London house prices are down 3.4 per cent — did any boroughs manage positive growth?

London house prices dropped by 3.4 per cent between March 2023 and 2024.

While property prices across England rose one per cent in the past year, according to the latest House Price Index from HM Land Registry, London continued to register declining prices.

The average price of a London house is now £499,663 — the first time it has dropped below half a million pounds since July 2021. As a series of markets within a market, the picture is somewhat different at London’s borough level.

Greenwich saw house price growth higher than the whole country’s average. Average house prices rose 2.4 per cent in the south east London borough, adding £10,678 to property values. The average house price in Greenwich is now £461,784, below the London average.

Ironically, Greenwich is the home of former prime minister Liz Truss and her one-time chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, whose disastrous mini-budget is seen as responsible for the interest rates rises that have added thousands of pounds onto Londoners’ mortgages.

Islington saw average house prices rise by 1.5 per cent, boosting property values by £9,863 to an average of £678,134. Southwark saw an uptick of 1.4 per cent, boosting property prices by £6,814 to an average of £491,508.

London’s cheapest area for homes is Barking and Dagenham, where house prices dropped 7.5 per cent to £315,275.

Newham, where house prices dipped 3.2 per cent year-on-year, now has an average price of £384,741, and the average house price in Croydon (down 3.8 per cent) is now £394,239.

They’re still far above the average house price in England, which currently sits at £299,000.

Central London areas with the most expensive properties saw the biggest drops. The City of London saw a 22 per cent drop that knocked £192,553 off average property prices, but the ONS noted that low transaction numbers in the area mean the data is not necessarily reflective of the market.

Hammersmith and Fulham saw property prices drop 21 per cent, taking £191,322 off property values to an average price of £720,149. Westminster saw a 20.9 per cent drop that knocked £240,072 off the average value, which now stands at £910,652.

Kensington in Chelsea saw a drop of 13.6 per cent, but with an average property price of £1,193,478 it’s still the most expensive place to buy property in the whole country.