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Writtle market report CM1, Chelmsford
The CM1 (Writtle) house price history in full, 1995 to 2026, in cash and in today's money. The raw material for this page is 35,116 HM Land Registry entries for CM1 (Chelmsford), going back to 1995: each an actual purchase at an actual price. Rents come from the ONS. Valuations, estimates and asking prices appear nowhere in it.
Sales data to July 2026. Rents: ONS, May 2026. Regenerated with every monthly data refresh.
In short: the middle 2026 sale in CM1 (Chelmsford) came in at £398,000, out of 331 registered, up 8% on five years earlier, and the mean stands at £430,400, and by floor area homes here have averaged about £4,570 per square metre over the last five years. The record behind it is 35,116 completed sales lodged with HM Land Registry since 1995, monthly refreshed, with no valuations or asking prices anywhere in the figures.
CM1 is the postcode district covering Chelmsford, Writtle in Chelmsford. Districts are a practical way to slice a market: small enough to mean something locally, big enough to have a steady flow of sales to measure.
Where CM1 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 buyers actually paid in CM1
331 sales were registered in CM1 in 2026, and the middle one of them, the median, went for £398,000. The mean works out at £430,400, a little above it, the familiar pattern where pricier homes stretch the average.
CM1 prices by floor area
Averaged across five years of sales, floor space in CM1 costs about £4,570 per square metre. Each sale's Energy Performance Certificate supplies the floor area, and pricing by the metre is what lets flats and houses share one scale.
England and Wales as a whole trade at a £285,000 median, leaving CM1 40% above the national figure.
A typical CM1 home, priced year by year (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 | £398,000 | £398,000 | 331 |
| 2025 | £400,000 | £409,565 | 1,042 |
| 2024 | £385,000 | £409,334 | 924 |
| 2023 | £390,000 | £428,515 | 905 |
| 2022 | £390,000 | £457,320 | 1,288 |
| 2021 | £370,000 | £468,468 | 1,323 |
| 2020 | £367,000 | £476,190 | 915 |
| 2019 | £350,000 | £458,766 | 1,096 |
| 2018 | £345,000 | £459,892 | 1,042 |
| 2017 | £332,000 | £452,815 | 1,115 |
| 2016 | £300,000 | £419,703 | 1,245 |
| 2015 | £270,000 | £381,510 | 1,198 |
| 2014 | £245,000 | £347,575 | 1,069 |
| 2013 | £225,000 | £323,753 | 904 |
| 2012 | £217,000 | £319,397 | 779 |
| 2011 | £210,000 | £317,019 | 823 |
| 2010 | £206,500 | £323,845 | 824 |
| 2009 | £194,500 | £312,660 | 743 |
| 2008 | £200,000 | £327,842 | 736 |
| 2007 | £210,200 | £356,558 | 1,459 |
| 2006 | £190,000 | £329,816 | 1,465 |
| 2005 | £181,000 | £322,107 | 1,145 |
| 2004 | £177,000 | £321,467 | 1,292 |
| 2003 | £156,200 | £287,758 | 1,452 |
| 2002 | £135,300 | £254,566 | 1,488 |
| 2001 | £114,500 | £220,120 | 1,397 |
| 2000 | £97,000 | £190,363 | 1,377 |
| 1999 | £82,000 | £163,422 | 1,363 |
| 1998 | £70,000 | £141,300 | 1,076 |
| 1997 | £65,000 | £133,302 | 1,214 |
| 1996 | £59,000 | £124,428 | 1,171 |
| 1995 | £57,400 | £124,779 | 915 |
In cash terms the typical CM1 home went from £57,400 in 1995 to £398,000 in 2026, roughly 7 times the price. Inflation explains only part of it: in today's money the rise is still about 219%, a genuine increase in what a home here costs. The real-terms peak came in 2020, and today's median remains roughly 16% under it: a 2020 buyer is still waiting to get that price back in today's money.
Year-on-year change in the CM1 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 2000 (+18.3% on the year before); the weakest, 2008 (−4.9%). Single-year swings like these are why the annualised table below matters more than any one year's headline.
Detached, semi, terraced, flat: four markets in one
A single median hides the split beneath it. Sales of semi-detached homes dominate the record here, 29% of the typed total. A detached home currently trades at £600,000 against £229,000 for a flat, 2.6 times the price.
Median by property type, CM1
One line per type, years with too few sales omitted. Hover for the year's figures; click a legend entry to isolate a type.
| Type | Median (2026) | Sales that year | All-time sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | £600,000 | 79 | 7,850 |
| Semi-detached | £435,000 | 109 | 10,339 |
| Terraced | £371,200 | 69 | 8,487 |
| Flats | £229,000 | 74 | 8,440 |
The long view: annualised growth
| Period | Cash, per year | Real terms, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 years (since 2025) | −0.5% | −2.8% |
| 5 years (since 2021) | +1.5% | −3.2% |
| 10 years (since 2016) | +2.9% | −0.5% |
| 20 years (since 2006) | +3.8% | +0.9% |
Each row is compound annual growth of the median; ONS CPIH supplies the real-terms deflator. Annualising irons out the cycle, which the chart above shows in full, and past growth records what happened rather than predicting anything.
Sales activity in CM1
How many homes change hands
Recorded sales per year. The dip after 2008 is the financial crisis; the last bar is still filling in as recent sales get registered.
The last five years, month by month
Monthly registrations. The sawtooth is seasonal; the register runs weeks behind completions at the right-hand edge.
Over the last twelve months of data, 745 sales completed in CM1. Like most of England and Wales, turnover never fully recovered from 2008: the market here averaged 1,384 sales a year before the financial crisis and 898 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.
What tenants pay around CM1
For renting purposes CM1 sits in Chelmsford. The ONS average private rent there is £1,445 a month (May 2026). The spread runs from £1,063 a month for a typical one-bed to £2,233 at four-plus bedrooms, which is size doing most of the pricing.
Average monthly rent by size, Chelmsford
ONS Price Index of Private Rents, May 2026.
Set against the £398,000 median sold price, £1,445 a month is £17,340 a year, a gross yield of 4.4%: 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 CM1 (Writtle)
Is CM1 (Writtle) a good place to buy a house?
How much did a house sell for in CM1 (Writtle)?
Are property prices falling in CM1 (Writtle)?
Where do CM1 prices go next?
Prediction is not this page's business. Its business is the record, which says: the median is up 8% over five years in cash but down 15% after inflation. Read the volume chart with the price chart before acting on either, remembering that registrations trail the deals themselves by weeks.
On the market in CM1 today
Everything above is what homes in CM1 sold for. The live side of the market holds 274 homes at the moment, listed by 13 agents publishing to HomesIndex, at a typical asking price 12% below the CM1 median sold price.
33% of what is on the market here is asking below what comparable homes actually sold for. Each listing is compared with recent recorded sales of similar homes nearby.
- Lupin Drive, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1
- Lupin Drive, Springfield, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1, Chelmsford, Essex
- Beaulieu Park, Chelmsford, Essex, Chelmsford
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 CM1 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.
Bedroom by bedroom: CM prices by size
The Land Registry record, split by size: what each kind of home actually sold for across the CM area. Size steps are fiercely local. A third bedroom adds a quarter to the price in some areas and close to four fifths in others, which is why no national rule of thumb survives contact with a real market.
| Type | 1 bed | 2 bed | 3 bed | 4 bed | 5 bed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | — | £417,500 | £550,000 (+32%) | £785,000 (+43%) | £1,137,500 (+45%) |
| Semi-detached | £325,000 | £370,000 (+14%) | £447,500 (+21%) | £575,000 (+28%) | £780,000 (+36%) |
| Terraced | £292,000 | £335,000 (+15%) | £380,000 (+13%) | £492,500 (+30%) | £700,000 (+42%) |
| Flat | £202,000 | £280,000 (+39%) | £385,000 (+38%) | — | — |
Four years of recorded sales, split by built form and bedroom count. The register does not state bedrooms, so sizes come from each home's EPC record and a few homes will land one size out. Where too few homes exist to say anything meaningful, the cell is blank.
The risers and the fallers
CM1 ranks 8 of 25 in the CM area on five-year growth. The gap between the top and bottom of this chart is the difference between buying well and buying badly in the same city.
Five-year change in the median, CM area districts
The biggest risers and fallers in cash terms; every row links to that district's report.
Inside CM1, sector by sector
Below district level sit the sectors, street groups with reports of their own, and the gaps between neighbouring ones can be sharp.
| Sector | Median (latest) | Sales that year |
|---|---|---|
| CM1 1 | £285,000 | 47 |
| CM1 2 | £365,500 | 67 |
| CM1 3 | £476,500 | 30 |
| CM1 4 | £460,000 | 61 |
| CM1 6 | £392,500 | 82 |
| CM1 7 | £446,000 | 44 |
How CM1 compares nearby
Same city, different markets. The neighbouring districts of the CM area, dearest first:
| District | Median | 5-year |
|---|---|---|
| CM4 | £808,200 | +26% |
| CM13 | £530,000 | +12% |
| CM16 | £527,500 | -8% |
| CM15 | £510,000 | -1% |
| CM5 | £500,000 | +4% |
| CM12 | £459,500 | -5% |
| CM11 | £455,000 | -1% |
| CM21 | £450,000 | +13% |
| CM22 | £445,000 | -8% |
| CM6 | £432,500 | +1% |
| CM23 | £422,000 | +0% |
| CM24 | £420,000 | +1% |
| CM3 | £415,000 | +0% |
| CM14 | £411,200 | +3% |
| CM77 | £402,500 | +6% |
| CM17 | £400,000 | +3% |
| CM1 (this report) | £398,000 | +8% |
| CM9 | £375,000 | +9% |
| CM2 | £370,000 | +4% |
| CM19 | £354,500 | +18% |
| CM0 | £350,000 | +0% |
| CM18 | £325,000 | +16% |
| CM20 | £325,000 | +10% |
| CM7 | £320,000 | +7% |
Selling a home in CM1? Price it on the evidence
Start from what homes here actually sold for, not an estimate. Before booking a house valuation or flat valuation in CM1, use the average prices map for a rough value: zoom from CM1's shading down to the sold homes on your own street. The figures above are every recorded CM1 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 CM1.
Keep digging
Answers come from the same Land Registry data behind this report, and the AI knows you are asking about CM1. Free, with a one click sign in.
The live map plots every individual CM1 sale at its exact address, and the average prices map zooms from neighbourhood shading to single homes. For a specific question, the report tool writes a custom answer, and any sale's mortgage and rent calculator runs the numbers on a real purchase.
About the numbers: everything is computed from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (Crown copyright, OGL v3.0), geocoded to the address; today's-money figures use the ONS CPIH index, and rents are the ONS Price Index of Private Rents by local authority. These are medians of recorded sales, not valuations, and none of it is financial advice.