Local market reports › CM area › CM21
Sawbridgeworth market report CM21
The standing CM21 (Sawbridgeworth) property market report, rebuilt from the full public record every month. Every figure on this page comes from the public record: 7,962 sales registered with HM Land Registry in CM21 (Sawbridgeworth) 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.
Sales data to July 2026. Rents: ONS, May 2026. Regenerated with every monthly data refresh.
In short: the middle 2026 sale in CM21 (Sawbridgeworth) came in at £450,000, out of 57 registered, up 13% on five years earlier, and the mean stands at £456,100, and by floor area homes here have averaged about £4,970 per square metre over the last five years. The record behind it is 7,962 completed sales lodged with HM Land Registry since 1995, monthly refreshed, with no valuations or asking prices anywhere in the figures.
CM21 is a postcode district covering Sawbridgeworth in Sawbridgeworth. It is the most useful size for market figures: tight enough to describe somewhere real, large enough that sales keep coming and the medians hold steady.
Where CM21 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 CM21
The 2026 median for CM21 is £450,000, taken from 57 registered sales. The mean, which is what most sites call the "average house price", is £456,100, nearly identical to it, meaning sales cluster closely around the typical figure.
House prices per square metre in CM21
The last five years of sales put CM21 at roughly £4,970 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.
For scale: the England and Wales median is £285,000, so CM21 trades 58% above the country as a whole.
The price of a typical CM21 home, 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 | £450,000 | £450,000 | 57 |
| 2025 | £450,000 | £460,761 | 204 |
| 2024 | £475,000 | £505,023 | 206 |
| 2023 | £457,000 | £502,131 | 199 |
| 2022 | £505,000 | £592,170 | 272 |
| 2021 | £400,000 | £506,452 | 271 |
| 2020 | £395,000 | £512,521 | 184 |
| 2019 | £370,000 | £484,981 | 169 |
| 2018 | £370,000 | £493,217 | 211 |
| 2017 | £350,000 | £477,365 | 219 |
| 2016 | £330,000 | £461,673 | 187 |
| 2015 | £300,000 | £423,900 | 203 |
| 2014 | £250,000 | £354,669 | 233 |
| 2013 | £286,200 | £411,813 | 208 |
| 2012 | £263,000 | £387,103 | 199 |
| 2011 | £265,000 | £400,048 | 170 |
| 2010 | £250,000 | £392,064 | 192 |
| 2009 | £227,200 | £365,226 | 166 |
| 2008 | £210,000 | £344,234 | 155 |
| 2007 | £230,000 | £390,144 | 276 |
| 2006 | £210,000 | £364,533 | 356 |
| 2005 | £195,000 | £347,021 | 274 |
| 2004 | £181,800 | £330,184 | 324 |
| 2003 | £165,000 | £303,970 | 280 |
| 2002 | £145,000 | £272,816 | 394 |
| 2001 | £125,000 | £240,306 | 382 |
| 2000 | £107,000 | £209,988 | 297 |
| 1999 | £89,200 | £177,771 | 365 |
| 1998 | £78,500 | £158,458 | 351 |
| 1997 | £73,500 | £150,734 | 352 |
| 1996 | £72,500 | £152,899 | 319 |
| 1995 | £72,000 | £156,517 | 287 |
In cash terms the typical CM21 home went from £72,000 in 1995 to £450,000 in 2026, roughly 6 times the price. Even after inflation that is a real rise of about 188%: homes here genuinely became dearer, not merely more expensive on paper. The real-terms peak came in 2022, and today's median remains roughly 24% under it: a 2022 buyer is still waiting to get that price back in today's money.
Year-on-year change in the CM21 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 2022 (+26.3% on the year before); the weakest, 2014 (−12.6%). Single-year swings like these are why the annualised table below matters more than any one year's headline.
Growth per year, over one to twenty years
| Period | Cash, per year | Real terms, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 years (since 2025) | 0.0% | −2.3% |
| 5 years (since 2021) | +2.4% | −2.3% |
| 10 years (since 2016) | +3.2% | −0.3% |
| 20 years (since 2006) | +3.9% | +1.1% |
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.
Detached, semi, terraced, flat: four markets in one
A single median hides the split beneath it. Sales of flats dominate the record here, 32% of the typed total. A detached home currently trades at £603,500 against £226,500 for a flat, 2.7 times the price.
Median by property type, CM21
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 | £603,500 | 12 | 1,880 |
| Semi-detached | £492,500 | 20 | 1,834 |
| Terraced | £403,500 | 12 | 1,719 |
| Flats | £226,500 | 13 | 2,529 |
Sales activity in CM21
How many homes change hands
Annual recorded sales. The post-2008 trough is the financial crisis; treat the final bar as provisional while registrations catch up.
The last five years, month by month
Sales as they reached the register each month. Expect the seasonal sawtooth, and discount the newest months while late entries land.
Over the last twelve months of data, 138 sales completed in CM21. Like most of England and Wales, turnover never fully recovered from 2008: the market here averaged 323 sales a year before the financial crisis and 188 a year over the last five. Volume matters as much as price: when few homes change hands, the median gets jumpy and a single street can move the figure. The most recent year is always still filling in, because sales appear in the Land Registry weeks or months after completion.
What tenants pay around CM21
CM21 falls under East Hertfordshire, where the ONS puts the average private rent at £1,503 a month (May 2026 figures). A one-bed averages £1,064 a month here and a four-or-more-bed £2,406, so size does most of the work in setting the rent.
Average monthly rent by size, East Hertfordshire
ONS Price Index of Private Rents, May 2026.
£1,503 a month is £18,036 a year, which against the £450,000 median sold price makes a gross yield of 4.0%. Gross means before letting costs, voids, maintenance and tax: treat it as a ceiling. The ONS publishes rents by local authority, so neighbouring districts under the same authority share these numbers.
Reading the CM21 market
Only 138 sales completed here in the last twelve months of data, which makes CM21 a thin market. Each figure rests on few transactions, so single streets can swing the median and the charts deserve a sceptical squint.
Common questions on CM21 (Sawbridgeworth)
Are property prices falling in CM21 (Sawbridgeworth)?
Is CM21 (Sawbridgeworth) a good place to buy a house?
How much did a house sell for in CM21 (Sawbridgeworth)?
Will CM21 prices rise from here?
No honest page predicts prices, so this one sticks to the record: the median is up 13% over five years in cash but down 11% after inflation. Anyone weighing a purchase should read the volume chart with the price chart, remembering that these are completed sales, registered weeks after the deals were actually struck.
On the market in CM21 today
Everything above is what homes in CM21 sold for. This is what you could actually buy today: 46 homes currently on the market from 3 agents publishing to HomesIndex, at a typical asking price 7% below the CM21 median sold price.
37% of current listings sit under the prices comparable homes actually fetched. The comparison behind each listing uses recent recorded sales of similar homes close by.
- Blenheim Close, Sawbridgeworth, Sawbridgeworth
- High Wych Road, Sawbridgeworth, Sawbridgeworth
- Blenheim Close, Sawbridgeworth, Sawbridgeworth
"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 CM21 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.
What another bedroom costs in CM
The Land Registry record, split by size: what each kind of home actually sold for across the CM area. 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 | — | £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%) | — | — |
Built from the last four years of recorded sales by form and bedroom count. Bedroom counts are estimated from EPC records (the register carries none), so expect a small number of homes one size adrift. Blank cells mean too few homes for the figure to mean anything.
The risers and the fallers
CM21 ranks 4 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 districts that gained and lost most in cash terms, each row linking through to its own report.
Inside CM21, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| CM21 0 | £518,500 | 21 |
| CM21 9 | £412,500 | 36 |
How CM21 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 (this report) | £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 | £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% |
Thinking of selling in CM21? Get a rough value first
Ground the asking price in real sold prices first. The average prices map gives a rough value in a minute: start at CM21's shading and zoom to the sold homes on the street itself. Agents work from this same Land Registry record when they value; this page puts it in front of you before they arrive.
Local estate agents: one agent per district gets the featured spot on this report, free for founding agents. Claim CM21.
Keep digging
Behind the answers sits the same Land Registry record as this page, with CM21 already set as the subject. Free, one click sign in.
Two maps carry on from here: every CM21 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.
Method, briefly: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (Crown copyright, OGL v3.0) supplies every sale, geocoded to address level; CPIH from the ONS restates prices in today's money; ONS local-authority figures supply the rents. Medians of real sales, not valuations. No part of this page is financial advice.