Market Analysis
UK property cost research — written from the data, not the marketing brochure.
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market-analysis
City vs Postcode-Area House Prices: The Property-Type Gap (2026)
Across five English cities, buying just outside the city boundary costs more on average — but the home type driving that premium is not always the same one.
21 October 2026
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market-analysis
UK City Centres: New-Build Flats vs Resale Flats (2026)
Being nearly all flats does not mean a city centre apartment market is new — some of the most flat-dominated centres in the data are almost entirely resale.
20 October 2026
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market-analysis
City-Centre Flat Shares Have Fallen Since 2020, Not Risen (2026)
Reading's flat share fell from 59% to 41% in five years, Hull's from 81% to 65% - most UK city centres moved away from flats since 2020, not towards them.
19 October 2026
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market-analysis
City Centre Flat Share vs House Prices Across 29 UK Cities (2026)
Leeds and Manchester sell almost nothing but flats in their centres, yet both are cheaper than flat-light Cambridge and Bath — flat share barely predicts price.
17 October 2026
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market-analysis
The UK City Centres Where Almost Nobody Buys a House (2026)
In five English city centres, 2025 Land Registry data shows at least 98% of sales were flats — in Middlesbrough and Stoke-on-Trent, it's almost entirely houses.
16 October 2026
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market-analysis
UK's Most-Traded Postcode Districts in 2026
Widen the lens from a single postcode to a whole district and the story flips: the busiest resale markets are old suburbs and new towns, not new-build estates.
11 October 2026
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market-analysis
The UK's sub-£150k housing market has shrunk 39% since 2021
Land Registry data shows homes selling under £150,000 fell nearly twice as fast as the wider market between 2021 and 2025 — and the drop has now levelled off.
11 October 2026
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market-analysis
UK's Most-Traded Postcodes: What's Actually Being Sold (2026)
Raw Land Registry sales counts are topped by new-build towers, high-churn flats and, in two cases, postcodes that aren't homes at all.
9 October 2026
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market-analysis
New-build leasehold houses: 15% of sales in 2016, 0.4% in 2025
Leasehold was common among new-build houses in the mid-2010s. Since 2019 it has made up under 2% of new-build house sales.
5 October 2026
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market-analysis
Weston-super-Mare: identical house prices, a 70-point EPC gap
BS23 and BS24 sell for almost the same price in 2025 — but only a fifth of one area's certified homes rate C or above, against nearly nine in ten in the other.
29 September 2026
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market-analysis
Leasehold houses in Bristol, Bath and the West of England (2026)
Only 5% of house sales in Bath, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire are leasehold, but some sectors top 40% of terraced sales.
28 September 2026
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market-analysis
Terraced House Prices and the £300k FTB Line: 9 Cities (2026)
Across seven major English cities, 91% of postcode sectors with enough terraced sales to measure sit at or under the first-time-buyer stamp duty threshold — well above the 74% found when every house type is combined.
27 September 2026
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market-analysis
First-Time Buyer £300k Line: House or Flat Market by City 2026
None of London's 538 postcode sectors with enough house sales has a house median at or under £300,000; 27 of Nottingham's 30 do.
25 September 2026
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market-analysis
New-Build Homes Still Cost More in England's Greenest Districts 2026
Testing whether energy-efficient new estates are cheaper than the homes around them finds the opposite in 14 of 15 shire districts.
23 September 2026
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market-analysis
England's 15 Greenest Shire Districts Ranked for 2026
Only one of England's 15 greenest shire districts by EPC rating is also cheaper to buy than the national median.
22 September 2026
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market-analysis
Flat Prices and EPC Ratings: No Consistent Link in 2026
Land Registry sale prices and EPC ratings across 13 flat districts in five English cities move independently more often than not.
21 September 2026
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market-analysis
EPC Ratings Near English Universities: Why Only One City Lags (2026)
A four-city test of EPC ratings in flats near major university campuses finds the gap is about building age, not location.
21 September 2026
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market-analysis
Why Sandbanks Skews Bournemouth's Average House Price in 2026
In one Poole postcode the average sale price ran £300,000 above the median in 2025 — a gap driven by a small slice of multi-million-pound sales, not the typical purchase.
20 September 2026
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market-analysis
Council Tax Band D 2026: Why the Numbers Are Never Round
House price medians cluster on round thousands; council tax bills, set by a budget formula rather than a negotiation, almost never do.
19 September 2026
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market-analysis
Why English Local Authority House Prices Cluster on Round Numbers
Two-thirds of England's 295 local authorities reported a 2025 median house price landing on an exact multiple of £5,000 — and it's mostly not about stamp duty.
18 September 2026
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market-analysis
London Second-Home Stamp Duty in Years of Council Tax: 33 Boroughs
Add the 5% second-home surcharge to a London stamp duty bill and the borough league table reorders itself at both the cheap and expensive ends.
14 September 2026
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market-analysis
Detached Homes Are 75% of Welsh Sales Above the £350k Tax Line
Land Registry data show detached houses made up three-quarters of Welsh home sales above the £350,000 point where Wales's Land Transaction Tax stops beating English stamp duty.
14 September 2026
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market-analysis
83% of Welsh Home Sales Sit Below the £350,000 Tax Line (2026)
Land Registry data show most 2025 Welsh sales fell below the price where Wales's Land Transaction Tax stops beating England's Stamp Duty.
11 September 2026
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market-analysis
Priciest local authorities to buy a new-build house, England 2026
Windsor and Maidenhead tops the table at £716,500 for a new-build house — yet its council tax bill is the lowest of the twenty priciest markets.
8 September 2026
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market-analysis
London Stamp Duty vs Council Tax: 33 Boroughs Ranked (2026)
In Kensington and Chelsea a single stamp duty bill buys 36 years of council tax; in Barking and Dagenham, barely four.
4 September 2026
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market-analysis
New-build vs resale house premium by area: England 2026
The median new-build house cost £51,500 more than a resale one across England in 2024 — but the gap runs from nil in the pricey South to more than double in parts of the North.
1 September 2026
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market-analysis
Postcode Price Gaps: Location or House Type? UK 2026
Across seven English cities, we test how much of the gap between the cheapest and dearest postcode district is a real location premium — and how much is just the mix of flats and houses each area holds.
1 September 2026
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market-analysis
The £500k Stamp Duty Cliff: London's Commuter Ring, 2026
First-time buyer relief vanishes above £500,000 — and across a ring of authorities around London, the typical home now sits beyond it.
31 August 2026
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market-analysis
Where South Yorkshire's detached-home premium concentrates, 2026
Barnsley and Doncaster share an identical £180,000 median — yet their detached houses are £28,000 apart, and the gap sits in the greener fringes.
27 August 2026
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market-analysis
What first-time buyer stamp duty relief is worth, by UK city 2026
The saving peaks at a capped £5,000 in cities like Bristol and Cambridge, wipes out the whole bill across the cheaper North, and reaches zero in London and Wales.
24 August 2026
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market-analysis
Cambridge, Oxford & Bath: the cities that price like London 2026
In 2025, a third to a half of homes in these three cities sold above £500,000 — a pattern otherwise seen only in London.
21 August 2026
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market-analysis
How Many Homes Sell for £500,000-Plus? UK Cities Ranked 2026
The £500,000 mark is where first-time buyer relief runs out and the corporate flat rate begins — and whether a home sits above it depends almost entirely on the city.
20 August 2026
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market-analysis
Where the core city isn't the priciest place to buy: 2026
In four of England's six metropolitan counties, a neighbouring borough — not the famous core city — records the highest median sale price.
19 August 2026
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market-analysis
Where a Detached House Costs Double a Semi (2026)
A detached home sold for at least twice the price of a semi in only 26 of England and Wales's 1,668 measured districts last year — and they sit at opposite ends of the price ladder.
19 August 2026
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market-analysis
Which UK cities sell the most flats? A 2026 city ranking
In London most homes sold are flats; in Wakefield it is fewer than one in twenty — a gap that quietly reshapes what each city's average price really means.
17 August 2026
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market-analysis
Deposit or salary: which one gets you more home in 2026?
Two levers on your budget — one adds pound for pound, the other multiplies by 4.5.
16 August 2026
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market-analysis
UK Cities With the Flattest House-Price Geography in 2026
In some cities the dearest postcode costs barely a quarter more than the cheapest; in others, more than four times as much.
12 August 2026
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market-analysis
Median vs mean house price: why the 'average' misleads 2026
Across 24 UK cities the average sale price runs up to a third higher than the typical one — here is the gap, and why it happens.
10 August 2026
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market-analysis
What the UK's sub-£50,000 home sales really are (2026)
Fewer than one home sale in 300 was under £50,000 last year — and once repossessions and part-shares are separated out, most of what's left isn't a whole habitable house.
10 August 2026
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market-analysis
Cheapest UK cities to buy a flat in 2026, ranked
Sunderland's typical flat sold for £72,900 in 2025 and London's for £440,000 — a six-fold gap, mapped across 27 major cities on Land Registry data.
5 August 2026
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market-analysis
Converted flats vs purpose-built blocks: the 2026 EPC gap
Across England and Wales, flats in pre-1930 buildings rate 26% at EPC band C or above; flats built since 2003 rate 93% — and the pattern holds in every major city.
2 August 2026
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market-analysis
Where terraced homes lag on EPC: the 2026 UK district map
Across 10.7 million homes a terrace rates only just below the national average — but in a handful of districts the gap runs past 16 points, and it tracks build era, not price.
31 July 2026
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market-analysis
SDLT 'uninhabitable property' refunds: inside the reclaim market
How a 2019 tribunal ruling spawned a no-win-no-fee reclaim industry — and why most speculative claims now fail HMRC's challenge.
30 July 2026
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market-analysis
Cheap to Buy Doesn't Mean Cheap to Heat: England's 2026 EPC Map
Across 164 English shire districts, purchase price and energy efficiency barely move together — build era, not price, decides the bill.
27 July 2026
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market-analysis
Do semis ever cost more than a detached house? 2026
In 1,652 postcode districts with a reliable sample of both, the detached home wins every time — and the handful of exceptions turn out to be a small-sample mirage.
20 July 2026
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market-analysis
What £200,000 buys across the UK in 2026: floor space by area
For the same budget, 2025 sales show a 91 m² semi in Sunderland or a 44 m² flat in south-east London.
19 July 2026
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market-analysis
First-time buyer stamp duty relief: before and after April 2025
When the temporary thresholds ended, the number of English council areas where a first-time buyer paid £0 on the typical home fell from 228 to 145.
19 July 2026
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market-analysis
Where first-time buyers pay no stamp duty in England (2026)
In 145 of England's 295 councils a first-time buyer at the local median pays nothing — but in every London borough, the relief runs out.
18 July 2026
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market-analysis
Cheap to Buy, Dear to Run: Metro-Borough Council Tax 2026
In 29 of England's 36 metropolitan boroughs, Band D council tax now tops 1% of a typical home's price — and Gateshead's bill beats Trafford's on a house worth £205,000 less.
14 July 2026
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market-analysis
Cheap to buy, dear to run: England's council tax burden gap 2026
In some English unitary authorities the council tax on a typical home tops 1.8% of its price; in others it is barely a third of that.
14 July 2026
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market-analysis
London Borough Monthly Cost: Mortgage vs Council Tax 2026
Council tax swings 2.5x across the capital, but it is under 11% of the monthly cost of a median home in every borough — the mortgage sets the bill.
2 July 2026
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market-analysis
London council tax vs house prices: a borough inversion (2026)
Kensington & Chelsea homes cost three times a Barking home — yet the headline council tax is lower. All 33 boroughs, ranked.
2 July 2026
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market-analysis
Price per square foot: 19 UK cities ranked for 2026
The cost of space itself, ranked across 19 UK cities using Land Registry sale prices and verified EPC floor areas.
27 June 2026
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market-analysis
Greenest UK housing stock by city: 13 cities ranked, 2026
Newcastle and Newport top the table, Birmingham trails — and the reason is almost entirely the age of the bricks.
25 June 2026
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market-analysis
The cheapest way into a UK city centre: flat prices in 2026
A central flat costs £170,000 in Leeds but £530,000 in inner London — here is the 2026 price ladder for five major city centres.
21 June 2026
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market-analysis
The most expensive postcodes in England and Wales (2026)
One central London district recorded a £2.45m median sale last year — yet pays less council tax than a £900,000 house in Surrey.
21 June 2026
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market-analysis
City-centre flats hold greener EPC ratings than houses, 2026
Across five major English cities, flats are far more likely to hold an EPC of C or above than the wider housing stock — a structural quirk of when they were built.
20 June 2026
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market-analysis
Which UK cities are most new-build heavy? 2024 share by city
Salford led the country with 32.7% of 2024 sales being new builds — more than triple the UK average. Full city-by-city ranking from Land Registry data.
22 May 2026
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market-analysis
Do new-builds lose value? 253,000 UK repeat sales, 2010-2025
Quarter-million-pair Land Registry analysis controlling for the local HPI — the depreciation story is largely a flats story.
21 May 2026
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market-analysis
Most expensive London postcodes in 2025: where the £1M+ market clusters
Thirteen postcode districts captured 45% of London's £1M+ trading cash in 2025. The full ranking, with medians, mix, and £/sqft.
20 May 2026
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market-analysis
UK 'just-under' pricing patterns at SDLT thresholds: 2025 findings
Empirical Land Registry analysis: when buyers price below a slab, they pick the round -£5,000 notch, not £xx9,950.
20 May 2026