The average price of a home in Croydon is now more than £400,000, as a report by one property sales website suggests many potential buyers are being driven away from London’s pricier areas
The days of developers trying to sell one-bed “luxury apartment” starter homes in residential blocks for 300 grand or more may be over, as figures from housing website Zoopla published today show that London is the only region of the country where the price being paid by first-time buyers has gone down.
The overheated housing market continues to price thousands of people out of buying a home, especially in the south-east where house prices have been ridiculously over-valued since the last century.
According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, the routine 10% deposit required to buy a property in Croydon is now at least £40,000.
The average house price in Croydon is now £400,000, according to the ONS (July 2025, provisional), or £405,288 (Rightmove), or £418,250, going by Zoopla’s figures (last 12 months, ending September 2025).
Flats in Croydon average £275,000 to £279,000, terraced houses average between £434,000 and £437,000, while for a typical suburban semi in Croydon, buyers have been paying between £525,000 and £528,000.
The cost of a detached house in Croydon has now reached an average of £817,000.
First-time buyers provide much of the demand in the housing market, largely because local authorities and housing associations are failing to provide enough homes at social rents. The latest Zoopla report on FTBs suggests that those in the capital are searching for properties which are 21% cheaper than the local average – which in Croydon places the pricing benchmark at around £320,000.
“This comes in stark contrast to the rest of the country, where first-time buyers are searching for more expensive homes, thanks to improved mortgage availability which has boosted borrowing power by 20%,” according to a report in the estate agents’ friend, The Standard.
Property prices in Croydon remain lower than the regional average. The average first-time buyer home in London costs £420,600, according to Zoopla’s stats, compared to £229,000 across the UK. The average cost of all property types in London is £534,038.
The findings of the property sales website Zoopla merely confirm what has been an observable trend in the capital for at least two decades, as working-class families are forced further away from their city centre places of work because of the lack of (truly) affordable housing. In many inner London boroughs, this has seen the closure of primary schools, simply because there are not enough children living in the vicinty any longer.
Zoopla says that Stamp Duty has had a significant effect on house prices.
Stamp Duty Land Tax, or SDLT, is a tax due if you buy a property or land over a certain price in England and Northern Ireland.
Bargain sales: Zoopla reports that the first-time buyer market in London has stalled
You have to pay the tax when you buy a freehold property, buy a new or existing leasehold, buy a property through a shared ownership scheme or if you take on a mortgage or buy a share in a house.
The amount of stamp duty you owe depends on the cost of the property, whether it will be used for residential purposes, and whether you own any other property.
Since April, first-time buyers in parts of the capital are paying almost £12,000 more than previously, after Chancellor Rachel Reeves lowered the threshold for stamp duty from £425,000 to £300,000 for this group.
And according to Zoopla, “Whereas first-time buyers in other parts of the country tend to look at three-bedroom houses, Londoners primarily target one- and two-bedroom flats.” Though that’s hardly an Einsteinian discovery.
First-time buyers account for 39% of all property sales each year, and almost half (49%) of all new mortgages for property purchases.
In London, the pressures of affordability are causing house prices for this section of the market to slump.
“First-time buyers have had a 20% boost to affordability over the last six months,” according to Zoopla executive director Richard Donnell. “This is enabling them to look at buying higher value homes in the more affordable parts of the country, which is supporting faster house price growth across the board.
“In contrast, first-time buyers in London and southern England are looking for cheaper homes than a year ago, despite the extra borrowing capacity. The ending of stamp duty reliefs since April has added to the cost of buying a home for first-time buyers.”
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