Local market reports › BL area › BL1 › BL1 3
Bolton centre market report BL1 3, Bolton
The BL1 3 (Bolton centre) house price history in full, 1995 to 2026, in cash and in today's money. Underneath every chart here sit 4,202 registered sales in BL1 3 (Bolton) since 1995, the HM Land Registry record of what buyers really paid, with ONS figures covering rents. Nothing is a valuation, an estimate or an asking price.
Sales data to 2026. Rents: ONS, May 2026. Regenerated with every monthly data refresh.
In short: the middle 2026 sale in BL1 3 (Bolton) came in at £143,500, out of 43 registered, up 55% on five years earlier, and the mean stands at £165,000, and by floor area homes here have averaged about £1,770 per square metre over the last five years. The record behind it is 4,202 completed sales lodged with HM Land Registry since 1995, monthly refreshed, with no valuations or asking prices anywhere in the figures.
BL1 3 is one sector of BL1 (Bolton): a handful of streets, and the most local view the sold record can give. The price of that locality is lumpier charts, because each year's median rests on fewer sales.
Where BL1 3 sits
Shaded by median price on the same scale as the average prices map. Click any shape to open it on the live map with every sale plotted at its address, or zoom in past street level to see the sold homes right here.
What BL1 3 homes really sell for
Take the 43 registered 2026 sales in BL1 3 and the middle price, the median, is £143,500. The mean lands at £165,000, a little above it, the familiar pattern where pricier homes stretch the average.
Price per square metre in BL1 3
Per square metre, BL1 3 homes have averaged around £1,770 over the last five years of sales. The floor areas behind the figure come from Energy Performance Certificates, and the by-the-metre view is the fair comparison across home sizes.
The national median for England and Wales is £285,000, which puts BL1 3 50% below the country at large.
BL1 3's median sold price, 1995 to 2026
Two lines: the median in the money of its day, and the same years restated by ONS CPIH into today's money, which is the truer test of getting dearer. Hover for exact figures; click a legend entry to isolate a series.
See this chart as a table
| Year | Median (cash) | Median (today's £) | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | £143,500 | £143,500 | 43 |
| 2025 | £130,000 | £133,109 | 60 |
| 2024 | £125,000 | £132,901 | 72 |
| 2023 | £112,000 | £123,061 | 83 |
| 2022 | £116,000 | £136,023 | 105 |
| 2021 | £92,500 | £117,117 | 103 |
| 2020 | £81,000 | £105,099 | 89 |
| 2019 | £74,500 | £97,652 | 98 |
| 2018 | £75,000 | £99,976 | 117 |
| 2017 | £75,000 | £102,292 | 109 |
| 2016 | £71,000 | £99,330 | 94 |
| 2015 | £65,000 | £91,845 | 112 |
| 2014 | £67,000 | £95,051 | 106 |
| 2013 | £62,000 | £89,212 | 84 |
| 2012 | £64,000 | £94,200 | 73 |
| 2011 | £70,000 | £105,673 | 74 |
| 2010 | £71,800 | £112,601 | 70 |
| 2009 | £68,000 | £109,311 | 77 |
| 2008 | £82,000 | £134,415 | 91 |
| 2007 | £85,000 | £144,184 | 216 |
| 2006 | £77,000 | £133,662 | 237 |
| 2005 | £70,000 | £124,572 | 173 |
| 2004 | £60,000 | £108,972 | 207 |
| 2003 | £38,000 | £70,005 | 246 |
| 2002 | £32,000 | £60,208 | 229 |
| 2001 | £27,000 | £51,906 | 225 |
| 2000 | £24,400 | £47,885 | 172 |
| 1999 | £22,500 | £44,841 | 177 |
| 1998 | £21,000 | £42,390 | 169 |
| 1997 | £24,000 | £49,219 | 175 |
| 1996 | £23,000 | £48,506 | 182 |
| 1995 | £26,100 | £56,737 | 134 |
In cash terms the typical BL1 3 home went from £26,100 in 1995 to £143,500 in 2026, roughly 5 times the price. Inflation explains only part of it: in today's money the rise is still about 153%, a genuine increase in what a home here costs.
Year-on-year change in the BL1 3 median
Each bar is the change on the year before, in cash. The zero line is the boundary between rising and falling.
The strongest year on record here is 2004 (+57.9% on the year before); the weakest, 2009 (−17.1%). Single-year swings like these are why the annualised table below matters more than any one year's headline.
The long view: annualised growth
| Period | Cash, per year | Real terms, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 years (since 2025) | +10.4% | +7.8% |
| 5 years (since 2021) | +9.2% | +4.1% |
| 10 years (since 2016) | +7.3% | +3.7% |
| 20 years (since 2006) | +3.2% | +0.4% |
The table annualises median growth over each period, with the real column deflated by ONS CPIH. Smoothing hides the cycle (see the chart above for it), and none of this forecasts: it is the record.
Sales activity in BL1 3
Sales per year, counted
Annual recorded sales. The post-2008 trough is the financial crisis; treat the final bar as provisional while registrations catch up.
BL1 3 recorded 43 sales in the last twelve months of data. Like most of England and Wales, turnover never fully recovered from 2008: the market here averaged 213 sales a year before the financial crisis and 73 a year over the last five. Price without volume misleads: a median built on few sales jumps around, and one street can tilt it. Keep in mind too that the latest year is still filling in, since sales reach the register weeks or months after completion.
What kind of market BL1 3 is
This is a thin market: 43 sales in the last twelve months of data. With that few transactions, one street selling well (or one block of cheap transfers) can move the median, so read the year lines as a range rather than a verdict. Expect volatility in the annual figures: swings past ten per cent show up repeatedly above, and they usually reflect the mix of homes sold in a given year rather than genuine repricing. Against the BL1 district median, BL1 3 sits 24% lower, marking it as a cheaper pocket of the district.
What tenants pay around BL1 3
BL1 3 falls under Bolton, where the ONS puts the average private rent at £883 a month (May 2026 figures). A one-bed averages £646 a month here and a four-or-more-bed £1,433, so size does most of the work in setting the rent.
Average monthly rent by size, Bolton
ONS Price Index of Private Rents, May 2026.
Set against the £143,500 median sold price, £883 a month is £10,596 a year, a gross yield of 7.4%: gross, before letting costs, voids, maintenance and tax, so a ceiling rather than a promise. Rents are published at local-authority level, so nearby districts in the same authority share these figures.
What people ask about BL1 3 (Bolton centre)
Are property prices falling in BL1 3 (Bolton centre)?
Is BL1 3 (Bolton centre) a good place to buy a house?
How much did a house sell for in BL1 3 (Bolton centre)?
Where do BL1 3 prices go next?
That question has no honest answer, only evidence. The evidence: the median is up 55% over five years in cash and up 23% after inflation. Weigh the volume chart alongside the price one before deciding anything, and bear in mind every figure is a completed sale that reached the register weeks after completion.
What is for sale in BL1 right now
Turning to what is actually available: 212 homes on the market right now, from 7 agents publishing to HomesIndex.
These cover the whole BL1 district, not just BL1 3: live asking prices are collected per district.
Of everything listed here, 24% asks less than the sold record of comparable homes. Every listing is measured against recent recorded sales of similar nearby homes.
The "under comparable sales" label measures each asking price against real nearby sales of similar homes: an opening position for a conversation rather than a valuation. The home itself still needs looking at.
See every BL1 home for sale on the map →
These asking prices come live from estate agents publishing feeds to HomesIndex, refreshed each Monday and Thursday. They are a sample of the market rather than its entirety, and an asking price is not a sale price.
Bedroom by bedroom: BL prices by size
What homes of each size actually sold for across the BL area, from the Land Registry record. How much a size step costs is a local fact: the third-bedroom premium runs from about a quarter to nearly four fifths depending on the area, and national rules of thumb miss it.
| Type | 1 bed | 2 bed | 3 bed | 4 bed | 5 bed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | — | £279,995 | £365,000 (+30%) | £530,500 (+45%) | £775,000 (+46%) |
| Semi-detached | £180,000 | £209,000 (+16%) | £255,000 (+22%) | £337,500 (+32%) | £444,000 (+32%) |
| Terraced | £131,000 | £153,500 (+17%) | £180,000 (+17%) | £245,000 (+36%) | £358,000 (+46%) |
| Flat | £106,000 | £135,000 (+27%) | £208,500 (+54%) | — | — |
Medians of recorded sales over the last four years, by built form and bedroom count. Sold homes carry no advertised bedroom count, so sizes are estimated from their EPC records; a small number of homes will sit one size out. Sizes with too few homes to be meaningful are left blank.
The risers and the fallers
The spread across the BL area is the point: the same five years treated these districts very differently.
BL area districts: five years of change
The districts that gained and lost most in cash terms, each row linking through to its own report.
Other sectors in BL1
Sector boundaries hide real price steps. The rest of BL1, one report each:
| Sector | Median (latest) | Sales that year |
|---|---|---|
| BL1 1 | £75,000 | 2 |
| BL1 2 | £120,000 | 4 |
| BL1 4 | £141,500 | 43 |
| BL1 5 | £315,500 | 56 |
| BL1 6 | £202,500 | 50 |
| BL1 7 | £253,500 | 48 |
| BL1 8 | £190,000 | 35 |
Zoom out to the full BL1 district report for the type split, monthly volumes and how BL1 compares with its neighbours.
Selling in BL1 3? Start from the sold record
Start from what homes here actually sold for, not an estimate. Before booking a house valuation or flat valuation in BL1 3, use the average prices map for a rough value: zoom from BL1 3's shading down to the sold homes on your own street. The figures above are every recorded BL1 3 sale; agents price with this same Land Registry record, and now you have it too.
For local estate agents: each district report carries one featured-agent spot, free while founding places last. Claim BL1 3.
Dig further
The AI answers from the same Land Registry data this report is built on, already scoped to BL1 3. Free after a one click sign in.
Two maps carry on from here: every BL1 3 sale at its exact address, and the average prices map from area shading down to single homes. The report tool answers a specific question in writing, and each sale's mortgage and rent calculator prices a real purchase.
How this page is made: the statistics are computed from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (Crown copyright, OGL v3.0), geocoded to address level; inflation adjustment uses the ONS CPIH index; rents are the ONS Price Index of Private Rents at local-authority level. Medians of recorded sales, not valuations. Nothing on this page is financial advice.