Kensington and Chelsea's 2025 median sale price across houses and flats was £1,192,000, based on 1,736 Land Registry transactions — four times the £297,000 median for England and Wales as a whole. It tops a list of ten London boroughs where a typical home sold for more than £580,000 last year, each one already comfortably above London's own £530,000 median.
The top 10, ranked by 2025 median sale price
| Rank | Borough | 2025 median | Land Registry sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kensington and Chelsea | £1,192,000 | 1,736 |
| 2 | Westminster | £890,000 | 2,159 |
| 3 | City of London | £820,000 | 159 |
| 4 | Camden | £780,000 | 1,976 |
| 5 | Richmond upon Thames | £721,000 | 2,748 |
| 6 | Hammersmith and Fulham | £706,000 | 2,299 |
| 7 | Wandsworth | £650,000 | 5,082 |
| 7= | Islington | £650,000 | 2,022 |
| 9 | Hackney | £591,000 | 2,291 |
| 10 | Barnet | £580,000 | 3,624 |
Even within this top tier there's a 2.05x spread — Kensington and Chelsea's median is more than double Barnet's, despite both sitting inside the capital's ten priciest boroughs. The City of London's figure is worth treating with more caution than the rest: at 159 sales it's a small, flat-dominated sample rather than a conventional residential market, so a handful of large transactions can move its median more than in a borough with thousands of sales.
What it costs in stamp duty
All ten boroughs' medians sit above the £500,000 point at which first-time buyer relief stops applying, so for a typical purchase in any of them, a first-time buyer pays exactly the same Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) as a home mover:
| Borough | 2025 median | SDLT at median |
|---|---|---|
| Kensington and Chelsea | £1,192,000 | £62,950 |
| Westminster | £890,000 | £34,500 |
| City of London | £820,000 | £31,000 |
| Camden | £780,000 | £29,000 |
| Richmond upon Thames | £721,000 | £26,050 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | £706,000 | £25,300 |
| Wandsworth | £650,000 | £22,500 |
| Islington | £650,000 | £22,500 |
| Hackney | £591,000 | £19,550 |
| Barnet | £580,000 | £19,000 |
At the other end of the capital's price ladder, the cheapest London boroughs for first-time buyers sit far below that £500,000 relief ceiling — in several of them, a first-time buyer pays no SDLT at all. Speak to a qualified adviser or conveyancer to confirm relief eligibility before completion; this is a general guide to how the rules apply, not advice on an individual purchase.
Price and council tax don't move together
Council Tax Band D bills for 2026-27 show almost no relationship to how expensive a borough is to buy into. Richmond upon Thames — only the fifth-priciest of the ten to buy, at £721,000 — has by far the highest Band D bill in this group, while Westminster and Wandsworth, both pricier to buy, have the lowest:
| Borough | 2025 median price | Band D 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| Richmond upon Thames | £721,000 | £2,486.10 |
| Camden | £780,000 | £2,207.55 |
| Islington | £650,000 | £2,108.15 |
| Barnet | £580,000 | £2,132.60 |
| Hackney | £591,000 | £2,060.30 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | £1,192,000 | £1,666.65 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | £706,000 | £1,519.51 |
| City of London | £820,000 | £1,329.56 |
| Westminster | £890,000 | £1,049.55 |
| Wandsworth | £650,000 | £1,028.21 |
The reason is structural, not a market signal: Band D valuations are still based on 1991 property values (gov.uk), and the cash amount charged on top is set each year by each council's own budget and precept, not by current prices. A borough that was banded modestly in 1991 and has kept its precept low can look remarkably cheap to run today, regardless of what a typical home there now sells for — which is exactly what's happening in Westminster and Wandsworth.
The most expensive boroughs aren't the greenest
Kensington and Chelsea, the priciest borough on this list, also has the lowest share of homes rated EPC C or above among the ten — 28.6%, from the latest certificate on record for each address:
| Borough | EPC C-or-above share | Certificates assessed |
|---|---|---|
| City of London | 63.1% | 122 |
| Islington | 41.6% | 12,368 |
| Hackney | 41.0% | 13,335 |
| Wandsworth | 38.6% | 39,522 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 35.9% | 17,353 |
| Camden | 34.2% | 10,145 |
| Westminster | 33.9% | 9,310 |
| Barnet | 30.9% | 46,869 |
| Richmond upon Thames | 30.0% | 31,658 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 28.6% | 10,457 |
The pattern tracks the age of the housing stock rather than price: Kensington and Chelsea and Richmond's stucco terraces, mansion blocks and period villas are harder and more expensive to retrofit than newer flats, so their EPC ratings lag even though they command the highest prices. The City of London's 63.1% looks like an exception, but it's drawn from only 122 certificates, mostly modern purpose-built riverside flats — too small and unrepresentative a sample to read as "greener than the rest of the list." For a fuller property-type breakdown across the whole capital, see all 33 London boroughs' flat-vs-house EPC coverage gap.
Checking a specific address
Borough and city-wide medians describe the market, not any one home — the Homecost postcode tool shows the recorded sale history, council tax band and EPC rating for an individual address, alongside an illustrative stamp duty and mortgage calculation at today's rate.
Based on 24,096 Land Registry transactions and 191,139 EPC certificates across these ten boroughs (data fetched 13 October 2026), more Regional Prices coverage is available on Homecost. Speak to a qualified adviser before acting on any stamp duty, mortgage or council tax decision.