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Bloomsbury market report WC1B, London
The WC1B (Bloomsbury) house price history in full, 1995 to 2026, in cash and in today's money. Everything below comes from 588 sales recorded by HM Land Registry in WC1B (London) since 1995, real completion prices from real purchases, alongside the ONS's current rent figures. No valuations, no estimates, no asking prices.
Covers registered sales to January 2026 and ONS rents for May 2026. Refreshed monthly as new sales reach the register.
In short: the typical home in WC1B (London) sold for £1,650,000 in 2026, the median of 1 registered sales, up 50% on five years earlier. The mean was £1,650,000, and by floor area homes here have averaged about £12,990 per square metre over the last five years. The figures cover 588 sales recorded by HM Land Registry since 1995 and refresh with each monthly release: completed sale prices, not valuations or asking prices.
WC1B is the postcode district covering Bloomsbury, British Museum, Southampton Row in London. 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 WC1B 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 WC1B
Across 1 registered 2026 sales, the typical (median) WC1B home went for £1,650,000. The mean is £1,650,000, almost on top of it, so sales bunch tightly around the typical price.
House prices per square metre in WC1B
Averaged across five years of sales, floor space in WC1B costs about £12,990 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.
Against a national (England and Wales) median of £285,000, WC1B runs 479% above it.
WC1B'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 | £1,650,000 | £1,650,000 | 1 |
| 2025 | £825,500 | £845,240 | 10 |
| 2024 | £1,250,000 | £1,329,007 | 9 |
| 2023 | £980,000 | £1,076,781 | 11 |
| 2022 | £1,950,000 | £2,286,598 | 8 |
| 2021 | £1,100,000 | £1,392,742 | 13 |
| 2020 | £1,075,000 | £1,394,835 | 11 |
| 2019 | £833,500 | £1,092,519 | 12 |
| 2018 | £1,125,000 | £1,499,646 | 15 |
| 2017 | £1,480,000 | £2,018,571 | 6 |
| 2016 | £917,500 | £1,283,592 | 10 |
| 2015 | £1,325,000 | £1,872,225 | 11 |
| 2014 | £1,420,000 | £2,014,518 | 11 |
| 2013 | £932,500 | £1,341,774 | 12 |
| 2012 | £635,000 | £934,641 | 17 |
| 2011 | £936,200 | £1,413,302 | 8 |
| 2010 | £750,000 | £1,176,193 | 19 |
| 2009 | £665,000 | £1,068,993 | 17 |
| 2008 | £706,200 | £1,157,611 | 20 |
| 2007 | £570,000 | £966,879 | 15 |
| 2006 | £463,500 | £804,577 | 23 |
| 2005 | £495,000 | £880,901 | 27 |
| 2004 | £383,800 | £697,056 | 36 |
| 2003 | £399,000 | £735,055 | 23 |
| 2002 | £390,000 | £733,782 | 29 |
| 2001 | £410,000 | £788,204 | 20 |
| 2000 | £285,000 | £559,313 | 23 |
| 1999 | £295,000 | £587,920 | 62 |
| 1998 | £262,800 | £530,481 | 54 |
| 1997 | £171,200 | £351,097 | 20 |
| 1996 | £156,500 | £330,051 | 20 |
| 1995 | £150,000 | £326,077 | 15 |
In cash terms the typical WC1B home went from £150,000 in 1995 to £1,650,000 in 2026, roughly 11 times the price. Inflation explains only part of it: in today's money the rise is still about 406%, a genuine increase in what a home here costs. Measured in today's money the market peaked in 2022; the current median sits about 28% 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 WC1B 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 2026 (+99.9% on the year before); the weakest, 2023 (−49.7%). Single-year swings like these are why the annualised table below matters more than any one year's headline.
Annualised returns
| Period | Cash, per year | Real terms, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 years (since 2025) | +99.9% | +95.2% |
| 5 years (since 2021) | +8.4% | +3.4% |
| 10 years (since 2016) | +6.0% | +2.5% |
| 20 years (since 2006) | +6.6% | +3.7% |
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.
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 monthly pulse, last five years
Sales as they reached the register each month. Expect the seasonal sawtooth, and discount the newest months while late entries land.
WC1B recorded 19 sales in the last twelve months of data. Like most of England and Wales, turnover never fully recovered from 2008: the market here averaged 25 sales a year before the financial crisis and 8 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 homes rent for around WC1B
The local authority for WC1B is Camden, and its ONS average private rent currently stands at £2,759 a month (May 2026 figures). The spread runs from £2,008 a month for a typical one-bed to £3,890 at four-plus bedrooms, which is size doing most of the pricing.
Average monthly rent by size, Camden
ONS Price Index of Private Rents, May 2026.
Set against the £1,650,000 median sold price, £2,759 a month is £33,108 a year, a gross yield of 2.0%: 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 kind of market WC1B is
Only 19 sales completed here in the last twelve months of data, which makes WC1B a thin market. Each figure rests on few transactions, so single streets can swing the median and the charts deserve a sceptical squint. Expect volatility in the annual figures: swings past ten per cent show up repeatedly above, and they usually reflect the mix of homes sold in a given year rather than genuine repricing. Among the 14 measurable districts of its area, WC1B ranks 4 by median price: firmly in the dearer tier.
What people ask about WC1B (Bloomsbury)
How much did a house sell for in WC1B (Bloomsbury)?
Are property prices falling in WC1B (Bloomsbury)?
Is WC1B (Bloomsbury) a good place to buy a house?
Will WC1B prices rise from here?
No honest page predicts prices, so this one sticks to the record: the median is up 50% over five years in cash and up 18% 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.
What is for sale in WC1B right now
Everything above is what homes in WC1B sold for. The live side of the market holds 9 homes at the moment, listed by 6 agents publishing to HomesIndex, at a typical asking price 24% below the WC1B median sold price.
Of everything listed here, 22% asks less than the sold record of comparable homes. Every listing is measured against recent recorded sales of similar nearby homes.
"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 WC1B home for sale on the map →
Refreshed every Monday and Thursday from agents' own feeds to HomesIndex, so a sample of the market rather than all of it. An asking price remains an ask, not a sale.
The price of an extra bedroom in WC
The Land Registry record, split by size: what each kind of home actually sold for across the WC 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flat | £495,000 | £860,000 (+74%) | £1,405,000 (+63%) | — | — |
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
WC1B ranks 1 of 14 in the WC 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.
WC area districts: five years of change
The biggest risers and fallers in cash terms; every row links to that district's report.
Inside WC1B, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| WC1B 3 | £1,650,000 | 1 |
| WC1B 4 | £676,200 | 2 |
| WC1B 5 | £725,000 | 2 |
How WC1B compares nearby
Same city, different markets. The neighbouring districts of the WC area, dearest first:
| District | Median | 5-year |
|---|---|---|
| WC1A | £5,162,500 | +29% |
| WC2B | £2,300,000 | +43% |
| WC2A | £2,060,000 | +18% |
| WC1B (this report) | £1,650,000 | +50% |
| WC2N | £1,200,000 | +24% |
| WC2H | £855,000 | -14% |
| WC2E | £800,000 | +37% |
| WC1X | £793,000 | -29% |
| WC1E | £770,000 | -17% |
| WC1V | £763,000 | +35% |
| WC1R | £590,000 | -28% |
| WC2R | £575,000 | -41% |
| WC1N | £530,000 | -13% |
| WC1H | £445,000 | +13% |
Thinking of selling in WC1B? 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 WC1B'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 WC1B.
Take it further
Answers come from the same Land Registry data behind this report, and the AI knows you are asking about WC1B. Free, with a one click sign in.
See every individual WC1B 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.
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.