How to compare two areas before you move, using only the sold-price record

Most area comparisons are vibes with a budget attached. That is not a criticism, schools, friends and the feel of a high street should carry weight, but the money half of the decision has a public record, and reading it properly takes ten minutes. The rules that keep the comparison honest are the same ones that keep any statistic honest: same measure, same window, same kind of stock.

Step 1: compare per square metre, not per home

Headline prices compare the homes that happened to sell, and different areas sell different homes. BR1, Bromley shows a median sold price of £475,000 against £395,000 in E16, Canning Town, 20% apart. Per square metre they nearly swap: £5,530 against £5,980, with E16 the dearer. Bromley sells houses, Canning Town sells flats, and only the division by floor area lets you see past that.

Step 2: put the two side by side, same window

The head-to-head page for any two districts puts both on identical measures over their stated windows: median £/m² with its matched-sale count, the middle 60% band, the by-type split and a ten-year sparkline each. The matched-sale counts matter more than they look: a median over 454 sales (BR1) and one over 307 (E16) are both solid; a median over 40 deserves softer conclusions, and thin areas say so on their pages.

Step 3: match the stock to your actual purchase

If you are buying a flat, compare the two areas’ leasehold figures; a house, freehold. Blended medians smuggle each area’s stock mix into the comparison, and the mix can dominate the result. The by-type table on each comparison does the same job at the detached/semi/terraced/flat level: comparing what a terraced metre costs in each area is usually the question a mover is actually asking.

Step 4: read the decade, in real terms

Two areas at similar prices today can be on very different paths. LS6, Meanwood grew 6.1% a year in cash over the ten years to June 2026, 2.6% after inflation. E14 drifted at -0.1% cash, -3.4% real, a decade in which Isle of Dogs flats quietly got a third cheaper in today’s money. Neither trend is a forecast, prices do not owe their past anything, but paying a full price in an area with a falling real trend is a different bet from paying it in a rising one, and you should at least know which bet you are placing.

Step 5: sanity-check what the money buys

Divide your budget by each area’s median £/m² to see space directly. £450,000 is about 81 m² at BR1’s median and 75 m² at E16’s; the same money in DE1, Derby is about 199 m². That last comparison is unfair in every way that matters to a Londoner, different jobs, different life, which is exactly why the arithmetic is worth doing: it makes the real trade-offs, commute against square metres against the streets you love, explicit rather than felt.

Pick your two areas on the comparison page, every district pairs with every other, or start from the league tables if you are still choosing a shortlist. Figures: HM Land Registry sold prices matched to EPC floor areas, June 2026 dataset.