This article provides a postcode-level analysis of the London housing market in Q2 2025, including maps of price changes and sales volumes across the city. While the South East appears to have led on price growth, the picture looks different when adjusted for the sharp fall in activity — with Putney (SW6), Streatham (SW16), and Chingford (E4) showing the most resilience in an otherwise slowing market.

South East London Outperforms on Price Growth

The first map shows London price changes per square metre between Q2 2024 and Q2 2025. The South East clearly stands out, with several postcodes showing solid year-on-year increases despite the wider slowdown.

Among the top 10 fastest-growing postcodes, six are in the South East.

Slower Areas Spread Across the City

The bottom 10 postcodes for price performance present a mixed picture, scattered across the capital and across various price brackets. This underlines how uneven the slowdown has become — no single area is immune.

Transaction Volumes Reveal a City-Wide Freeze

When we turn to sales volumes by postcode, the slowdown becomes even more visible. The map below shows a large number of postcodes with fewer than 40 transactions in Q2 2025.

While the South East leads in price growth, the South West shows stronger liquidity, with more postcodes maintaining moderate levels of activity.

Liquidity vs. Price Growth: Finding True Resilience

To make sense of the falling volumes and uneven price movements, I ranked all postcodes by the number of transactions to identify the 10 most active areas. Even in these markets, sales volumes dropped 50–70% year-on-year, which makes positive price growth difficult to read as true market strength.

Still, a few postcodes stand out for showing relative resilience despite the broader slowdown:
• Putney (SW6): +10% price growth, sales down ~50%
• Streatham (SW16): +7% price growth, sales down ~55%
• Chingford (E4): +5% price growth, sales down ~53%

These areas managed to hold prices steady while experiencing less severe declines in activity than most of the city. This suggests that well-connected, mid-market suburbs may be better positioned to weather London’s housing slowdown.

Transaction Volumes Hit Record Low

• Just 5,200 sales were recorded in Q2 2025 — an unprecedented figure.

• This represents a 65% drop compared to Q2 2024 and a 63% decline from Q1 2025

• Unless there are unusual delays or errors in Land Registry reporting, this marks the one of the weakest quarters for London property transactions in history

  

Price Pressures at Both Ends of the Market

• The overall London median price per square metre fell by 0.7% compared to Q2 2024

• The affordable segment began to soften after strong gains in Q1 2025. The bottom quartile of prices per square meter (threshold for the 25% cheapest homes) slipped 0.5% against Q2 2024

• The top quartile of prices per square meter (threshold for the 25% most expensive homes) continued to decline, down 2.4%

  

Median Prices Per Square Meter: Slight Overall Decline

• Large homes (100+ sqm) dropped 6.3%, while small homes (under 50 sqm) fell 4.0% from Q2 2024

• In contrast, mid-sized homes (50–100 sqm, around half of all sales) were more resilient, with prices rising 1.6%

  

Property Type Breakdown

• Terraced houses were the only property type to see moderate growth, with the median price per square meter rising 1.1% from Q2 2024. These make up about 30% of sales, with a typical size of 95 sqm

• Flats, which dominate the market at 60% of sales, saw prices fall 1.4%. The median flat sold in Q2 2025 was 61 sqm in size

  

Here, we go further with key stats and maps to help you navigate the market, including:

• Sales activity by postcode

• Price per square metre (psm) across London

• The most affordable and most expensive postcodes

Like in part 1, the analysis focuses on secondary (resale) properties only. There are relatively few new developments sold these days, and as a result new-build sales tend skew the data due to their irregularity – so we've excluded them to get a clearer view of the underlying market.

1. Where Are Buyers Most Active?

Our first map shows sales activity across London. High sales volumes are typically good news for buyers — it means more listings, more movement, and more room to negotiate. For sellers it is a good sign of demand and liquidity, although it might mean tougher price competition.

Six extremely active postcodes stood out with over 200 sales in Q1 2025:

• East London:

  • E14 (Canary Wharf)

  • E17 (Walthamstow)

• South West London:

  • SW11 (Battersea)

  • SW16 (Streatham)

  • SW18 (Wandsworth)

  • SW19 (Wimbledon)

Price growth in these areas varied between -5% and +5% year-on-year (see part 1 for more details).

2. What Area Can I Afford?

The next map shows median property prices per square metre in Q1 2025. London's overall median stands at £7,400 psm, so you can easily see how your area compares.

This metric helps cut through the noise of absolute property prices, especially when comparing homes of different sizes.

3. The Most Affordable Postcodes

Below are the 10 most affordable postcodes in London. Prices here range from £4,900 to £5,600 psm, with overall property prices typically around £400,000—well below the city median.

Consistent with our earlier findings, these areas have mostly seen positive price growth, suggesting strong underlying demand at the affordable end of the market.

4. The Most Expensive Postcodes

At the other end of the scale, the 10 most expensive postcodes have median prices ranging from £11,000 to £18,000 psm, with property prices between £600k and £1.2m.

As expected, price movements in these areas have mostly been negative, reflecting softening demand at the top of the market.

However, there are two notable exceptions:

• W8 (Kensington) saw a surprising 14% increase

• SW1 (Westminster / Belgravia) recorded an 8% rise

These two areas are worth keeping an eye on. Given the overall price declines across high-end London, this could just be a noisy quarter—or it might be an early sign that the top end of the market is starting to stabilise.

· 📈 London’s median price per square metre rose by just 1% in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024

· 🏡 Smaller, more affordable homes did much better — median price per square meter for properties under 50 sqm was up 9%

· 🏠 Meanwhile, larger and more expensive homes saw prices fall, with median price for properties over 100 sqm dropping 11%

Now for the Good Stuff — What’s Happening by Postcode?

This is where things really start to matter if you're buying or selling. While city-wide averages are useful, understanding what’s going on in specific areas gives you a real edge. This is part one of the analysis, focused on changes in price per square metre and the top and bottom performing postcodes. In part two, I’ll explore more maps covering price levels, number of transactions, and other key trends.

Before jumping into the data, a quick note on my approach: I don’t pretend to know exactly where prices are going — no one does. But I strongly believe that understanding how the market is behaving right now can make a big difference when it comes to negotiating, whether that's with agents, sellers, or lenders.

Also, I’ve excluded new-build developments from this analysis. There just aren’t many being sold at the moment, and when they do appear, they tend to distort the data — often creating awkward jumps that muddle the bigger picture.

Price Per Square Metre: Year-on-Year Change by Postcode

The map below shows how prices per square metre changed between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025, broken down by postcode.

As expected, some of the more affordable parts of East London are seeing strong growth, with a few postcodes up more than 10% year-on-year.

In contrast, much of West London is experiencing price declines. But one outlier stands out: W8 (Kensington). Despite already having some of the highest prices in London, W8 saw a 10%+ rise. It’s hard to pinpoint why, but one factor could be the sharp drop in sales volumes — from 78 in Q1 2024 to just 33 in Q1 2025. In expensive areas like this, a smaller number of high-value sales can easily skew the data.

📊 Top & Bottom 10 Postcodes – Price Change YoY (%)

I always find it helpful to zoom in on the top and bottom 10 postcodes, so I’ve pulled them out into two simple bar charts below.

· 🥇 Top Performer: Woolwich (SE18) leads the pack with a 24% price increase

· 💡 Most top-performing postcodes were below the London median of £7,400 per sqm, with average home prices in the £400k–£500k range

On the flip side:

· 📉 Biggest Decliner: Bloomsbury (WC1) saw a 24% drop

· 🔻 Most of the worst-performing areas were well above the London average in price, reinforcing the pressure at the top of the market.

Final Takeaway

I’m not in the business of making bold predictions — but the trend is hard to miss. More affordable areas are attracting strong demand, while higher-priced postcodes are facing headwinds.

Stay tuned for part two, where I’ll break down the data further by transaction volumes, price brackets, and sales activity.

Got a question about your local area? Or want to see your postcode featured next time? Drop me a message — I’d love to hear from you.

• Number of property transactions in London Q1 2025 was down 22% compared to Q1 2024—the lowest quarterly total in three years

• The median London property price remained broadly flat year-on-year.

• Flats were the only property type to record positive growth in price per square metre (psm), rising 2% compared to Q1 2024.

• Homes under 50 sqm saw the strongest median price psm growth (+9%), while large homes over 100 sqm declined by 11%.

The chart below highlights the ongoing decline in transaction volumes. While all price segments experienced a reduction in Q1 2025 , properties priced over £1 million were hit hardest, with a 67% drop in activity.

In Q1 2025, the median price per square meter in London was £7,400—just 1% higher than in Q1 2024. But the market wasn’t evenly balanced:

• The lower quartile threshold (marking the 25% most affordable homes) rose 5% year-on-year to £6,000 per square meter.

• The upper quartile threshold (marking the 25% most expensive homes) fell 3%, down to £9,300 per square meter.

  

While these figures reflect London as a whole and don’t account for local differences or variations in property size, they illustrate a pattern that’s been building for some time: buyer appetite remains strongest at the more affordable end of the market, while demand at the top end has collapsed.

Looking at price changes by property size, this tilt toward affordability becomes even clearer:

• Small homes under 50 sqm—roughly 20% of all transactions—posted the highest median price growth, up 9% year-on-year. Despite having the highest psm values, their overall lower cost appears to be driving strong demand

• Medium-sized properties (50–100 sqm), which make up around 60% of sales, saw modest growth of 3%

• Large homes over 100 sqm experienced a sharp 11% fall in median price, even though their median psm value (£6,900) remains below the city-wide median of £7,400

  

  Finally, by property type, flats—the most affordable category—were the only group to see overall price growth (+2%) in Q1 2025.