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Birkbeck College market report WC1E, London
The WC1E (Birkbeck College) house price history in full, 1995 to 2026, in cash and in today's money. Everything below comes from 582 sales recorded by HM Land Registry in WC1E (London) since 1995, real completion prices from real purchases, alongside the ONS's current rent figures. No valuations, no estimates, no asking prices.
Sales data to June 2026. Rents: ONS, May 2026. Regenerated with every monthly data refresh.
In short: the middle 2026 sale in WC1E (London) came in at £770,000, out of 3 registered, down 17% on five years earlier, and the mean stands at £805,000, and by floor area homes here have averaged about £12,340 per square metre over the last five years. The record behind it is 582 completed sales lodged with HM Land Registry since 1995, monthly refreshed, with no valuations or asking prices anywhere in the figures.
The postcode district WC1E covering Birkbeck College, University College London, SOAS sits in London. 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 WC1E 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 WC1E homes really sell for
The 2026 median for WC1E is £770,000, taken from 3 registered sales. The mean, which is what most sites call the "average house price", is £805,000, almost on top of it, so sales bunch tightly around the typical price.
Price per square metre in WC1E
Measured by floor area, the last five years of WC1E sales average about £12,340 per square metre. Price per square metre is the fair way to compare a one-bed flat with a four-bed house, and it comes from the Energy Performance Certificate on each sold home.
The national median for England and Wales is £285,000, which puts WC1E 170% above the country at large.
A typical WC1E home, priced year by year (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 | £770,000 | £770,000 | 3 |
| 2025 | £820,000 | £839,609 | 9 |
| 2024 | £1,395,000 | £1,483,172 | 13 |
| 2023 | £1,045,000 | £1,148,200 | 7 |
| 2022 | £750,000 | £879,461 | 17 |
| 2021 | £925,000 | £1,171,169 | 14 |
| 2020 | £642,500 | £833,657 | 12 |
| 2019 | £696,000 | £912,289 | 9 |
| 2018 | £632,500 | £843,134 | 6 |
| 2017 | £722,500 | £985,417 | 14 |
| 2016 | £1,061,200 | £1,484,629 | 6 |
| 2015 | £581,200 | £821,236 | 12 |
| 2014 | £700,000 | £993,072 | 11 |
| 2013 | £720,000 | £1,036,008 | 27 |
| 2012 | £826,000 | £1,215,769 | 14 |
| 2011 | £613,800 | £926,602 | 18 |
| 2010 | £555,000 | £870,383 | 17 |
| 2009 | £495,000 | £795,717 | 19 |
| 2008 | £600,000 | £983,527 | 62 |
| 2007 | £340,000 | £576,735 | 15 |
| 2006 | £412,000 | £715,179 | 49 |
| 2005 | £359,000 | £638,875 | 17 |
| 2004 | £311,000 | £564,837 | 24 |
| 2003 | £294,200 | £541,988 | 16 |
| 2002 | £250,000 | £470,373 | 21 |
| 2001 | £247,500 | £475,806 | 18 |
| 2000 | £180,000 | £353,250 | 23 |
| 1999 | £172,500 | £343,783 | 26 |
| 1998 | £131,000 | £264,433 | 25 |
| 1997 | £116,500 | £238,918 | 28 |
| 1996 | £90,800 | £191,493 | 16 |
| 1995 | £84,500 | £183,690 | 14 |
In cash terms the typical WC1E home went from £84,500 in 1995 to £770,000 in 2026, roughly 9 times the price. Even after inflation that is a real rise of about 319%: homes here genuinely became dearer, not merely more expensive on paper. Measured in today's money the market peaked in 2016; the current median sits about 48% below that. Someone who bought at the 2016 peak has not yet seen that price back in real terms.
Year-on-year change in the WC1E 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 2016 (+82.6% on the year before); the weakest, 2025 (−41.2%). Single-year swings like these are why the annualised table below matters more than any one year's headline.
The long view: annualised growth
| Period | Cash, per year | Real terms, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 years (since 2025) | −6.1% | −8.3% |
| 5 years (since 2021) | −3.6% | −8.0% |
| 10 years (since 2016) | −3.2% | −6.4% |
| 20 years (since 2006) | +3.2% | +0.4% |
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.
Detached, semi, terraced, flat: four markets in one
A single median hides the split beneath it. Sales of flats dominate the record here, 99% of the typed total.
| Type | Median (2026) | Sales that year | All-time sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terraced | £175,000 (1998) | – | 5 |
| Flats | £820,000 (2025) | – | 554 |
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 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.
WC1E recorded 23 sales in the last twelve months of data. Like most of England and Wales, turnover never fully recovered from 2008: the market here averaged 23 sales a year before the financial crisis and 10 a year over the last five. Price without volume misleads: a median built on few sales jumps around, and one street can tilt it. Keep in mind too that the latest year is still filling in, since sales reach the register weeks or months after completion.
What homes rent for around WC1E
WC1E falls under Camden, where the ONS puts the average private rent at £2,759 a month (May 2026 figures). Size sets most of the rent: one-beds average £2,008 a month here against £3,890 for four or more bedrooms.
Average monthly rent by size, Camden
ONS Price Index of Private Rents, May 2026.
Set against the £770,000 median sold price, £2,759 a month is £33,108 a year, a gross yield of 4.3%: 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.
The shape of the WC1E market
Only 23 sales completed here in the last twelve months of data, which makes WC1E 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.
Asked and answered: WC1E (Birkbeck College)
Is WC1E (Birkbeck College) a good place to buy a house?
How much did a house sell for in WC1E (Birkbeck College)?
Are property prices falling in WC1E (Birkbeck College)?
What happens to WC1E prices now?
Prediction is not this page's business. Its business is the record, which says: the median is down 17% over five years in cash but down 34% 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 WC1E today
Everything above is what homes in WC1E sold for. This is what you could actually buy today: 6 homes currently on the market from 3 agents publishing to HomesIndex, at a typical asking price 22% below the WC1E median sold price.
50% 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.
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 WC1E 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 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. Where too few homes exist to say anything meaningful, the cell is blank.
The risers and the fallers
WC1E ranks 11 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.
Five-year change in the median, WC area districts
The biggest risers and fallers in cash terms; every row links to that district's report.
Inside WC1E, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| WC1E 6 | £742,500 | 2 |
| WC1E 7 | £930,000 | 1 |
How WC1E 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 | £1,650,000 | +50% |
| WC2N | £1,200,000 | +24% |
| WC2H | £855,000 | -14% |
| WC2E | £800,000 | +37% |
| WC1X | £793,000 | -29% |
| WC1E (this report) | £770,000 | -17% |
| WC1V | £763,000 | +35% |
| WC1R | £590,000 | -28% |
| WC2R | £575,000 | -41% |
| WC1N | £530,000 | -13% |
| WC1H | £445,000 | +13% |
Before you sell in WC1E: what the record supports
Start from what homes here actually sold for, not an estimate. Before booking a house valuation or flat valuation in WC1E, use the average prices map for a rough value: zoom from WC1E's shading down to the sold homes on your own street. The figures above are every recorded WC1E sale; agents price with this same Land Registry record, and now you have it too.
Estate agents working WC1E: the featured spot on this report is free for founding agents, one per district. Claim WC1E.
Dig further
The AI answers from the same Land Registry data this report is built on, already scoped to WC1E. Free after a one click sign in.
The live map plots every individual WC1E 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.
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.