Local market reports › MK area › MK42
Castle market report MK42, Bedford
The MK42 (Castle) 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: 27,612 sales registered with HM Land Registry in MK42 (Bedford) 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 recorded to July 2026; rents are ONS figures for May 2026. The page rebuilds with each monthly release.
In short: a typical MK42 (Bedford) home changed hands for £319,500 in 2026 (median of 218 registered sales, up 18% on five years earlier), with the mean at £313,000, and by floor area homes here have averaged about £3,570 per square metre over the last five years. Source: 27,612 completed sales on the HM Land Registry record since 1995, updated with each monthly release. No valuations, no asking prices.
The postcode district MK42 covering Castle, Cauldwell, Elstow sits in Bedford. A district is the workhorse unit for reading a market: local enough to be meaningful, busy enough that the medians rest on a steady flow of sales.
Where MK42 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 MK42 homes really sell for
Take the 218 registered 2026 sales in MK42 and the middle price, the median, is £319,500. The mean lands at £313,000, practically level with it: prices here bunch tightly around the middle.
House prices per square metre in MK42
Per square metre, MK42 homes have averaged around £3,570 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.
For scale: the England and Wales median is £285,000, so MK42 trades 12% above the country as a whole.
MK42's median sold price, 1995 to 2026
One line records the median as paid; the other restates every year in today's money via ONS CPIH, the honest measure of getting dearer. Hover for year figures, click the legend to isolate a line.
See this chart as a table
| Year | Median (cash) | Median (today's £) | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | £319,500 | £319,500 | 218 |
| 2025 | £320,000 | £327,652 | 735 |
| 2024 | £312,000 | £331,720 | 755 |
| 2023 | £304,000 | £334,022 | 701 |
| 2022 | £305,000 | £357,647 | 922 |
| 2021 | £270,000 | £341,855 | 1,119 |
| 2020 | £250,000 | £324,380 | 795 |
| 2019 | £251,000 | £329,001 | 892 |
| 2018 | £246,600 | £328,722 | 764 |
| 2017 | £240,000 | £327,336 | 923 |
| 2016 | £222,500 | £311,280 | 980 |
| 2015 | £198,000 | £279,774 | 1,045 |
| 2014 | £174,000 | £246,849 | 967 |
| 2013 | £158,200 | £227,634 | 874 |
| 2012 | £151,000 | £222,253 | 675 |
| 2011 | £145,000 | £218,894 | 636 |
| 2010 | £155,000 | £243,080 | 607 |
| 2009 | £140,000 | £225,051 | 533 |
| 2008 | £150,000 | £245,882 | 497 |
| 2007 | £150,200 | £254,781 | 970 |
| 2006 | £143,200 | £248,577 | 1,042 |
| 2005 | £136,000 | £242,025 | 929 |
| 2004 | £133,000 | £241,554 | 1,179 |
| 2003 | £122,200 | £225,122 | 1,148 |
| 2002 | £97,000 | £182,505 | 1,275 |
| 2001 | £80,000 | £153,796 | 1,095 |
| 2000 | £73,100 | £143,459 | 1,068 |
| 1999 | £60,000 | £119,577 | 1,125 |
| 1998 | £54,000 | £109,003 | 925 |
| 1997 | £49,000 | £100,489 | 853 |
| 1996 | £45,000 | £94,903 | 718 |
| 1995 | £45,000 | £97,823 | 647 |
In cash terms the typical MK42 home went from £45,000 in 1995 to £319,500 in 2026, roughly 7 times the price. Inflation explains only part of it: in today's money the rise is still about 227%, a genuine increase in what a home here costs. Measured in today's money the market peaked in 2022; the current median sits about 11% below that. Someone who bought at the 2022 peak has not yet seen that price back in real terms.
Year-on-year change in the MK42 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 2003 (+26.0% on the year before); the weakest, 2009 (−6.7%). 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 terraced homes dominate the record here, 35% of the typed total. A detached home currently trades at £437,500 against £182,500 for a flat, 2.4 times the price.
Median by property type, MK42
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 | £437,500 | 46 | 5,219 |
| Semi-detached | £325,000 | 69 | 8,791 |
| Terraced | £295,000 | 65 | 9,561 |
| Flats | £182,500 | 38 | 4,041 |
What MK42 has returned, per year
| Period | Cash, per year | Real terms, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 years (since 2025) | −0.2% | −2.5% |
| 5 years (since 2021) | +3.4% | −1.3% |
| 10 years (since 2016) | +3.7% | +0.3% |
| 20 years (since 2006) | +4.1% | +1.3% |
Compound annual growth of the median sold price; the real column deflates by ONS CPIH. Annualised figures smooth the cycle (the chart above shows the cycle), and past growth is a record, not a forecast.
How many homes change hands in MK42
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
Monthly registrations. The sawtooth is seasonal; the register runs weeks behind completions at the right-hand edge.
The register shows 496 MK42 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 1,088 sales a year before the financial crisis and 666 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.
Rents around MK42
MK42 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.
£1,168 a month is £14,016 a year, which against the £319,500 median sold price makes a gross yield of 4.4%. 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.
Asked and answered: MK42 (Castle)
How much did a house sell for in MK42 (Castle)?
Are property prices falling in MK42 (Castle)?
Is MK42 (Castle) a good place to buy a house?
Where do MK42 prices go next?
Prediction is not this page's business. Its business is the record, which says: the median is up 18% over five years in cash but down 7% 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 MK42 today
Everything above is what homes in MK42 sold for. This is what you could actually buy today: 88 homes currently on the market from 6 agents publishing to HomesIndex, at a typical asking price 19% below the MK42 median sold price.
33% of current listings sit under the prices comparable homes actually fetched. Each listing is compared with recent recorded sales of similar homes nearby.
- Abbott Crescent, Kempston, Bedford, B...
- St. Leonards Avenue, Bedford, Bedford...
- Willow Road, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK42
"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 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.
The price of an extra bedroom in MK
What homes of each size actually sold for across the MK area, from the Land Registry record. The jump between sizes is local: in some areas a third bedroom adds a quarter to the price, in others nearly four fifths, so a national rule of thumb will mislead you here.
| 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%) | — | — |
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
MK42 ranks 1 of 26 in the MK 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.
Winners and losers across the MK area, five years
The districts that gained and lost most in cash terms, each row linking through to its own report.
Inside MK42, sector by sector
The next slice down is the postcode sector: a group of streets, each with its own report. Two sectors a short walk apart can trade at sharply different prices.
| Sector | Median (latest) | Sales that year |
|---|---|---|
| MK42 0 | £305,500 | 46 |
| MK42 6 | £363,000 | 48 |
| MK42 7 | £310,000 | 47 |
| MK42 8 | £315,000 | 37 |
| MK42 9 | £257,500 | 40 |
How MK42 compares nearby
Same city, different markets. The neighbouring districts of the MK area, dearest first:
| District | Median | 5-year |
|---|---|---|
| MK44 | £425,000 | -1% |
| MK17 | £420,000 | +6% |
| MK1 | £405,000 | +17% |
| MK46 | £405,000 | +1% |
| MK5 | £400,000 | +7% |
| MK45 | £397,500 | +6% |
| MK43 | £389,500 | +11% |
| MK19 | £387,500 | +5% |
| MK18 | £370,000 | +1% |
| MK10 | £357,500 | +2% |
| MK3 | £349,000 | +18% |
| MK4 | £347,500 | +2% |
| MK8 | £345,000 | -5% |
| MK41 | £340,000 | +11% |
| MK16 | £339,000 | +3% |
| MK40 | £327,500 | +11% |
| MK11 | £325,000 | -4% |
| MK14 | £325,000 | +10% |
| MK15 | £325,000 | +1% |
| MK42 (this report) | £319,500 | +18% |
| MK7 | £310,000 | +5% |
| MK12 | £295,000 | +10% |
| MK13 | £291,000 | +13% |
| MK2 | £290,000 | +12% |
Thinking of selling in MK42? 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 MK42'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.
For local estate agents: each district report carries one featured-agent spot, free while founding places last. Claim MK42.
Dig further
Answers come from the same Land Registry data behind this report, and the AI knows you are asking about MK42. Free, with a one click sign in.
See every individual MK42 sale on the live map, mapped to the exact address, or zoom the average prices map from neighbourhood shading down to single homes. The report tool writes a custom answer to a specific question, and the mortgage and rent calculator on any sale 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.