London’s gaping wealth divide was laid bare today by official figures showing the average price of a semi-detached house in Kensington hit nearly £11 million for the first time last year.
The startling sum is 24 times as high as the average cost of a semi in Barking, and in Dagenham and Rainham.
In 25 London constituencies, the mean price of an existing semi was above £1 million, according to the Office for National Statistics. The highest was in Kensington at an astonishing £10,893,289 in 2022, the latest figures reveal.
In Chelsea and Fulham the figure was £5,366,731, Westminster North £5,133,980, Holborn and St Pancras £3,234,360 and Hampstead and Kilburn £2,882,460.
These figures contrast with the average cost of a semi in Dagenham and Rainham at £446,988, Barking £447,000, Erith and Thamesmead £460,257, East Ham £464,545, Bexleyheath and Crayford £484,695, and Hayes and Harlington £490,214.
Claire Harding, interim chief executive of the Centre for London think tank, said: “The gap between those on the property ladder and those for whom home ownership is impossible is now a chasm, leaving more and more Londoners renting, lacking security and exposed to poor quality homes.
“The fact is, we fail to build anywhere near enough new homes — and not just this year, but every year, for decades, which has led us to the situation we now find ourselves in as a city.”
She added: “The average cost of property in London is surging out of most people’s reach. Despite decades of rising prices, it always felt like there remained some parts of the city where buying a home was possible, but even these have gradually disappeared, leaving Londoners aspiring to home ownership afraid that their goal is unrealistic.”
The average cost of a semi was more than £1.5 million in Battersea, Hackney South and Shoreditch, Hammersmith, Hornsey and Wood Green, Islington North, Islington South and Finsbury, Putney, Tooting and Vauxhall.
The figure was above £1 million in Brentford and Isleworth, Camberwell and Peckham, Dulwich and West Norwood, Ealing Central and Acton, Finchley and Golders Green, Greenwich and Woolwich, Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Richmond Park, Streatham, Twickenham and Wimbledon.
While house prices may now be dropping, one four-bedroom semi in Brunswick Gardens, Kensington, has been on the market for £10,750,000. Even if they fall, the differential between the highest and lowest property costs may not change.
Within boroughs, there is also a huge gap in home prices, as some of the most costly properties in the capital are often just streets away from far cheaper flats.
The price differential between flats and maisonettes across London also varies hugely. The average price for such a home in the Cities of London and Westminster was just under £1.7 million, seven times the £233,779 in Dagenham and Rainham.
It was more than £1.5 million in Kensington, and above £1 million in Chelsea and Fulham and in Westminster North.
