Price per square foot or per square metre? Both, and how to convert

British property lives in two unit systems at once. Listings and agents talk in square feet, because the numbers are bigger and the habit is old. The measured record is metric: every Energy Performance Certificate states its floor area in square metres, and so does every dataset built on them, including this one. Neither unit is wrong. You just need to move between them without losing the plot, and one number does it.

Benchmarks in both units

From the 12 months of HM Land Registry sold prices to June 2026, medians matched to EPC floor areas:

• England & Wales: £3,380/m², about £314/sq ft
• London: £6,590/m², about £612/sq ft
• North East: £2,000/m², about £186/sq ft
• W8, Kensington: £15,400/m², about £1,431/sq ft
• TS1, Middlesbrough: £960/m², about £89/sq ft

Every figure on RealScout switches between the two with the m²/ft² toggle on the page, converted from the same underlying number, so you never need to do the arithmetic unless a listing forces it on you.

Where conversions go wrong

Three traps account for most unit confusion in listings. First, the seductive size of square-foot numbers: “750 sq ft” sounds generous and is 70 m², an ordinary two-bed flat. Second, mixed sources: a brochure’s square footage often comes from a marketing floorplan measured to different rules than the EPC (floorplans love including every alcove; the EPC excludes garages and low ceilings), so check which document a number came from before dividing by it. Third, rounding both the price and the area and then comparing to the pound: a converted figure inherits the roughness of its inputs, which is one reason this site publishes to three significant figures and no more.

Which should you think in?

Whichever you can hold benchmarks in. The practical argument for metres: the measured data is metric, so there is one conversion fewer between you and the record. The practical argument for feet: most agents will quote you feet, and negotiation is easier when you are not translating live. The wrong answer is switching between them mid-comparison. Pick one, set the toggle, and read every area the same way: M1, central Manchester at £3,600/m² and BS1, central Bristol at £4,870/m² tell the same story as £334 and £452 per square foot, provided you do not compare a metre figure to a foot figure and conclude Bristol is thirteen times dearer.

Look up any area in either unit, or start with what counts as a good price per square metre. All figures: June 2026 dataset, rebuilt monthly.