Local market reports › MK area › MK42 › MK42 7
Castle market report MK42 7, Bedford
The standing MK42 7 (Castle) property market report, rebuilt from the full public record every month. This page is built from the public record and nothing else: 5,228 completed sales registered with HM Land Registry in MK42 7 (Bedford) since 1995, plus current ONS rental figures. There are no valuations, estimates or asking prices in it.
Sales recorded to 2026; rents are ONS figures for May 2026. The page rebuilds with each monthly release.
In short: the 2026 median for MK42 7 (Bedford) is £310,000, from 47 registered sales, up 15% on five years earlier; the mean is £310,400, and by floor area homes here have averaged about £3,570 per square metre over the last five years. Behind the figures sit 5,228 HM Land Registry entries going back to 1995, refreshed monthly, every one a completed sale rather than a valuation or an asking price.
MK42 7 is a postcode sector: one group of streets inside MK42 (Bedford). 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 MK42 7 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.
Today's MK42 7 prices, from the sold record
In the MK42 7 property market, the 2026 median sale price is £310,000, from 47 registered sales; the mean, the "average house price" most sites quote, is £310,400, sitting practically level with it: prices here bunch tightly around the middle.
House prices per square metre in MK42 7
The last five years of sales put MK42 7 at roughly £3,570 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.
Against a national (England and Wales) median of £285,000, MK42 7 runs 9% above it.
MK42 7'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 | £310,000 | £310,000 | 47 |
| 2025 | £309,200 | £316,594 | 120 |
| 2024 | £278,500 | £296,103 | 123 |
| 2023 | £277,000 | £304,355 | 119 |
| 2022 | £274,000 | £321,296 | 167 |
| 2021 | £270,000 | £341,855 | 240 |
| 2020 | £244,000 | £316,595 | 138 |
| 2019 | £245,000 | £321,136 | 145 |
| 2018 | £238,000 | £317,258 | 194 |
| 2017 | £228,000 | £310,969 | 237 |
| 2016 | £221,000 | £309,181 | 246 |
| 2015 | £234,500 | £331,349 | 293 |
| 2014 | £209,000 | £296,503 | 249 |
| 2013 | £174,000 | £250,369 | 244 |
| 2012 | £155,500 | £228,877 | 202 |
| 2011 | £146,500 | £221,159 | 134 |
| 2010 | £155,000 | £243,080 | 107 |
| 2009 | £136,000 | £218,621 | 88 |
| 2008 | £152,800 | £250,471 | 76 |
| 2007 | £164,200 | £278,529 | 154 |
| 2006 | £153,000 | £265,588 | 150 |
| 2005 | £150,000 | £266,940 | 161 |
| 2004 | £136,500 | £247,911 | 165 |
| 2003 | £125,500 | £231,201 | 132 |
| 2002 | £104,000 | £195,675 | 178 |
| 2001 | £82,500 | £158,602 | 176 |
| 2000 | £74,500 | £146,206 | 159 |
| 1999 | £65,000 | £129,542 | 186 |
| 1998 | £58,200 | £117,481 | 142 |
| 1997 | £54,000 | £110,743 | 176 |
| 1996 | £48,500 | £102,284 | 144 |
| 1995 | £49,600 | £107,823 | 136 |
In cash terms the typical MK42 7 home went from £49,600 in 1995 to £310,000 in 2026, roughly 6 times the price. Adjusted for inflation it still comes to a real rise of roughly 188%, so homes here got dearer in substance, not only in cash. The real-terms peak came in 2021, and today's median remains roughly 9% under it: a 2021 buyer is still waiting to get that price back in today's money.
Year-on-year change in the MK42 7 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 2002 (+26.1% on the year before); the weakest, 2009 (−11.0%). Single-year swings like these are why the annualised table below matters more than any one year's headline.
What MK42 7 has returned, per year
| Period | Cash, per year | Real terms, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 years (since 2025) | +0.3% | −2.1% |
| 5 years (since 2021) | +2.8% | −1.9% |
| 10 years (since 2016) | +3.4% | 0.0% |
| 20 years (since 2006) | +3.6% | +0.8% |
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.
The turnover behind the prices
How many homes change hands
Each bar is a year's recorded sales. 2008's dip is the financial crisis, and the newest bar always grows for a while as late registrations arrive.
The register shows 47 MK42 7 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 159 sales a year before the financial crisis and 115 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.
The shape of the MK42 7 market
Only 47 sales completed here in the last twelve months of data, which makes MK42 7 a thin market. Each figure rests on few transactions, so single streets can swing the median and the charts deserve a sceptical squint.
What tenants pay around MK42 7
MK42 7 falls under Bedford, where the ONS puts the average private rent at £1,168 a month (May 2026 figures). Size sets most of the rent: one-beds average £796 a month here against £1,800 for four or more bedrooms.
Average monthly rent by size, Bedford
ONS Price Index of Private Rents, May 2026.
Against the £310,000 median purchase price, a rent of £1,168 a month (£14,016 a year) works out at a 4.5% gross yield, a ceiling figure that ignores letting costs, voids, maintenance and tax. Because rents are local-authority statistics, districts sharing the authority share the figure.
Common questions on MK42 7 (Castle)
Is MK42 7 (Castle) a good place to buy a house?
How much did a house sell for in MK42 7 (Castle)?
Are property prices falling in MK42 7 (Castle)?
Are MK42 7 prices heading up or down?
Nobody can tell you that, and this page will not pretend to. What the record shows: the median is up 15% over five years in cash but down 9% after inflation. If you are weighing a purchase, read the volume chart alongside the price one, and remember that every figure here is a completed sale, lagged by the weeks it takes the Land Registry to register it.
What you could buy in MK42 now
This is what you could actually buy today: 88 homes currently on the market from 6 agents publishing to HomesIndex.
These cover the whole MK42 district, not just MK42 7: live asking prices are collected per district.
Of everything listed here, 33% asks less than the sold record of comparable homes. Every listing is measured against recent recorded sales of similar nearby homes.
- Abbott Crescent, Kempston, Bedford, B...
- St. Leonards Avenue, Bedford, Bedford...
- Willow Road, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK42
"Under comparable sales" means the asking price sits below what similar homes nearby actually fetched. Treat it as the start of a conversation, never a valuation, and always view the home.
See every MK42 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: MK prices by size
The Land Registry record, split by size: what each kind of home actually sold for across the MK 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 | — | £367,500 | £495,000 (+35%) | £675,000 (+36%) | £910,000 (+35%) |
| Semi-detached | £270,000 | £320,000 (+19%) | £375,000 (+17%) | £470,000 (+25%) | £630,000 (+34%) |
| Terraced | £245,000 | £285,000 (+16%) | £330,000 (+16%) | £400,000 (+21%) | £580,000 (+45%) |
| Flat | £160,000 | £225,000 (+41%) | £307,500 (+37%) | — | — |
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. Blank cells mean too few homes for the figure to mean anything.
The risers and the fallers
The spread across the MK area is the point: the same five years treated these districts very differently.
Five-year change in the median, MK area districts
Cash-terms risers and fallers across the area; click any row for that district's full report.
Other sectors in MK42
Sector boundaries hide real price steps. The rest of MK42, one report each:
| Sector | Median (latest) | Sales that year |
|---|---|---|
| MK42 0 | £305,500 | 46 |
| MK42 6 | £363,000 | 48 |
| MK42 8 | £315,000 | 37 |
| MK42 9 | £257,500 | 40 |
Zoom out to the full MK42 district report for the type split, monthly volumes and how MK42 compares with its neighbours.
Selling in MK42 7? 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 MK42 7, use the average prices map for a rough value: zoom from MK42 7's shading down to the sold homes on your own street. The figures above are every recorded MK42 7 sale; agents price with this same Land Registry record, and now you have it too.
Estate agents working MK42 7: the featured spot on this report is free for founding agents, one per district. Claim MK42 7.
Take it further
The AI answers from the same Land Registry data this report is built on, already scoped to MK42 7. Free after a one click sign in.
Two maps carry on from here: every MK42 7 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.