Dacorum's average home hit £459,235 in July, up 3.0% in a year and joint third in Hertfordshire. A weak July 2025 flatters it: prices barely moved all summer.
The average home in Dacorum sold for £459,235 in July 2026. That is £13,361 more than a year earlier, a rise of 3.0%.
HM Land Registry published the figures on Wednesday. A month ago the borough’s annual rise was 1.8%, eighth of Hertfordshire’s ten districts. It is now joint third (HM Land Registry, UK House Price Index).
That sounds like a surge. It mostly is not, and the reason is worth knowing before anyone reprices a house on it.
Why the annual figure jumped
Between June and July 2026 the Dacorum average moved by just 0.2%, or £1,049. Nothing much happened this summer.
What changed is the month being compared against. In July 2025 Dacorum prices fell 1.2% in a single month, to £445,874. A year on, the index is measuring from that low point, so the annual change looks stronger than the market has actually been.
The shape of the year is clearer on a chart:
- July 2025: £445,874, the low point the new figure is measured from
- November 2025: £466,563, the highest Dacorum average on record
- April 2026: £449,133, the bottom of the winter dip
- May to July 2026: £458,451, £458,186 and £459,235, a plateau
July is still £7,328 below the November record, a gap of 1.6%. The recovery since April has stalled rather than finished.
Our June figure has been revised
On 20 August we reported a June average of £459,438, up 1.8%. The Land Registry has since revised June down to £458,186, up 1.5%. The difference is £1,252.
This happens every month. The index keeps adding completed sales after it publishes, so the latest month is always provisional. July’s figure will move too.
What rose, by property type
| Property type | Average price | Change in pounds | 12-month change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | £933,699 | +£27,651 | +3.1% |
| Semi-detached | £554,562 | +£21,434 | +4.0% |
| Terraced | £425,934 | +£16,314 | +4.0% |
| Flat or maisonette | £263,232 | +£1,096 | +0.4% |
| First-time buyer | £370,896 | +£10,884 | +3.0% |
Semis and terraces led again, both up 4.0%. Detached homes caught up to 3.1%, from the 0.6% we reported for June, which is the same base effect at work.
Flats are the exception. The average Dacorum flat is worth £1,096 more than a year ago, a rise of 0.4%. Every property type is still below its own November 2025 peak.
Where Dacorum sits in Hertfordshire
| District | Average price | 12-month change |
|---|---|---|
| North Hertfordshire | £418,857 | +5.3% |
| East Hertfordshire | £457,417 | +3.7% |
| Welwyn Hatfield | £448,681 | +3.0% |
| Dacorum | £459,235 | +3.0% |
| Broxbourne | £411,689 | +2.5% |
| St Albans | £646,781 | +2.3% |
| Three Rivers | £590,816 | +2.3% |
| Stevenage | £316,210 | +1.8% |
| Hertsmere | £548,704 | +1.3% |
| Watford | £404,299 | -0.7% |
Hertfordshire as a whole rose 2.7%, to £469,474. In June, on the figures published then, Dacorum was growing at about half the county’s rate. In July it is slightly ahead.
Dacorum is also back to being the fourth most expensive district in Hertfordshire. East Hertfordshire overtook it in June by £37 on the revised figures. In July Dacorum is £1,818 ahead again. Only St Albans, Three Rivers and Hertsmere cost more.
Against the rest of England
The wider benchmarks from the same release:
- England: £293,479, up 1.1%, a new record
- United Kingdom: £272,611, up 1.4%
- East of England: £337,518, up 0.5%
Dacorum’s 3.0% ranks joint 93rd of England’s 295 local authority districts, up from 189th in last month’s release. Its move up the table is the same base effect again, not a change of pace.
What it means for you
- If you are selling a semi or a terrace, the headline rise is real on paper, but prices have been flat since May. Price against recent sales nearby, not against the 4.0% figure.
- If you bought in autumn 2025, the Dacorum average is still £7,328 below November’s peak. On these averages, the borough has not yet regained that level.
- If you are selling a flat, the market has barely moved in a year. At 0.4%, flats are well behind every other property type.
- If you are a first-time buyer, the typical first purchase in Dacorum now costs £370,896, up £10,884 in a year.
One caveat applies to every figure here. The UK House Price Index is a mean average, not a median. A few very expensive sales pull the Dacorum number up, and the borough runs from Hemel Hempstead flats to country houses around Little Gaddesden. It is not a valuation of any single home.
For what each town costs and how the commute prices into it, see our pages on Hemel Hempstead house prices and train times to London. New housing schemes are tracked on our planning news page.
Sources
- HM Land Registry, UK House Price Index full file for July 2026, published 16 September 2026, for every average, monthly and annual change, property type, first-time buyer figure, record month and district ranking in this report.
- HM Land Registry UKHPI open data for Dacorum, July 2026, used to check the borough figures.
- HM Land Registry, UK House Price Index full file for June 2026, for the June figure as first published and the revision to it.
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