The Hauscope Index · August 2026 edition
The Asking Gap
Every month we measure the distance between what sellers ask and what the evidence supports, across every postcode area with enough data to be worth publishing. We call that distance the Asking Gap.
The spread
Where you are buying matters far more than the market as a whole.
+7.2%
St Albans
a median £77,500 above the evidence
−3.8%
Swindon
a median £6,000 below the evidence
Nationally, most sellers price it about right
That number is small, and we are not going to dress it up. Half of all the homes buyers checked sit within about 1.2% of what the evidence supports. There is no nationwide overpricing epidemic in this data.
The story is the spread. A buyer in St Albans faces a typical asking price +7.2% above the evidence; a buyer in Swindon faces one 3.8% below it. Same month, same method, same country — a gap of 11.0 percentage points between them.
Every area, ranked
All 83 postcode areas with at least 30 properties checked in the last 90 days. “Spread” is the interquartile range in percentage points — how much areas vary internally.
| Area | Gap | Median £ | Spread | Homes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AL St Albans | +7.2% | £77,500 | 23.0 | 94 |
| SY Shrewsbury | +7.0% | £20,500 | 22.3 | 64 |
| TQ Torquay | +5.4% | £25,000 | 22.2 | 56 |
| RH Redhill | +5.3% | £30,000 | 24.4 | 91 |
| TN Tunbridge Wells | +5.2% | £22,000 | 21.1 | 106 |
| GL Gloucester | +4.9% | £21,000 | 16.1 | 87 |
| NW North West London | +4.8% | £24,000 | 13.8 | 73 |
| EN Enfield | +4.7% | £30,000 | 12.3 | 110 |
| WA Warrington | +3.9% | £15,500 | 22.3 | 60 |
| TA Taunton | +3.7% | £15,000 | 17.6 | 196 |
| ST Stoke-on-Trent | +3.6% | £9,500 | 10.2 | 50 |
| YO York | +3.5% | £11,500 | 13.3 | 78 |
| SL Slough | +3.4% | £22,500 | 17.4 | 38 |
| LL Llandudno | +3.3% | £9,000 | 19.0 | 87 |
| WF Wakefield | +3.2% | £7,000 | 12.0 | 48 |
| CO Colchester | +3.2% | £10,500 | 19.3 | 40 |
| BD Bradford | +3.2% | £9,000 | 11.1 | 30 |
| MK Milton Keynes | +3.0% | £14,000 | 15.5 | 87 |
| WV Wolverhampton | +2.9% | £7,500 | 14.5 | 36 |
| SS Southend-on-Sea | +2.9% | £14,000 | 15.8 | 35 |
| TW Twickenham | +2.7% | £15,000 | 12.5 | 166 |
| TR Truro | +2.6% | £9,000 | 10.8 | 52 |
| BA Bath | +2.6% | £10,000 | 18.9 | 51 |
| WN Wigan | +2.4% | £3,000 | 23.3 | 41 |
| DA Dartford | +2.3% | £10,000 | 14.9 | 215 |
| LN Lincoln | +2.3% | £9,000 | 22.8 | 38 |
| SE South East London | +2.0% | £7,500 | 13.0 | 164 |
| W West London | +2.0% | £14,500 | 19.1 | 160 |
| PE Peterborough | +2.0% | £6,000 | 10.3 | 90 |
| S Sheffield | +2.0% | £5,000 | 13.7 | 85 |
| SG Stevenage | +2.0% | £5,000 | 12.6 | 83 |
| BN Brighton | +1.8% | £9,000 | 12.4 | 176 |
| EX Exeter | +1.8% | £6,500 | 14.0 | 136 |
| HA Harrow | +1.8% | £12,000 | 9.8 | 84 |
| TS Cleveland | +1.8% | £2,000 | 15.4 | 77 |
| NP Newport | +1.5% | £4,000 | 9.2 | 30 |
| NE Newcastle upon Tyne | +1.4% | £3,000 | 14.0 | 152 |
| DL Darlington | +1.3% | £3,000 | 11.9 | 101 |
| PR Preston | +1.2% | £3,500 | 16.3 | 106 |
| RM Romford | +1.2% | £6,000 | 8.8 | 64 |
| UB Uxbridge | +1.2% | £10,000 | 13.0 | 35 |
| PL Plymouth | +1.1% | £3,500 | 24.5 | 68 |
| HP Hemel Hempstead | +1.1% | £5,500 | 11.4 | 56 |
| NG Nottingham | +1.0% | £2,000 | 16.0 | 199 |
| LE Leicester | +1.0% | £4,000 | 15.7 | 123 |
| KT Kingston upon Thames | +0.9% | £5,000 | 14.9 | 157 |
| NR Norwich | +0.9% | £2,500 | 15.6 | 124 |
| CH Chester | +0.9% | £2,000 | 12.6 | 78 |
| DN Doncaster | +0.9% | £2,000 | 12.4 | 66 |
| GU Guildford | +0.8% | £5,000 | 15.5 | 126 |
| N North London | +0.7% | £5,000 | 12.1 | 239 |
| RG Reading | +0.7% | £2,000 | 11.8 | 121 |
| SW South West London | +0.6% | £3,000 | 14.8 | 234 |
| SK Stockport | +0.6% | £2,000 | 12.8 | 165 |
| E East London | +0.6% | £2,500 | 14.5 | 150 |
| B Birmingham | +0.5% | £1,500 | 9.3 | 198 |
| BS Bristol | +0.4% | £1,500 | 10.5 | 230 |
| NN Northampton | +0.4% | £1,000 | 10.0 | 53 |
| SO Southampton | +0.3% | £1,000 | 7.7 | 207 |
| OX Oxford | +0.3% | £1,000 | 13.4 | 67 |
| DY Dudley | +0.1% | £1,000 | 18.8 | 42 |
| CB Cambridge | 0.0% | £0 | 12.1 | 111 |
| DE Derby | 0.0% | £0 | 12.8 | 101 |
| LS Leeds | 0.0% | £0 | 9.3 | 83 |
| SA Swansea | 0.0% | £0 | 22.9 | 43 |
| HU Hull | 0.0% | £0 | 12.4 | 36 |
| M Manchester | −0.2% | −£500 | 10.6 | 158 |
| BH Bournemouth | −0.3% | −£1,000 | 10.7 | 89 |
| L Liverpool | −0.4% | −£1,000 | 9.7 | 89 |
| CM Chelmsford | −0.4% | −£500 | 8.7 | 84 |
| CV Coventry | −0.5% | −£1,000 | 11.7 | 107 |
| CF Cardiff | −0.6% | −£1,000 | 11.6 | 135 |
| PO Portsmouth | −0.6% | −£2,000 | 12.7 | 106 |
| SM Sutton | −0.8% | −£4,000 | 9.7 | 56 |
| IP Ipswich | −0.9% | −£4,000 | 9.9 | 45 |
| WR Worcester | −1.0% | −£3,000 | 11.1 | 47 |
| OL Oldham | −1.1% | −£2,500 | 9.3 | 30 |
| CR Croydon | −1.2% | −£4,000 | 8.2 | 132 |
| BR Bromley | −1.5% | −£9,000 | 11.0 | 108 |
| WS Walsall | −1.5% | −£3,000 | 9.2 | 32 |
| ME Medway | −2.0% | −£6,000 | 10.3 | 72 |
| CA Carlisle | −2.0% | −£2,000 | 12.5 | 31 |
| SN Swindon | −3.8% | −£6,000 | 10.8 | 113 |
What this measures — and what it doesn’t
These are homes real buyers chose to check on Hauscope, not a random sample of the market. Buyers plausibly lean towards listings they already suspected were priced high, which would over-represent those homes and push the measured gap up. The true whole-market gap is likely smaller than the Index shows.
Fair value here is an evidence-based estimate built from comparable sold prices, local sold-price history and floor-area data. It is not a RICS surveyor valuation, and it is not a prediction of what a home will sell for.
The Index does not track what homes eventually sold for. A gap to asking price is not proof a home is overpriced — only that its asking price sits above the evidence we can see. England & Wales only: we hold no Scottish or Northern Irish sold-price data, so we publish nothing for those markets.
Read the full methodology, limitations and how we make money →