This is just how misleading the figures are for London’s “average” house price
Ever wondered why you can't actually find a decent property in London at the city's average house price – which we're often told is £550,000?
Research released today suggests that figure is actually quite misleading: less than half of London's property is at this price – and even less in prime central London locations, Emoov research shows.
The key outliers were Kensington and Chelsea, where only six per cent of the properties are on the market at the average price of a London home. Westminster was a close second, with seven per cent, while Hammersmith and Fulham was third with 14 per cent.
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A further 13 of the capital's boroughs had 50 per cent or less of the total housing stock listed at the average house price.
Those looking for somewhere to buy at less than half a million need to look further afield: Barking & Dagenham has the most options – 97 per cent of properties in this borough are on sale for less than £500,000, followed by Bexley (91 per cent) and Havering (84 per cent).
Russell Quirk, chief executive of Emoov, said: "It's no surprise to anyone that the majority of London is unobtainable to many from a property point of view.
"However, this research highlights just how out of reach the capital actually is for UK home buyers, even for those with a sizable budget of £550,000.
"For many the average house price is a benchmark, a mile stone, on just what they need to have in the bank to live in a certain area. But this average price masks the true cost of living in the capital."