UK's most expensive streets 2023: west London dominates with house prices 72 times national average

It now costs £20.35 million to buy a home on the country’s most expensive street, almost 72 times the £283,615 average cost of a home in rest of the UK.

But the eye-watering average prices seen on Grosvenor Square in Mayfair are still lower than prices achieved on previous year’s priciest streets, in a sign of the decline of super prime property this year.

The ultra exclusive Mayfair address knocked Phillimore Gardens in Kensington off the top spot in 2023 but it could not beat last year’s table-topping average of £23.8 million, Halifax data showed.

The most expensive street in 2021, Tite Street in Chelsea, claimed an even more staggering average price of £28.9 million. This was more than 105 times the national average, indicating the troubles the top of the market has faced this year.

Nonetheless, despite some hefty price cuts on mega mansions and prime penthouses, London streets still far outpriced the rest of the country with the capital’s elite streets still achieving prices £10 million or more higher than their closest regional competitors.

Only three streets outside central west London made the top 20. These were Avenue Road and Eyre Road in St John’s Wood, and Winnington Road in East Finchley.

Kim Kinnaird, Mortgages Director, Halifax said: “Purchasing a property on one of Britain’s most expensive streets comes with a colossal price tag and it’ll be no surprise that house prices in London continue to dominate, with the top ten priciest streets to buy a home all in the capital.

“But the gap between the most expensive streets is vast, depending on the region you live in, with the average house price for the priciest properties in London topping £20million, compared to around £1.3m in the North East.”

Because of the relatively low number of sales on each of these ultra exclusive streets, Halifax looked at the five-year average to calculate the most expensive. Only streets where there have been at least three transactions have been included.

The second largest square in London (after Lincoln’s Inn Fields) was also the capital’s second most expensive street last year. Its average sale price has dropped from £23.5 million in 2022, but the 2.5 hectare green space in Westminster’s Mayfair rose up the rankings regardless, to claim the top spot.

The square has been home to British aristocracy since the 1700s before becoming better known in the twentieth century as the US Embassy’s London location.

A young JFK lived on the square when his father was US ambassador to London, while Princess Diana’s stepmother, Raine Spencer, lived in a flat at number 47 with her first husband, Gerald Legge, the future 9th Earl of Dartmouth.

Their former home went on the market this year for a comparatively modest £8.5 million but the property was little more than a gutted shell, requiring an estimated £1.5 million to make it habitable.

Last year this pretty Notting Hill street – one of the longest in the postcode – was the fifth most expensive with an average price just shy of £15 million. A hefty price boost sent it shooting up to second place in 2023.

Built in the mid-Victorian era, the street went into decline in the early twentieth century before its current transformation into one of the most desirable roads in one of the most desirable postcodes in London.

It is now home to London’s first “super-prime residences to rent” at Knightsbridge Gardens where the largest apartments cost almost half a million pounds a year and are 18 times more expensive than the average London rental.

But Knightsbridge’s sales market is also the third priciest in London with the Candy Brothers’ notorious One Hyde Park development one of many super prime property options on the thoroughfare.

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani was reported to have been mulling the sale of a triplex penthouse in the scheme for about £220 million earlier this year.

The most expensive street of 2022 was demoted to fourth place this year after its average price dropped by about £4 million.

Leafy Phillimore Gardens in Kensington is lined with white stucco-fronted period homes and runs parallel to Holland Park.

Celebrities to have snapped up homes around Holland Park in recent years include the Beckhams, Simon Cowell and Robbie Williams.

Another fixture in the top ten is this Holland Park street of large Victorian villas. It is not a total idyll, however. Several homes are embroiled in ongoing planning battles between neighbours and several mega mansions sit shrouded in scaffolding.

A steady flow of workmen’s trucks is further indication of the extensive renovations being undertaken by the ultra wealthy residents of this west London millionaires’ row.

Weybridge in Surrey was home to the most expensive street outside the capital – East Road, where the average home costs just over £9 million.

In the South West, five of the region’s 10 most expensive streets were in Poole in Dorset with Lawrence Drive (£3.99 million) taking top spot.

Benar Headland in Pwllheli, the most expensive street in Wales, had an average price of £1.345 million.