The average room based on its size is worth £57,065 – double the average UK annual salary.

This is just one of the nuggets revealed in a new tool developed by the ONS, which shows the price per square metre of properties drilled down by local areas, based on its house price index at the end of last year.

Between 2004 and 2016 the price per habitable room in England and Wales rose by around 45% – but with enormous geographical differences.

Homes in the most expensive area of England and Wales in Kensington & Chelsea cost £19,439 per sq metre on average, meaning that a typical fridge occupies almost £20,000 of space.

That space cost 25 times more than the cheapest area at £777 per sq metre in Blaenau Gwent.

In 2016 the average cost of property sold across England and Wales worked out to £2,395 per sq metre.

The average house sold in England and Wales in 2016 had a floor area of 104 sq metre, about two-fifths the size of a tennis court, or 70 times smaller than the football pitch at Wembley.

Flats averaged 49 sq metres, about 527 sq feet, just over four times bigger than a typical car-parking space.

The research also addressed the regular gripes about new homes shrinking, claiming new flats in England and Wales have got 18% bigger in the past three years, although new houses have remained around the same size.

https://visual.ons.gov.uk/house-prices-how-much-does-one-square-metre-cost-in-your-area/#EWexplorer