Property in the priciest area of England and Wales cost a huge 25 times as much as in the cheapest spot, according to a new interactive map from the Office for National Statistics.
It shows that one square metre of floor space, an area about the size of a red telephone box, costs £19,439 in the salubrious London borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
However, in the valley town of Blaenau Gwent, South Wales, the same amount of space costs just £777.
Use the interactive map below to see how much a square metre of property costs in your local area and how it compares:
The figures show the average cost of property sold in England and Wales last year was £2,395 per square metre. This would have nudged up slightly so far in 2017.
It means homes in Kensington and Chelsea cost more than eight times the average, while in Blaenau Gwent, it costs less than a third.
Only one of the top 20 most expensive local authority areas are outside London, with Kensington and Chelsea, the City of London, Westminster and Camden topping the list.
Barking and Dagenham was the least expensive London borough, where homes cost £3,994 per square metre.
Elmbridge in Surrey is the costliest area outside of the capital, while York was the most expensive area in the North.
South Wales and Lancashire are the cheapest places to buy property. In Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Burnley and Hyndburn, homes cost less than £1,000 per square metre.
Kensington: Property by square metre is the most expensive in England and Wales at nearly £20k
Russell Quirk, of online state agent eMoov, said: ‘The disparity in price between each end of the market is quite astounding with a difference of over £18,000 per a square metre highlighting how diverse the market across England and Wales really is.
‘It is no surprise that an over-inflated London market leads the way in terms of highest price, despite a slowdown in price growth in recent times.
‘£2,305 a square metre is a high price to pay to get on the ladder, but this research also shows that across England and Wales there are many far more affordable options.
‘It is the affordability that has seen many pockets of the nation’s property market remain buoyant despite uncertainty slowing growth in other areas such as London.’
Blaenau Gwent: The town in South Wales has the cheapest property by square metre
Shaun Church, director at mortgage broker Private Finance, adds: ‘The disparity between regional house prices is phenomenal and the gap continues to grow, with clear evidence of a North-South divide.
‘London, as you might expect, has seen the largest increase, with an extraordinary 98 per cent rise in house price per square metre in the twelve years to 2016.
‘Price per square metre in the South East has grown at almost half that rate, but still outpaced price growth in the North East at a rate of more than two to one.’
Meanwhile, the ONS data also found new build flats in England and Wales are 18 per cent bigger in the last three years, while new houses have remained broadly the same size.
The average house sold in England and Wales in 2016 had a floor area of 104 metres squared – that’s about two-fifths the size of a tennis court, or 70 times smaller than the football pitch at Wembley.
Flats averaged 49 metres squared, excluding bathrooms, corridors, hallways and landings – that’s just over four times bigger than a typical car-parking space.
Comparison: Homes in England and Wales are a little smaller than the EU average – and far smaller than those in the US
Taking flats and houses together, the average size of properties sold in England and Wales in 2016 was 90 metres squared – a little smaller than the EU average, and nearly a third smaller than new homes in the US.
In the last three years, new flats in England and Wales have increased in size by 8.5 metres squared.
The ONS says this could be because there is a higher proportion of maisonettes – flats with more than one storey, which tend to be larger too – in the housing market.
The ONS has also developed a tool to show how much an extension could add to a property’s value.
Extending has become more popular in recent years thanks to a lack of supply on estate agents books.
You can try the tool here:
The value of an extension will depend on many things that the ONS hasn’t listed, such as the quality of construction, what type of room it is, and the exact location of the property within your local authority.
The calculator uses average values for houses across local authority areas.
Yesterday, research from estate agents Savills shows that four in five households are priced out of buying a bog standard newly-built home in London and the South East because house prices are so high.
It claims that to be ‘affordable’ even to just 40 per cent of buyers a new-build property would have to cost £250,000 or less.
But it warned that ‘the average new home in the south of England is not a mass-market product’ and they are largely priced at similar levels to existing homes.
In London the average house price is £435,000, while further out of the capital prices average around £290,000.
The Savills report said: ‘Across much of the country, housing supply is almost meeting demand. In places with less stretched housing affordability, there was a shortfall of only 5,000 new homes.
‘But in places where demand is high and affordability is stretched, there was a shortfall of 104,000 homes.’
This is pushing the price of land in London and its surrounding areas up and consequently, new home prices are spiralling out of reach of the vast majority of ordinary families.