Price per square foot: how to compare UK house prices fairly
Comparing house prices without floor area is comparing blind: a “bargain” three-bed can simply be a small three-bed. Price per square foot divides the price by the internal floor area, which puts a compact flat and a sprawling terrace on the same scale. It is how surveyors, developers and investors compare homes, it is easy to calculate yourself, and it is the single best correction for the fact that no two homes are the same size.
How to calculate it
- Find the internal floor area. The listing floorplan usually states it; if not, the home’s Energy Performance Certificate does, and EPCs are searchable by address on the government’s public register.
- Convert if needed. Floorplans often quote square metres. Multiply square metres by 10.76 to get square feet.
- Divide. Price divided by floor area. That single number is the home’s price per square foot.
The number on its own means nothing. Its value appears when you put it beside the same calculation for similar homes nearby: suddenly the “cheap” big house and the “expensive” small flat are on one scale, and you can see which one is actually asking more for space.
Compare like with like
- Stay local. Price per square foot moves street by street. A figure that is high for one postcode is normal for the next; there is no useful national benchmark.
- Stay within property type. Flats and houses run at different levels in the same area, and a period conversion and a new build can too. Compare flats with flats, terraces with terraces.
- Use sold and asking together. Sold prices per square foot are real transactions with a delay; asking prices per square foot are the live competition. The difference between the two is covered in asking price vs sold price.
What it cannot tell you
Floor area does not know about condition, gardens, parking, lease length, storage, light, or a layout that wastes half its space. Two homes at the same price per square foot can be a renovated house with a garden and a tired flat above a takeaway. The measure is the right starting point because it removes the biggest distortion, size, and leaves you arguing about the things that genuinely differ between homes. A home priced above its neighbours per square foot is not automatically overpriced; it owes you a reason, which is the subject of is this house overpriced?
Get the comparison on every home you consider
Perch runs the per square foot comparison on every listing in your daily briefing, alongside price cuts and new matches, so the homes asking the most for their space stand out straight away. It is free, and currently in early access for London.
Common questions
How do I calculate price per square foot?
Divide the price by the internal floor area in square feet. A home asking 500,000 pounds with 1,000 square feet of floor area is asking 500 pounds per square foot. If the floorplan gives square metres, multiply the square metres by 10.76 to get square feet first.
What is a good price per square foot?
There is no national answer: the same figure can be cheap on one street and expensive two miles away, and flats and houses run at different levels in the same postcode. The measure only means something against local comparisons of a similar property type, which is what Perch's price checker and area pages show.
Where do I find a home's floor area?
The floorplan on the listing usually states the total internal area, often in both square feet and square metres. If the listing has no floorplan, the home's Energy Performance Certificate records a total floor area, and EPCs are publicly searchable by address on the government's EPC register.
Why do estate agents not advertise price per square foot?
UK listings have traditionally led on bedroom counts, and a seller's agent has little incentive to publish a number that invites unflattering comparison. Bedroom counts are easy to game with partitions and box rooms; floor area is much harder to argue with, which is exactly why it is useful to buyers.
When is price per square foot misleading?
When the homes being compared differ in ways floor area cannot see: condition, outside space, lease length, parking, ceiling heights, or unusable layouts. It also gets less reliable when there are only a handful of comparable homes, or when a home's recorded floor area is wrong. Treat it as the best single scale, not a verdict.
Related: how much to offer on a house and area market pages.