Local market reports › WC area › WC1N
Russell Square market report WC1N, London
The standing WC1N (Russell Square) property market report, rebuilt from the full public record every month. This page is built from the public record and nothing else: 1,640 completed sales registered with HM Land Registry in WC1N (London) since 1995, plus current ONS rental figures. There are no valuations, estimates or asking prices in it.
Covers registered sales to June 2026 and ONS rents for May 2026. Refreshed monthly as new sales reach the register.
In short: a typical WC1N (London) home changed hands for £530,000 in 2026 (median of 14 registered sales, down 13% on five years earlier), with the mean at £632,000, and by floor area homes here have averaged about £12,030 per square metre over the last five years. Source: 1,640 completed sales on the HM Land Registry record since 1995, updated with each monthly release. No valuations, no asking prices.
WC1N is the postcode district covering Russell Square, Great Ormond Street 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 WC1N 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.
WC1N sold prices: where the market stands
Across 14 registered 2026 sales, the typical (median) WC1N home went for £530,000. The mean is £632,000, well clear of it: the mark of a market where a small number of costly homes drag the average upwards.
House prices per square metre in WC1N
The last five years of sales put WC1N at roughly £12,030 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, WC1N runs 86% above it.
The price of a typical WC1N home, 1995 to 2026
The cash median beside its inflation-adjusted twin (ONS CPIH). The adjusted line answers the harder question, whether homes really got dearer. Hover for the figures; the legend toggles each series.
See this chart as a table
| Year | Median (cash) | Median (today's £) | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | £530,000 | £530,000 | 14 |
| 2025 | £766,200 | £784,522 | 22 |
| 2024 | £745,500 | £792,620 | 38 |
| 2023 | £750,000 | £824,067 | 31 |
| 2022 | £743,800 | £872,190 | 32 |
| 2021 | £607,000 | £768,540 | 31 |
| 2020 | £1,200,000 | £1,557,025 | 45 |
| 2019 | £675,000 | £884,763 | 26 |
| 2018 | £670,000 | £893,123 | 21 |
| 2017 | £874,800 | £1,193,139 | 27 |
| 2016 | £755,000 | £1,056,252 | 40 |
| 2015 | £708,200 | £1,000,687 | 49 |
| 2014 | £650,000 | £922,139 | 45 |
| 2013 | £640,000 | £920,896 | 71 |
| 2012 | £462,500 | £680,742 | 42 |
| 2011 | £500,000 | £754,808 | 55 |
| 2010 | £431,500 | £676,703 | 50 |
| 2009 | £370,000 | £594,778 | 51 |
| 2008 | £412,500 | £676,175 | 44 |
| 2007 | £375,000 | £636,104 | 79 |
| 2006 | £320,000 | £555,479 | 67 |
| 2005 | £306,400 | £545,269 | 78 |
| 2004 | £290,000 | £526,697 | 71 |
| 2003 | £250,000 | £460,561 | 57 |
| 2002 | £250,000 | £470,373 | 75 |
| 2001 | £241,000 | £463,310 | 58 |
| 2000 | £195,000 | £382,688 | 62 |
| 1999 | £160,000 | £318,872 | 68 |
| 1998 | £148,400 | £299,556 | 92 |
| 1997 | £156,800 | £321,565 | 80 |
| 1996 | £125,000 | £263,619 | 63 |
| 1995 | £110,800 | £240,862 | 56 |
In cash terms the typical WC1N home went from £110,800 in 1995 to £530,000 in 2026, roughly 5 times the price. Inflation explains only part of it: in today's money the rise is still about 120%, a genuine increase in what a home here costs. In inflation-adjusted terms the high-water mark was 2020. The market now sits about 66% below it, so a peak-time purchase has yet to recover its real value.
Year-on-year change in the WC1N 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 2020 (+77.8% on the year before); the weakest, 2021 (−49.4%). Single-year swings like these are why the annualised table below matters more than any one year's headline.
What WC1N has returned, per year
| Period | Cash, per year | Real terms, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 years (since 2025) | −30.8% | −32.4% |
| 5 years (since 2021) | −2.7% | −7.2% |
| 10 years (since 2016) | −3.5% | −6.7% |
| 20 years (since 2006) | +2.6% | −0.2% |
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, 92% of the typed total.
Median by property type, WC1N
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terraced | £2,000,000 (2023) | – | 131 |
| Flats | £530,000 | 13 | 1,440 |
The turnover behind the prices
Sales per year, counted
Recorded sales per year. The dip after 2008 is the financial crisis; the last bar is still filling in as recent sales get registered.
The monthly pulse, last five years
Registrations by month. The repeating sawtooth is seasonality, and the right-hand edge always dips because the register lags completions.
Over the last twelve months of data, 28 sales completed in WC1N. Like most of England and Wales, turnover never fully recovered from 2008: the market here averaged 68 sales a year before the financial crisis and 27 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 WC1N
For renting purposes WC1N sits in Camden. The ONS average private rent there is £2,759 a month (May 2026). 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 £530,000 median sold price, £2,759 a month is £33,108 a year, a gross yield of 6.2%: 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 WC1N is
Only 28 sales completed here in the last twelve months of data, which makes WC1N 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. In its area's price order WC1N comes 13 of 14, towards the cheaper end of the table.
Common questions on WC1N (Russell Square)
Is WC1N (Russell Square) a good place to buy a house?
How much did a house sell for in WC1N (Russell Square)?
Are property prices falling in WC1N (Russell Square)?
Will WC1N prices rise from here?
The record answers a different question than "what happens next": the median is down 13% over five years in cash but down 31% after inflation. Put the volume chart beside the price chart before drawing conclusions, and allow for the register's lag behind actual completions.
On the market in WC1N today
Everything above is what homes in WC1N sold for. Turning to what is actually available: 17 homes on the market right now, from 4 agents publishing to HomesIndex, at a typical asking price 18% above the WC1N median sold price.
53% of current listings sit under the prices comparable homes actually fetched. 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 WC1N 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
Real sold prices by size across the WC area, straight from the Land Registry record. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flat | £495,000 | £860,000 (+74%) | £1,405,000 (+63%) | — | — |
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
WC1N ranks 9 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 WC1N, sector by sector
Postcode sectors are the next slice down, each a group of streets with its own market report. Prices can differ sharply between two sectors a few minutes' walk apart.
| Sector | Median (latest) | Sales that year |
|---|---|---|
| WC1N 1 | £625,000 | 9 |
| WC1N 2 | £890,000 | 2 |
| WC1N 3 | £450,000 | 3 |
How WC1N 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 | £770,000 | -17% |
| WC1V | £763,000 | +35% |
| WC1R | £590,000 | -28% |
| WC2R | £575,000 | -41% |
| WC1N (this report) | £530,000 | -13% |
| WC1H | £445,000 | +13% |
Selling a home in WC1N? Price it on the evidence
Start from what homes here actually sold for, not an estimate. Before booking a house valuation or flat valuation in WC1N, use the average prices map for a rough value: zoom from WC1N's shading down to the sold homes on your own street. The figures above are every recorded WC1N sale; agents price with this same Land Registry record, and now you have it too.
For local estate agents: each district report carries one featured-agent spot, free while founding places last. Claim WC1N.
Go deeper
Answers come from the same Land Registry data behind this report, and the AI knows you are asking about WC1N. Free, with a one click sign in.
The live map plots every individual WC1N 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.