Colchester house prices

Colchester house prices are built from 136,703 sales lodged with HM Land Registry, the oldest in 1995 and the most recent on 26 Jun 2026. The median price paid across the whole record is £178,000. Across the 10 years from 2016 to 2026 the median moved +32.7% in cash — but once inflation is taken out, the change in 2026 money is -5.0%.

HM Land Registry136,703 sales17,887 with floor areaLatest sale 26 Jun 2026

The chart tracks the median Colchester house price for every year with a recorded sale, from 1995 to 2026. The dashed line restates each year in 2026 money, so the two lines separate exactly as much as inflation has eroded the cash figure.

The highest yearly median on record for Colchester is £340,000 in 2025; the lowest is £54,000 in 1995. Across the full 32-year record the cash median has moved from £54,000 to £325,000.

In 2026 money that first median is worth £119,906, so the real change over the whole record is +171.0% — about +3.27% a year after inflation. Cash growth and real growth are not the same story, and the gap is the part most price reports leave out.

Over the last decade alone the difference is stark: +32.7% in cash against -5.0% once inflation is removed. A buyer who sold at the end of that decade would have needed the real figure, not the headline one, to know whether they had actually gained.

Every row is a completed sale as lodged with HM Land Registry. The right-hand column restates the price in 2026 money, which is the only fair way to compare a sale from the 1990s with one from last year.

These addresses appear in the register more than once, so the same bricks are being priced twice. That makes them the strongest evidence of what actually happened to Colchester values — no mix of property types can flatter the number.

The mix of property types explains a large part of any area's median. Colchester is dominated by the type at the top of this table, so its overall median leans that way.

Energy Performance Certificates record a floor area for every home that has been surveyed, sold or let — far more homes than have changed hands. 26,449 certificates cover Colchester, and their median floor area is 81 m².

The median across the whole register is 76 m², so homes here are larger than average — +6.6%. Size explains a large part of why one area's median price sits above another's, which is why the price per square metre further up this page is the fairer comparison.

22,929 of the sales on record are leasehold and 113,774 freehold — 16.8% of the market. Tenure is not a detail: a leasehold flat and a freehold house are different assets, and mixing them into one median hides the difference.

The median leasehold sale is £121,579 and the median freehold sale £199,950 — a gap of +64.5%. Most of that gap is property type rather than tenure itself: leasehold here is largely flats, freehold largely houses.

New builds sold for more than the median existing home — +12.9%. A new-build premium is normal: the buyer gets a warranty and nothing to fix, and the price is set by a developer rather than negotiated between two households.

A further 6,783 transfers for this area are on the register but are left out of every figure above. HM Land Registry marks them as additional price paid entries: repossessions, buy-to-let portfolio moves, transfers between companies or family, and sales at a discount such as right to buy. They are real records but they are not open-market prices, and including them would drag the median somewhere no buyer ever paid.

Every certificate carries an energy efficiency band as well as a floor area. Across Colchester, 52.4% of 97,371 certificates sit in bands A to C, and 3.5% in F or G — the bands that cost the most to heat and are hardest to mortgage.

The Office for National Statistics puts the mean private rent in Colchester at £1,203 a month as of Jun 2026 — £824 for a one-bedroom home and £1,307 for three bedrooms.

Against the median sale of £178,000 here, that rent is a gross yield of 8.11% a year. It is a measured figure rather than an assumption: a real local rent over a real local price, before any cost of ownership.

The 2021 census counted 192,715 residents in Colchester across 79,711 households. 65.1% of those households own their home and 34.8% rent — a split the sold record cannot show, because only owners appear in it.

19 state and independent schools have a CO4 postcode: 16 primary, 3 secondary. Catchment areas do not follow postcodes, so treat this as what is nearby rather than what a child would be offered.

The median across the whole archive is £157,500. Colchester sits above that national figure — +13.0%.

Where an EPC floor area could be matched to the sale, the median works out at £2,245 per square metre, across 17,887 of the 136,703 sales on record. Price per square metre is the only figure that compares a two-bed flat with a four-bed house honestly.

The full range on record runs from £1,200 to £2,800,000. Extremes usually mean something unusual — a plot sold without a house on it, a transfer between family members, or a very large property — so the median is the number to trust.

Colchester sits in Colchester, in the East of England.

The Office for National Statistics puts the median home in Colchester at 8.4 times median local earnings of £38,758 a year, measured to Sep 2025. Across England and Wales the same ratio is 7.6. That number, not the price alone, is what decides whether a place is within reach of the people who work in it.

Streets in Colchester

• High Street1,289 sales
• Colchester Road959 sales
• Maldon Road947 sales
• London Road914 sales
• Church Road815 sales
• Chinook738 sales
• Station Road708 sales
• Harwich Road678 sales
• Ipswich Road663 sales
• Bergholt Road614 sales
• Straight Road569 sales
• Halstead Road551 sales
• Old Heath Road549 sales
• Dale Close543 sales
• Mill Road539 sales
• Chapel Road538 sales
• Mersea Road506 sales
• Rectory Road493 sales
• Greenstead Road482 sales
• Lexden Road478 sales
• Coggeshall Road453 sales
• George Williams Way414 sales
• Quayside Drive414 sales
• St Peters Street396 sales
• Claremont Heights391 sales
• Friday Wood Green390 sales
• West Street389 sales
• Heath Road379 sales
• Mile End Road376 sales
• Clarendon Way363 sales
• Brook Street360 sales
• Layer Road341 sales
• East Street339 sales
• St Marys Fields336 sales
• Gavin Way326 sales
• Victoria Chase324 sales
• Church Street323 sales
• Nayland Road323 sales
• Derwent Road319 sales
• Canterbury Road318 sales
• Shrub End Road315 sales
• St Johns Road301 sales
• Axial Drive300 sales
• Hanbury Gardens300 sales
• Rotary Way300 sales
• Sydney Street285 sales
• Butt Road281 sales
• Nicholsons Grove275 sales
• Bourne Road273 sales
• Morant Road273 sales
• Queen Street265 sales
• Titus Way265 sales
• Turner Road263 sales
• Lisle Road262 sales
• Cowdray Avenue260 sales
• New Street255 sales
• Queens Road253 sales
• Enville Way246 sales
• Hythe Hill243 sales
• Bromley Road239 sales

Postcode districts covering Colchester

• CO4£166,000 median
• CO7£196,500 median
• CO2£155,000 median
• CO3£202,000 median
• CO5£215,000 median
• CO6£219,000 median
• CO1£132,000 median

What is the average house price in Colchester?

The median price paid in Colchester across every sale on the register is £178,000. The median is used rather than the mean because a handful of very large sales would otherwise drag the average away from what a typical buyer paid.

How many homes have sold in Colchester?

136,703 sales are on record for Colchester, the most recent completing on 26 Jun 2026. Every one is a completed transfer lodged with HM Land Registry, not an asking price or an estimate.

Have Colchester house prices actually risen?

In cash, the median rose +32.7% between 2016 and 2026. In 2026 money — that is, after inflation — the change is -5.0%. Both numbers are true; only the second one tells you whether buying here preserved value.

When were Colchester house prices at their highest?

The highest yearly median on record is £340,000, set in 2025. That is the cash figure; measured in 2026 money the peak may fall in a different year, because inflation reshapes the series.

What is the price per square metre in Colchester?

£2,245 per square metre, from the 17,887 sales where an EPC floor area could be matched to the address. Price per square metre strips out size, so a flat and a house can be compared on the same basis.

How current is this data?

The latest sale shown here completed on 26 Jun 2026. HM Land Registry publishes Price Paid Data monthly and a sale can take a month or two to appear after completion, so the most recent weeks are always incomplete.

Cite this page: Sold Price History, “Colchester house prices”, 2026. Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data © Crown copyright and database right, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Inflation adjustment: ONS CPIH.