Are you contemplating moving home in Harpenden, St Albans or the surrounding villages during the next 9 months?
You may be a landlord wondering whether you should grow your portfolio or sell off a few properties? Or perhaps you’re a first-time buyer considering if now is the best time to move?
Understanding whether the current property market favours buyers or sellers is key to making the right call. If you follow our regular property market updates, you will know one of the most dependable ways to assess the property market is by observing the percentage of homes marked as “Sold STC” or “Under Offer” compared to the total number of properties on the market.
Let us show that in practice.
If there are 600 properties on the market in a town or city, with 400 of those properties for sale and 200 are under offer / sold stc that gives us a sales percentage of 33%. It is this percentage that gives a good indication of the local property market temperature and who holds the upper hand, i.e., buyers or sellers (or somewhere in between).
This percentage figure acts as a barometer for market conditions and can be analysed using this industry recognised table:
- Extreme Buyers’ Market (0%-20%)
- Buyers’ Market (21%-29%)
- Balanced Market (30%-40%)
- Sellers’ Market (41%-49%)
- Hot Sellers’ Market (50%-59%)
- Extreme Sellers’ Market (60%+)
How Do Harpenden & St Albans Compare?
Examining historical data from The Advisory’s website, which has tracked this metric for many years, reveals some key trends for Q1 for the last four years (and for comparison, all the quarters in 2025.
So, what does a 53% “Sold STC to total stock” ratio mean for Harpenden right now?
It places the local Harpenden market at the lower end of a hot sellers’ market.
And St Albans.
For interest, if we break down the Q1 2026 figure by individual St Albans postcodes, it actually tells an even more interesting story …
- AL1 – 46%
- AL2 – 42%
- AL3 – 49%
- AL4 – 50%
Look at the difference between the postcodes!
So, what does a 47% “Sold STC to total stock” ratio mean for St Albans right now?
It places the local St Albans market at the middle to upper end of a sellers’ market.
For Sellers
Although we are in a sellers’ market, patience, presentation and accurate pricing still matter. Simply listing your property at a silly price and hoping for the best will not cut it.
The homes that achieve a sale are those that enter the market with the right price from day one, have high-quality photography, floor plans, virtual/video tours, and marketing that stretches both online and old school offline.
Overpricing is the fastest way to stall/stop your home move. Of the UK homes that do end up selling, those homes that don’t get their asking price reduced (i.e., realistically priced from day 1) are 135% more likely to get a sale agreed on them (compared to those homes that get a price reduction). Also, they will take a third of the time to achieve a sale and are half as likely for that sale to fall through.
To add more weight behind those statistics, if a home hasn’t sold by the 12th week (because it is overpriced), it only has a 14.5% chance of selling.
Finally, if a home has a sale agreed on it within 25 days of it coming onto the market (i.e., it’s realistically priced), it has a 19 out of 20 chance (94%) of reaching exchange & completion (i.e., the homeowner moves). Wait until 100 days to agree a sale and the chances of getting that sale agreed to exchange & completion drops to 11 out of 20 (56%).
Getting the price right at launch is critical. Remember, 70.32% of the Harpenden homes (and 56.28% of St Albans homes) that have left Harpenden estate agents books since the start of 2026 have the owners exchanged and completed (i.e., sold and moved) … the remaining withdrew off the market, unsold and not moving to their forever home.
For Buyers
The pace of the market has eased compared to the madness of 2021 and 2022. That gives you breathing space to assess, compare, and negotiate a good deal. However, do not mistake calmer for easy. The best homes are still drawing strong interest and hesitation can cost you.
If you want to stand out, be prepared. A mortgage agreement in principle is no longer a nice to have, it is expected. It signals seriousness and gives sellers reassurance. Also, be willing to look slightly outside the obvious hotspots. Some of the best value in Harpenden and St Albans is sitting just beyond where everyone else is searching.
Final Thoughts on the Property Market
There is a quiet shift happening. Inflation is edging up again, interest rates are unlikely to fall dramatically in the short term, and the wider economic backdrop remains a little fragile. Yet the property market in Harpenden and St Albans is holding steady.
That makes pricing more important than ever. Get it right, and you give yourself a genuine chance. Get it wrong, and the market will quietly move on without you. Yes, you may not achieve the peak prices seen a few years ago. But equally, the home you are buying next will reflect that same reality.
If you are thinking of moving in the next nine months, or simply weighing up your options, let’s have a conversation. And if you are staying put, we would still love to hear your view on where the market goes next.