in Lewisham and Penge paid far more per square foot on average than in Erith and Barking, the cheapest on that measure.
Three Dagenham districts sit within £11,000 of each other
RM10 is 8th at £370,683, RM8 13th at £380,856 and RM9 14th at £381,362. That is a gap of £10,679 across three districts, and on average buyers paid £458, £472 and £472 a square foot.
Next door, Barking (IG11) has about three times RM9's share of flats on Census-based figures retrieved in June 2026. Both asking prices count flats and houses together.
South Norwood, Croydon and Thamesmead are £1,612 apart
South Norwood (SE25) at £354,140, Croydon (CR0) at £355,095 and Thamesmead (SE28) at £355,752 are close to a tie on asking price. Per square foot they split. On average, buyers paid £447 a square foot in Croydon and £457 in Thamesmead, while South Norwood came in at £499, £52 more than Croydon.
Croydon's £447 comes from 1,606 sales, the most in the twenty, and Thamesmead's £457 from 218.
North Feltham's TW14 misses the twenty by £339
The twenty run from £319,170 to £399,840, a band of £80,670. TW14 is 21st at £400,179. At the other end of the 210, South Kensington's SW7 averaged £1,995,880, nearly £2 million and more than six times the IG11 figure. The very top of that market, street by street, is on our most expensive street in London page.
The Cheapest London Boroughs
In July 2026 the cheapest borough in London was Barking and Dagenham, at an average sold price of £375,604. Croydon was second at £390,041 and Newham third at £390,349, just £308 behind. At the other end, Kensington and Chelsea averaged £1,232,640, about 3.3 times as much. The London-wide figure was £550,037.
Bexley is fourth, which puts all four of the cheapest places to live in London, on house prices, in East and South London. This table uses a different source from the district ranking. Its figures come from the UK House Price Index, which estimates prices for each whole council area from sales registered with HM Land Registry, not from asking prices. The table covers all 33: the 32 London boroughs and the City of London, which has no terraced figure.
| Rank | Council area | All property types | Flats | Terraced houses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barking and Dagenham | £375,604 | £251,856 | £409,511 |
| 2 | Croydon | £390,041 | £253,660 | £396,579 |
| 3 | Newham | £390,349 | £325,381 | £458,668 |
| 4 | Bexley | £413,343 | £244,998 | £416,198 |
| 5 | Tower Hamlets | £447,796 | £430,120 | £690,210 |
| 6 | Havering | £448,648 | £251,321 | £435,382 |
| 7 | Sutton | £452,654 | £284,015 | £464,085 |
| 8 | Greenwich | £462,589 | £351,675 | £545,565 |
| 9 | Hillingdon | £470,875 | £285,116 | £457,686 |
| 10 | Enfield | £470,988 | £298,486 | £496,816 |
| 11 | Redbridge | £481,297 | £301,186 | £534,863 |
| 12 | Lewisham | £488,658 | £376,322 | £602,116 |
| 13 | Bromley | £511,670 | £302,447 | £483,699 |
| 14 | Hounslow | £525,435 | £352,823 | £611,320 |
| 15 | Harrow | £526,493 | £317,917 | £536,748 |
| 16 | Waltham Forest | £529,102 | £389,823 | £624,560 |
| 17 | Lambeth | £536,623 | £439,289 | £796,865 |
| 18 | Brent | £546,135 | £378,992 | £700,019 |
| 19 | Southwark | £572,478 | £469,796 | £838,160 |
| 20 | Ealing | £585,216 | £407,789 | £711,468 |
| 21 | Kingston upon Thames | £591,555 | £364,805 | £591,784 |
| 22 | Barnet | £600,560 | £372,014 | £634,437 |
| 23 | Hackney | £605,729 | £524,885 | £960,633 |
| 24 | Merton | £615,890 | £405,123 | £686,591 |
| 25 | Haringey | £638,690 | £473,036 | £803,381 |
| 26 | Islington | £674,592 | £560,124 | £1,151,398 |
| 27 | Wandsworth | £686,076 | £526,813 | £970,844 |
| 28 | City of London | £710,652 | £709,939 | Not enough data |
| 29 | Hammersmith and Fulham | £738,048 | £568,235 | £1,139,759 |
| 30 | Richmond upon Thames | £803,249 | £487,215 | £915,886 |
| 31 | Camden | £815,159 | £671,443 | £1,554,868 |
| 32 | City of Westminster | £876,788 | £775,956 | £1,616,250 |
| 33 | Kensington and Chelsea | £1,232,640 | £971,688 | £2,429,086 |
Bexley had the cheapest flats and Croydon the cheapest terraces
Of the most affordable London boroughs, Barking and Dagenham was cheapest overall, but not for flats or terraces. Flats were cheapest in Bexley at £244,998, with Havering at £251,321 and Barking and Dagenham at £251,856 close behind. Terraced houses were cheapest in Croydon at £396,579, the only London terraced average under £400,000. Barking and Dagenham was second on terraces at £409,511.
If you already know the kind of home you are after, those two columns are a better guide to the cheap end of London than the first.
Tower Hamlets is fifth overall and 21st for flats
Tower Hamlets had the fifth lowest average of the 33 across all property types, at £447,796. Its flats averaged £430,120, which is 21st of the 33. No other council area drops as many places between the overall column and the flats column. Newham drops eight, from third overall to 11th for flats at £325,381.
The all-types figure takes flats, terraces, semis and detached houses together. Tower Hamlets shows how far it can sit from the price of any one type.
Barking and Dagenham rose the most, and Westminster fell furthest
Barking and Dagenham's July 2026 average was 5.3% higher than a year earlier, the biggest rise in London. Kingston upon Thames was up 3.3% and Waltham Forest 2.8%. Twelve of the 33 council areas were higher on the year and 21 lower. The City of Westminster fell the most, by 20.7%, with the City of London down 17.4%, Tower Hamlets 14.4% and Kensington and Chelsea 14.1%.
London as a whole was 3.3% lower than in July 2025, Inner London 6.8% lower and Outer London 0.6% lower, while England rose 1.1%. These figures describe the year just gone, not the next one. The UK House Price Index methodology says its first estimate for a month rests on around 40% of the sales that will eventually be registered, so July's figures will be revised as the rest come in.
Cheapest Areas by London Region
The regions here are the five sub-regions of the London Plan, first set out in 2011 and kept in the 2016 plan. Each is a group of whole council areas.
| Sub-region | Cheapest postcode district (average asking price) | Cheapest council area (average sold price) |
|---|---|---|
| East | IG11: Barking, Thames View (£319,170) | Barking and Dagenham (£375,604) |
| North | EN3: Enfield Highway, Ponders End (£373,607) | Enfield (£470,988) |
| South | SE25: South Norwood, Selhurst (£354,140) | Croydon (£390,041) |
| West | UB5: Northolt (£374,563) | Hillingdon (£470,875) |
| Central | SE5: Camberwell, Denmark Hill (£472,174) | Lambeth (£536,623) |
East London
East London has 68 districts with an asking price. Barking (IG11) leads at £319,170, and Belvedere, DA1 and Erith follow, all under £346,000. Belvedere and Erith are both in Bexley. Thamesmead (SE28), at £355,752, and Lewisham's SE13 are East London districts too. Barking and Dagenham is its cheapest council area.
Havering adds one district to the twenty, Harold Hill and Harold Wood's RM3, 19th at £398,150.
North London
North London is the smallest sub-region, three council areas with 27 districts that have an asking price. Enfield Highway and Ponders End's EN3 is cheapest at £373,607, with Lower Edmonton's N9 next at £379,097. After those two the prices jump £47,758 to Upper Edmonton's N18 at £426,855, and Tottenham's N17 follows at £440,382. Enfield was the cheapest North council area at £470,988.
South London
South London's two cheapest districts are £955 apart, South Norwood's SE25 at £354,140 and Croydon's CR0 at £355,095. Anerley and Penge's SE20 and Wallington's SM6 are the other South districts in the twenty. Croydon was the cheapest South council area at £390,041, and Sutton was next at £452,654.
West London
West London's cheapest district is Northolt's UB5 at £374,563, followed by West Drayton's UB7, Feltham's TW13 and Hayes's UB3, all under £398,000. Hillingdon was the cheapest West council area at £470,875, just £113 below Enfield, the cheapest in the North.
Central London
Central London's cheapest district is SE5, Camberwell and Denmark Hill, at £472,174, 59th of the 210 and £153,004 above IG11. Lambeth was the cheapest Central council area at £536,623. Central also holds the three dearest districts in the ranking, SW7, SW3 and W8, all counted in Kensington and Chelsea.
Cheapest House Prices in London, by What Homes Sold For
Of the 222 London postcode districts with 30 or more sales in the twelve months to April 2026, Thamesmead's SE28 had the lowest median sold price. It was £348,500, on 172 sales.
The median is the middle price paid. With an even number of sales, it sits halfway between the two middle sales. Flats and houses count together in it, as they do in the asking-price averages.
| Rank | Postcode and areas covered | Median sold price | Homes sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SE28: Thamesmead | £348,500 | 172 |
| 2 | IG11: Barking, Thames View | £358,000 | 299 |
| 3 | SM2: Belmont, South Sutton, South Cheam | £358,250 | 332 |
| 4 | DA1: Crayford, Dartford (mostly outside London) | £360,000 | 668 |
| 4 | DA17: Belvedere, Lessness Heath | £360,000 | 173 |
| 6 | DA8: Erith, Slade Green | £370,000 | 254 |
| 7 | RM10: Dagenham, Becontree | £380,000 | 227 |
| 7 | RM9: Dagenham, Beam Park (west) | £380,000 | 220 |
| 9 | CR0: Croydon, Addiscombe, New Addington | £385,000 | 1,308 |
| 10 | WC1H: St Pancras, UCL Institute of Education | £388,500 | 50 |
| 11 | RM8: Dagenham, Becontree Heath | £389,000 | 262 |
| 12 | DA14: Sidcup, Foots Cray, North Cray | £390,000 | 265 |
| 13 | SE25: South Norwood, Selhurst | £391,000 | 345 |
| 14 | SM6: Wallington, Hackbridge | £395,000 | 369 |
| 15 | UB7: West Drayton, Yiewsley | £396,000 | 192 |
Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2021. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
DA1 and DA17 share fourth place on £360,000, and RM9 and RM10 share seventh on £380,000. Of the 273 London districts outside the PO box and large-user codes, 222 had 30 or more sales in the twelve months to April 2026, and only those are ranked.
The homes-sold counts cover those twelve months. The sales behind CR0's per-square-foot average are a different, longer run, so the counts differ, 1,308 against 1,606.
Twelve of the fifteen are also in the cheapest twenty on asking price. The other three are Belmont's SM2, 45th on asking price, Sidcup's DA14, 31st, and St Pancras's WC1H, which has no asking-price figure and whose 50 sales were all flats.
Thamesmead's SE28 is seventh on asking price but lowest of the 222 on median sold price
Thamesmead's SE28 averages £355,752 on asking price, seventh of the 210 with a figure, yet its median sold price is £7,252 lower and the lowest of the 222. Barking's IG11 is the reverse. It is first on asking price at £319,170, but its median sold price, £358,000, is £38,830 higher and second lowest.
Neither gap measures what buyers knocked off or paid on top. One figure is an average of the prices sellers put on homes for sale in September 2026. The other comes from what buyers paid on sales completed in the twelve months to April 2026.
Barking sold the larger share of flats, and the cheaper ones. Its 142 flats were nearly half its 299 sales, at a median of £239,500, against 56 of Thamesmead's 172 at £258,750. Barking's terraced houses sold for far more than Thamesmead's, a median of £460,000 from 134 sales against £369,000 from 96.
Belmont's SM2 has a £358,250 median but a £544,883 plain average of its sales
Most of SM2's sales were flats, 205 of the 332, with a median of £290,000. The 66 detached houses sold there had a median of £1,200,000 and the 31 terraced houses £550,000. A median turns on which sales fall in the middle, not on how dear the sales above them are, so the detached houses lift SM2's plain average far more than its median. The plain average of all 332 sales would put SM2 86th of the 222, not third.
Are there houses under £300k in London?
Of the 210 London postcode districts with an average asking price, the lowest is Barking's IG11 at £319,170, so none comes in under £300,000. That average counts flats and houses together. An average sums up a whole spread of prices, so it can't point you to one home. Cheap houses for sale in London under £300,000 have to be found listing by listing. HM Land Registry's price paid search lets you look up recorded sale prices by street.
One London district did have a median sold price under £300,000 between May 2025 and April 2026. DA18, which covers Erith Marshes and part of Thamesmead, came in at £260,000, but on only 8 sales, too few to rank. None of the 222 districts with at least 30 sales had a median under £300,000.
In some districts, flat medians do get under £300,000. Of the 213 districts with 30 or more flat sales, 48 had a flat median below that line. The lowest was West Wickham's BR4, at £208,000 from 31 flat sales, and Dagenham's RM10 followed on £220,000. Across all of BR4's sales, though, the median was £670,000.
None of the 197 districts with 30 or more terraced sales had a terraced median under £300,000. The lowest was DA1's £365,000, and most of DA1's sales were outside London. Thamesmead's £369,000 came next.
The UK House Price Index gives a single month's average for each whole council area. In July 2026, seven London council areas had a flat average below £300,000. Bexley's was lowest at £244,998, Havering and Barking and Dagenham came within £7,000 of it, and Croydon, Sutton and Hillingdon were also under. Enfield was closest to the line at £298,486. For terraces, Croydon's £396,579 was the lowest council-area average in London, so every London council area with a terraced average was more than £96,000 over the budget.
Just over the boundary, flat averages drop further. Thurrock's flats averaged £189,108, the lowest of the 17 council areas that share a boundary with London. Our guide to the cheapest houses in the UK ranks council areas across the UK on sold prices.
Sometimes a low advertised price buys only part of a home. A shared ownership buyer, as GOV.UK's shared ownership guidance sets it out, takes between 10% and 75% of the home at its full market value and pays the landlord rent on the share it keeps. A quarter of London's £424,013 average flat comes to about £106,000, and a tenth to about £42,400.
Below market value properties are priced against what that one home is worth, so a price under the district average does not make a home below market value on its own. Our buy to let properties for sale page deals in actual homes rather than averages, from across the UK.
How Affordable Are London's Cheapest Areas?
DA1 has the lowest price to household income ratio of the twenty at 6.0 times, but four in five of its postcodes are outside London. Of the other nineteen, Barking's IG11 is lowest at 6.6 times, and Dagenham's RM9 and RM10 are highest at 8.8. Across the twenty, the lowest household income is £42,300 in RM10 and the highest £59,600 in Lewisham's SE13.
The household income data retrieved in September 2026 is a figure for the whole household, everyone in the home added together, averaged for each district. It is about the people already living there, not a buyer, and it is not a lending test.
| Rank | Postcode and areas covered | Average asking price | Household income | Price to household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IG11: Barking, Thames View | £319,170 | £48,500 | 6.6x |
| 2 | DA17: Belvedere, Lessness Heath | £327,183 | £49,000 | 6.7x |
| 3 | DA1: Crayford, Dartford (mostly outside London) | £342,168 | £56,800 | 6.0x |
| 4 | DA8: Erith, Slade Green | £345,273 | £47,100 | 7.3x |
| 5 | SE25: South Norwood, Selhurst | £354,140 | £49,800 | 7.1x |
| 6 | CR0: Croydon, Addiscombe, New Addington | £355,095 | £52,000 | 6.8x |
| 7 | SE28: Thamesmead | £355,752 | £48,800 | 7.3x |
| 8 | RM10: Dagenham, Becontree | £370,683 | £42,300 | 8.8x |
| 9 | EN3: Enfield Highway, Ponders End | £373,607 | £46,300 | 8.1x |
| 10 | UB5: Northolt | £374,563 | £51,100 | 7.3x |
| 11 | SE20: Anerley, Penge | £377,590 | £55,500 | 6.8x |
| 12 | N9: Lower Edmonton | £379,097 | £44,700 | 8.5x |
| 13 | RM8: Dagenham, Becontree Heath | £380,856 | £45,600 | 8.4x |
| 14 | RM9: Dagenham, Beam Park (west) | £381,362 | £43,200 | 8.8x |
| 15 | UB7: West Drayton, Yiewsley | £383,238 | £54,500 | 7.0x |
| 16 | SM6: Wallington, Hackbridge | £394,118 | £55,600 | 7.1x |
| 17 | TW13: Feltham, Hanworth | £396,392 | £51,900 | 7.6x |
| 18 | UB3: Hayes, Harlington | £397,778 | £52,000 | 7.6x |
| 19 | RM3: Harold Hill, Harold Wood | £398,150 | £47,500 | 8.4x |
| 20 | SE13: Lewisham, Hither Green | £399,840 | £59,600 | 6.7x |
One worker's wage is not the same as a household's income. In 2025 London's median full-time worker earned about £903 a week before tax, against about £767 across the United Kingdom, on the London labour market profile at Nomis. London's full-time annual median was £46,414 on the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
Two Dagenham districts have the highest price to household income ratios
RM9 and RM10 have the two lowest household incomes in the table, £43,200 and £42,300, and the two highest ratios, both 8.8 times. RM8 is at 8.4 times on £45,600. Next door, Barking (IG11) has a lower asking price than all three, and households there earn more, £48,500 on average, so its ratio is 6.6 times.
Lower Edmonton's N9 comes in at 8.5 times, above RM8, on the third lowest household income of the twenty, £44,700.
Lewisham and Barking have almost the same price to household income ratio
Lewisham's SE13 is last of the twenty on price, £80,670 dearer than IG11. Its household income is also the highest of the twenty, £11,100 more than Barking's. The two land at 6.7 and 6.6 times. A ratio moves with income as well as price, so the cheapest district and the 20th can look almost the same on it.
For investors, rent is the number that goes against the price, and our guide to investing in London property sets it out borough by borough. To compare London with the rest of the UK, our guide to the best rental yield areas puts rents and prices side by side.
First-Time Buyers: What Income Do You Need?
No price table can tell you what you need to earn, but it can show where first-time buyers in London paid the least. On the UK House Price Index, Croydon had the lowest first-time buyer average of the 33 council areas, £326,693 in July 2026. Barking and Dagenham, at £360,178, and Bexley, at £361,301, were £1,123 apart in second and third. Sutton and Newham were the other two under £380,000.
Croydon is second on the all-types table, yet first here and £33,485 below Barking and Dagenham. Across the whole of London, first-time buyers paid an average of £466,851.
For the purchase itself, the table below uses one deposit of 30% for every type of home. That is purely an illustration, not a lender's requirement.
| London property type | Average sold price | Illustrative 30% deposit |
|---|---|---|
| Flat | £424,013 | £127,204 |
| Terraced house | £642,452 | £192,736 |
| Semi-detached house | £724,106 | £217,232 |
| Detached house | £1,167,718 | £350,315 |
| All property types | £550,037 | £165,011 |
The figures are for the whole London region in July 2026. A terrace costs £218,439 more than a flat on these averages, which puts £65,532 on the illustrative deposit. A semi adds another £81,654, the smallest step of the three, and a detached house £443,612 on top of that.
After the illustrative deposit, about £296,800 is left to fund on the average London flat and about £449,700 on the average terrace. Whether a lender will cover what is left depends on you and on the lender, and a mortgage broker can check it. The tax on any of these prices is a quick sum on our stamp duty calculator.
Cheaper Alternatives Near London
Of the 17 council areas that share a boundary with Greater London, Thurrock had the lowest average sold price in July 2026, £321,941. Slough followed at £335,759, with Dartford £12,014 behind at £347,773. Those three were the only neighbours cheaper than Barking and Dagenham, London's cheapest borough. The other 14 all averaged more than London's three cheapest boroughs, and Elmbridge, at £748,080, averaged more than 29 of London's 33 council areas.
The 17 are the council areas that touch London on the ONS December 2024 council boundaries. The prices are UK House Price Index averages for whole council areas, the same measure as the borough table above. A council area is not a town, and the towns people search for can sit in a council area with a different name. Our guide to towns near London covers the commuter belt.
| Council area | All property types | Flats | Terraced houses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thurrock | £321,941 | £189,108 | £319,032 |
| Slough | £335,759 | £218,068 | £355,644 |
| Dartford | £347,773 | £207,478 | £342,398 |
| Broxbourne | £411,689 | £222,661 | £409,990 |
| Spelthorne | £439,609 | £269,712 | £427,759 |
| Welwyn Hatfield | £448,681 | £245,354 | £407,970 |
| Buckinghamshire | £479,736 | £234,615 | £378,389 |
| Reigate and Banstead | £480,824 | £266,872 | £429,084 |
| Tandridge | £482,599 | £245,240 | £394,274 |
| Brentwood | £514,480 | £261,716 | £430,877 |
| Epping Forest | £525,719 | £289,967 | £458,532 |
| Sevenoaks | £538,714 | £279,276 | £426,822 |
| Hertsmere | £548,704 | £291,783 | £486,991 |
| Mole Valley | £555,858 | £285,549 | £453,154 |
| Epsom and Ewell | £568,214 | £300,022 | £491,420 |
| Three Rivers | £590,816 | £291,090 | £461,977 |
| Elmbridge | £748,080 | £353,544 | £580,978 |
Five neighbours had cheaper terraces than any London borough
Croydon's £396,579 was the lowest terraced average inside London. Thurrock, Dartford, Slough, Buckinghamshire and Tandridge all came in under it, Thurrock by more than £77,000. Buckinghamshire and Tandridge are the ones you might not expect on that list. Across all property types, Buckinghamshire was dearer than ten London boroughs and Tandridge dearer than eleven. Their terraced averages were still below every London borough's.
Five neighbours also had cheaper flats than any London borough: Thurrock, Dartford, Slough, Broxbourne and Buckinghamshire, all under Bexley's £244,998. Tandridge missed that figure by £242.
Prices rose in nine neighbours and fell in eight
Welwyn Hatfield's July 2026 average was 3.0% higher than a year earlier and Broxbourne's 2.5% higher, the two biggest rises. Tandridge fell the most, by 5.0%, and Spelthorne by 2.9%. London over the same year was down 3.3%. July is the index's latest month, so these readings are provisional too.
County-wide figures sit in our Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire and Surrey buy-to-let guides. Other cities are ranked on the same asking-price measure, including the cheapest place to buy a house in Manchester and the cheapest places to buy a house in Birmingham. If you would rather look at real UK investment properties than averages, one of our consultants can go through what is available against your budget.
Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2020. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest area of London to buy a house?
On average asking price it is IG11, the Barking and Thames View district, at £319,170 in September 2026, the lowest of the 210 London districts with a figure. That average counts flats and houses together. Among London districts with 30 or more sales from May 2025 to April 2026, Thamesmead's SE28 had the lowest median sold price, the middle price paid, at £348,500. When London's 33 council areas are compared on average sold price, Barking and Dagenham comes out cheapest, at £375,604 in July 2026.
Which is the cheapest London borough?
Barking and Dagenham, with an average sold price of £375,604 in July 2026 on the UK House Price Index. Croydon, at £390,041, and Newham, at £390,349, were close behind. The order changes with the type of home. Bexley had the cheapest flats at £244,998, while Croydon had the cheapest terraced houses at £396,579 and the lowest first-time buyer average at £326,693.
What is the average house price in London?
Homes across London sold for an average of £550,037 in July 2026, on the UK House Price Index. By type, a flat averaged £424,013 and a terraced house £642,452, with semis at £724,106 and detached houses at £1,167,718. Inner London came in at £624,529, Outer London at £507,169. England's average was £293,479, so London was 87% higher.
Are house prices falling in London?
Over the latest year of data they fell. London's July 2026 average was down 3.3% on a year earlier. Inner London fell 6.8% and Outer London 0.6%. The City of Westminster fell the most, by 20.7%, and Barking and Dagenham rose the most, by 5.3%. July is the index's latest month, so these readings are provisional and will be revised as more sales are registered.
Where can first-time buyers afford to buy in London?
What any one buyer can afford depends on their deposit, income and lender, so the figures here show where first-time buyers paid least. Croydon had the lowest first-time buyer average in July 2026 at £326,693, then Barking and Dagenham at £360,178 and Bexley at £361,301. Five council areas were under £380,000, against a London-wide first-time buyer average of £466,851.
Are there houses for sale in London under £50,000?
Every average in this data is far above that. The lowest average asking price of the 210 London districts with a figure is £319,170, and the lowest flat average of any London council area is Bexley's £244,998. A low advertised price can be for only part of a home. GOV.UK's shared ownership guidance puts the share a buyer can take at between 10% and 75%, with rent paid on the part the landlord keeps. A 10% share of London's £424,013 average flat would be about £42,400.
Is it cheaper to live just outside London?
Three neighbouring council areas were cheaper than even London's cheapest borough on house prices. The cheapest place to live near London on these figures was Thurrock, at £321,941 in July 2026, then Slough at £335,759 and Dartford at £347,773, all below Barking and Dagenham's £375,604. Thirteen of the 17 were below London's overall average of £550,037, and Elmbridge, at £748,080, was dearer than all but four London council areas. These are house prices alone, with no allowance for rent, bills or the commute.
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