How to research a neighbourhood before you move
People research the house for weeks and the area for an afternoon, then spend the next ten years living in the area. It deserves the same method.
Work at street level, not town level
Averages for a town hide enormous variation. Two streets a few hundred metres apart can differ in sold prices, housing type, crime mix and school access. Postcode district data is a good starting frame, but the decision should be made street by street.
The data worth pulling
| Question | Public source |
|---|---|
| What do homes here actually sell for? | HM Land Registry price paid and the house price index |
| What gets reported to the police? | Monthly street level crime data |
| Which schools serve it and how are they rated? | Get Information About Schools and Ofsted |
| Is it at risk of flooding? | Environment Agency flood risk data |
| What is being built nearby? | Local authority planning applications |
| Who lives here? | ONS census area profiles |
| How connected is it? | Station, stop and route data |
Read the trend, not the snapshot
One month of crime figures or one year of sale prices tells you almost nothing. Look at twelve months of crime by category, and five to ten years of sales for the street. Areas move, and direction is more useful than position.
Visit deliberately, at least twice
- 1A weekday morning, to see the school run, parking pressure and the commute.
- 2A Friday or Saturday evening, to hear the noise and see the night time character.
- 3Walk the route from the front door to the station, the shop and the school, and time it yourself.
- 4Look at the neighbouring properties, not just the one for sale. Maintained gardens and cared for frontages tell you a lot.
The things people forget
- Parking. Permit zones, driveway access and how full the street is at 8pm.
- Bin collection and where the bins live on collection day.
- Mobile signal in the actual rooms you will use, and available broadband speeds at the address.
- Pending planning applications on adjoining land.
- Whether the road is a through route at rush hour.
None of this is expensive. It is just a couple of evenings of reading and two visits, weighed against a decision that usually lasts years.
Check this for a real address
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