Local market reports › BL area › BL3 › BL3 3
Bolton centre market report BL3 3, Bolton
The BL3 3 (Bolton centre) house price history in full, 1995 to 2026, in cash and in today's money. Every figure on this page comes from the public record: 6,140 sales registered with HM Land Registry in BL3 3 (Bolton) since 1995, each one a completed purchase at a real price, plus current rental figures from the ONS. Nothing here is a valuation, an estimate or an asking price.
Covers registered sales to 2026 and ONS rents for May 2026. Refreshed monthly as new sales reach the register.
In short: the 2026 median for BL3 3 (Bolton) is £165,000, from 51 registered sales, up 38% on five years earlier; the mean is £182,400, and by floor area homes here have averaged about £2,190 per square metre over the last five years. Behind the figures sit 6,140 HM Land Registry entries going back to 1995, refreshed monthly, every one a completed sale rather than a valuation or an asking price.
BL3 3 is a postcode sector: one group of streets inside BL3 (Bolton). This is as local as the public record gets, but sector medians move on fewer sales than a district's, so expect the lines to be lumpier.
Where BL3 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.
The going rate for a home in BL3 3
Across 51 registered 2026 sales, the typical (median) BL3 3 home went for £165,000. The mean is £182,400, somewhat above it, as happens wherever a market carries an expensive tail.
Price per square metre in BL3 3
The last five years of sales put BL3 3 at roughly £2,190 per square metre. That figure, built from each sale's Energy Performance Certificate floor area, is the one that makes a small flat and a big house comparable.
The national median for England and Wales is £285,000, which puts BL3 3 42% below the country at large.
BL3 3's median sold price, 1995 to 2026
The cash median beside its inflation-adjusted twin (ONS CPIH). The adjusted line answers the harder question, whether homes really got dearer. Hover for the figures; the legend toggles each series.
See this chart as a table
| Year | Median (cash) | Median (today's £) | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | £165,000 | £165,000 | 51 |
| 2025 | £170,000 | £174,065 | 116 |
| 2024 | £170,500 | £181,277 | 151 |
| 2023 | £150,000 | £164,813 | 131 |
| 2022 | £146,200 | £171,436 | 140 |
| 2021 | £120,000 | £151,935 | 164 |
| 2020 | £105,000 | £136,240 | 134 |
| 2019 | £102,500 | £134,353 | 161 |
| 2018 | £93,000 | £123,971 | 162 |
| 2017 | £85,000 | £115,931 | 134 |
| 2016 | £89,000 | £124,512 | 144 |
| 2015 | £85,000 | £120,105 | 136 |
| 2014 | £82,500 | £117,041 | 133 |
| 2013 | £77,500 | £111,515 | 126 |
| 2012 | £85,000 | £125,109 | 99 |
| 2011 | £83,700 | £126,355 | 128 |
| 2010 | £85,000 | £133,302 | 142 |
| 2009 | £78,500 | £126,189 | 102 |
| 2008 | £98,000 | £160,643 | 125 |
| 2007 | £95,000 | £161,146 | 290 |
| 2006 | £85,000 | £147,549 | 279 |
| 2005 | £75,200 | £133,826 | 254 |
| 2004 | £63,000 | £114,420 | 321 |
| 2003 | £45,000 | £82,901 | 368 |
| 2002 | £37,000 | £69,615 | 367 |
| 2001 | £34,000 | £65,363 | 314 |
| 2000 | £32,000 | £62,800 | 219 |
| 1999 | £35,000 | £69,753 | 265 |
| 1998 | £37,400 | £75,495 | 280 |
| 1997 | £37,500 | £76,905 | 261 |
| 1996 | £34,600 | £72,970 | 242 |
| 1995 | £33,500 | £72,824 | 201 |
In cash terms the typical BL3 3 home went from £33,500 in 1995 to £165,000 in 2026, roughly 5 times the price. Inflation explains only part of it: in today's money the rise is still about 127%, a genuine increase in what a home here costs. Measured in today's money the market peaked in 2024; the current median sits about 9% below that. Someone who bought at the 2024 peak has not yet seen that price back in real terms.
Year-on-year change in the BL3 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 (+40.0% on the year before); the weakest, 2009 (−19.9%). 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) | −2.9% | −5.2% |
| 5 years (since 2021) | +6.6% | +1.7% |
| 10 years (since 2016) | +6.4% | +2.9% |
| 20 years (since 2006) | +3.4% | +0.6% |
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.
The turnover behind the prices
The year-by-year sales count
Annual recorded sales. The post-2008 trough is the financial crisis; treat the final bar as provisional while registrations catch up.
The register shows 51 BL3 3 sales across the most recent twelve months of data. Like most of England and Wales, turnover never fully recovered from 2008: the market here averaged 302 sales a year before the financial crisis and 118 a year over the last five. Watch the volume as closely as the price. Thin years make jumpy medians, where one street's sales can move the figure, and the newest year is always incomplete because registrations trail completions by weeks or months.
Reading the BL3 3 market
Only 51 sales completed here in the last twelve months of data, which makes BL3 3 a thin market. Each figure rests on few transactions, so single streets can swing the median and the charts deserve a sceptical squint. The record here is jumpy: year-on-year moves of ten per cent or more are common in the chart above, mostly a function of which homes happened to sell rather than the market lurching. Within BL3, this sector trades 9% below the district median: one of its district's cheaper corners.
Rents around BL3 3
The local authority for BL3 3 is Bolton, and its ONS average private rent currently stands at £883 a month (May 2026 figures). Size sets most of the rent: one-beds average £646 a month here against £1,433 for four or more bedrooms.
Average monthly rent by size, Bolton
ONS Price Index of Private Rents, May 2026.
Set against the £165,000 median sold price, £883 a month is £10,596 a year, a gross yield of 6.4%: 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.
Asked and answered: BL3 3 (Bolton centre)
Is BL3 3 (Bolton centre) a good place to buy a house?
How much did a house sell for in BL3 3 (Bolton centre)?
Are property prices falling in BL3 3 (Bolton centre)?
What happens to BL3 3 prices now?
Prediction is not this page's business. Its business is the record, which says: the median is up 38% over five years in cash and up 9% after inflation. Read the volume chart with the price chart before acting on either, remembering that registrations trail the deals themselves by weeks.
BL3's current homes for sale
The live side of the market holds 134 homes at the moment, listed by 8 agents publishing to HomesIndex.
These cover the whole BL3 district, not just BL3 3: live asking prices are collected per district.
23% of current listings sit under the prices comparable homes actually fetched. Each listing is compared with recent recorded sales of similar homes nearby.
"Under comparable sales" compares each asking price with what similar homes nearby actually sold for. It is a starting point for a conversation, not a valuation. Always look at the home itself.
See every BL3 home for sale on the map →
Live asking prices from estate agents who publish a feed to HomesIndex, refreshed every Monday and Thursday: a sample of the market, not every home for sale. Asking prices are not sale prices.
Moving up a bedroom in BL: the cost
Real sold prices by size across the BL area, straight 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. Where too few homes exist to say anything meaningful, the cell is blank.
The risers and the fallers
The spread across the BL area is the point: the same five years treated these districts very differently.
Winners and losers across the BL area, five years
The districts that gained and lost most in cash terms, each row linking through to its own report.
Other sectors in BL3
A few minutes' walk can separate two very different markets. Here are BL3's other sectors, each with its own report:
| Sector | Median (latest) | Sales that year |
|---|---|---|
| BL3 1 | £202,500 | 60 |
| BL3 2 | £151,000 | 29 |
| BL3 4 | £242,000 | 51 |
| BL3 5 | £160,000 | 5 |
| BL3 6 | £132,500 | 8 |
Zoom out to the full BL3 district report for the type split, monthly volumes and how BL3 compares with its neighbours.
Before you sell in BL3 3: what the record supports
The sold record beats any estimate as a starting point. Before a house valuation or flat valuation in BL3 3, open the average prices map and zoom from the BL3 3 shading down to the sold homes on your own street. Every recorded BL3 3 sale is on this page; the same Land Registry record is what agents price from, and it is now in your hands.
For local estate agents: each district report carries one featured-agent spot, free while founding places last. Claim BL3 3.
Go deeper
Answers come from the same Land Registry data behind this report, and the AI knows you are asking about BL3 3. Free, with a one click sign in.
Two maps carry on from here: every BL3 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.