The average Chelmsford home sold for £382,000 and the district median was £398,000. Medians for the city centre, Danbury, Writtle and South Woodham Ferrers.
Asking prices tell you what a seller hopes for. What matters is what homes actually change hands for, and every completed sale in England and Wales is recorded by HM Land Registry and published. This page reads those records for Chelmsford: the official district average, the middle sale, and what the middle home went for in the city centre, Great Baddow, Broomfield, Writtle, Danbury and South Woodham Ferrers.
One thing to fix before the numbers. The official index covers the whole Chelmsford district, and that is a much bigger place than the city. It runs from the Waltham villages in the north to Stock and Margaretting in the south west, out to South Woodham Ferrers on the Crouch and down to Rettendon and Runwell. Those are not one market. The gap between the cheapest and the priciest corner of the district is more than half a million pounds.
The headline figure
The average home in Chelmsford sold for £382,000 in May 2026, the most recent month published in the UK House Price Index. That is up 0.4% on the £381,000 recorded a year earlier, so in cash terms the market has stood still.
Set that against the region and the country. Over the same twelve months the East of England rose 2.3% to £338,000, while the UK average rose to £271,000. Chelmsford is roughly £44,000 above the regional average and £111,000 above the UK one, and it grew more slowly than either.
Renting moved a great deal more than buying. The average private rent in Chelmsford was £1,447 a month in June 2026, up 5.1% on £1,378 a year before. That is faster than the East of England, where rents rose 3.3% to £1,281. In Chelmsford this year, rents went up about thirteen times faster than prices did.
What it means for you
If you are buying, the softness is in flats. Flats and maisonettes fell 2.3% over the year to an average of £211,000, while semi-detached houses rose 2.0% to £428,000. The bottom of the ladder is getting slightly cheaper and the family-house rung is not.
If you are selling a flat, a 2022 price is not coming back this year. If you are selling a house, the index says you are close to where you were twelve months ago, and the middle house in the district is still finding a buyer.
If you are a first-time buyer, the average first-time-buyer purchase in Chelmsford was £302,000 in May 2026, in line with a year earlier. Homes bought with a mortgage averaged £379,000, a little under the all-buyer average, which tells you cash buyers are competing at the more expensive end.
Prices by property type
District averages for May 2026 from the UK House Price Index:
- Detached houses: £689,000. The Danbury, Stock and Waltham end of the market.
- Semi-detached houses: £428,000. Up 2.0% over the year, the strongest of the four.
- Terraced houses: £341,000. The most common way into a house in the city itself.
- Flats and maisonettes: £211,000. Down 2.3%, the only type falling.
What each part of the district actually sells for
This is where the district average stops being useful.
The table and chart below are our own analysis of 2,272 residential sales recorded in the Chelmsford district that completed between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026, taken from HM Land Registry Price Paid data. We use the median, the middle sale, because one very large transaction cannot drag it around the way it drags an average. Across the whole district the median was £398,000 and the mean was £491,583, and the size of that gap is itself the point: there are enough million-pound sales out in the villages to pull the average nearly £94,000 above the middle.
The full table
| Sector | Main areas | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| CM4 9 | Stock, Margaretting (Ingatestone postal addresses) | £800,000 | 40 |
| CM3 4 | Danbury, Little Baddow, Sandon | £540,000 | 105 |
| CM11 1 | South Hanningfield, Stock (Billericay postal addresses) | £532,500 | 32 |
| CM3 8 | East and West Hanningfield, Bicknacre | £480,000 | 32 |
| CM3 1 | Great Waltham, Little Waltham | £470,000 | 45 |
| SS11 7 | Runwell, Rettendon (Wickford postal addresses) | £465,000 | 55 |
| CM1 3 | Writtle, Highwood, Roxwell | £460,000 | 82 |
| CM3 3 | Boreham, Great and Little Leighs | £451,250 | 80 |
| CM1 6 | Springfield North, Beaulieu Park, The Lawns | £432,500 | 215 |
| CM2 7 | Great Baddow East | £425,000 | 104 |
| CM2 8 | Goat Hall, Great Baddow West, Galleywood | £421,250 | 142 |
| CM1 4 | Patching Hall, Chignall, Good Easter, Roxwell | £420,000 | 155 |
| CM1 7 | Broomfield, The Lawns | £415,000 | 98 |
| CM2 9 | Moulsham Lodge, Goat Hall | £390,000 | 196 |
| CM3 5 | South Woodham Ferrers | £375,000 | 213 |
| CM1 2 | St Andrews, Marconi, Waterhouse Farm | £362,500 | 159 |
| CM2 6 | Trinity, Chelmer Village | £350,000 | 227 |
| CM2 0 | Moulsham and Central | £320,000 | 147 |
| CM1 1 | City centre, Marconi | £260,000 | 123 |
Two patterns run through that table.
The first is that the city centre is the cheapest part of its own district. CM1 1 and CM2 0, the two sectors covering the middle of Chelmsford, have the two lowest medians. That is not because central houses are cheap. It is because the centre is where the flats are, and flats across the district had a median of £215,000 against £593,750 for a detached house. Where a sector is mostly apartments, its median reads like a flat price.
The second is that the money is in the villages, not the city. Stock and Margaretting, Danbury, Little Baddow, the Hanningfields and the Walthams all sit above £470,000. The Chelmsford Green Belt and the lanes off the A12 are where the detached stock is, and the detached market is what pulls the district average up.
By property type, from the sales themselves
Medians from the same 2,272 sales, which sit lower than the ONS averages for the same reason the district median sits below the district mean:
- Detached: £593,750 across 616 sales
- Semi-detached: £430,000 across 622 sales
- Terraced: £355,000 across 516 sales
- Flats and maisonettes: £215,000 across 467 sales
New-build sales carried a premium, though on thin volume: 38 new builds had a median of £472,450 against £397,750 for the 2,234 existing homes. Some of that is genuinely a new-build premium and some of it is mix, because a lot of what completed new in this window was family housing on the north-east edge of the city rather than flats.
The most expensive streets
From the same twelve months of sales, restricted to streets with at least six recorded sales so that one big house cannot define a road:
- Blasford Hill, Little Waltham: £910,000 median across 6 sales
- Roxwell Road, Chelmsford: £887,500 across 6 sales
- East Hanningfield Road: £767,500 across 8 sales
- Tabors Avenue, Great Baddow: £747,500 across 6 sales
- Hullbridge Road, Rettendon: £710,000 across 8 sales
- North Hill, Little Baddow: £632,500 across 6 sales
- Ongar Road: £630,000 across 9 sales
The rule holds across the district. The further you get from the station and the closer to a large plot with a green outlook, the higher the number.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average house price in Chelmsford?
£382,000 in May 2026, according to the provisional UK House Price Index built from HM Land Registry sales. That covers the whole Chelmsford district and all property types. Our own read of the completed sales for the year to June 2026 puts the median at £398,000.
Are Chelmsford house prices going up or down in 2026?
Essentially flat. Prices were up 0.4% in the year to May 2026. Semi-detached homes rose 2.0% and flats fell 2.3%, so the direction depends entirely on what kind of home you own.
What is the cheapest part of Chelmsford to buy in?
By median sold price, the city centre. CM1 1 had a median of £260,000 and CM2 0 £320,000 over the year to June 2026. Both are flat-heavy sectors, so the figure reflects the property mix rather than cheap houses.
What is the most expensive part of the Chelmsford district?
Stock and Margaretting, in the CM4 9 sector on Ingatestone postal addresses, at a median of £800,000 across 40 sales. Danbury and Little Baddow follow at £540,000.
How much is a detached house in Chelmsford?
The ONS puts the district average at £689,000 for May 2026. The median detached sale over the year to June 2026 was £593,750, across 616 sales.
How much does it cost to rent in Chelmsford?
The average private rent was £1,447 a month in June 2026, up 5.1% over the year (ONS). That is £166 a month above the East of England average.
Where can I check what a specific house sold for?
Every completed sale in England and Wales is public. Look up a street or a single address free on the HM Land Registry Price Paid search.
More Chelmsford local information
- Chelmsford trains to London: journey times, 2026 fares and what a season ticket costs, which is a large part of why prices here sit where they do.
- Chelmsford planning news: the Local Plan now at examination, the 1,210-homes-a-year target and where the additional sites are.
- Chelmsford roadworks and travel: the A12 works, the London Road Bridge lights and the Army and Navy scheme.
- Things to do in Chelmsford: what to do with a day here, with 2026 prices.
Sources
- UK House Price Index, Chelmsford (ONS and HM Land Registry) for the district average, property-type averages, buyer-type figures, rents and the regional and UK comparisons. Last updated 22 July 2026; May 2026 figures are provisional.
- HM Land Registry Price Paid data for our own medians. Our query covered every residential sale recorded in the Chelmsford local authority district with a transaction date between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026: 2,272 sales.
- HM Land Registry Price Paid search to check any individual address.
House price figures are provisional and revised as more sales complete. Sector areas are described from Office for National Statistics ward and parish boundaries; a sector can straddle a boundary, so the area names are a guide to where the sales were, not a legal definition. Always confirm the latest numbers against the linked sources before making a decision.
Have your say
We read every message. To comment on this story, email the newsdesk and we may publish a selection of responses: hello@chelmsfordtimes.co.uk.