Local market reports › WC area › WC2E
Covent Garden market report WC2E, London
The WC2E (Covent Garden) house price history in full, 1995 to 2026, in cash and in today's money. Underneath every chart here sit 522 registered sales in WC2E (London) since 1995, the HM Land Registry record of what buyers really paid, with ONS figures covering rents. Nothing 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: the 2026 median for WC2E (London) is £800,000, from 6 registered sales, up 37% on five years earlier; the mean is £923,200, and by floor area homes here have averaged about £17,090 per square metre over the last five years. Behind the figures sit 522 HM Land Registry entries going back to 1995, refreshed monthly, every one a completed sale rather than a valuation or an asking price.
WC2E is the postcode district covering Covent Garden 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 WC2E 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 buyers actually paid in WC2E
Across 6 registered 2026 sales, the typical (median) WC2E home went for £800,000. The mean is £923,200, a long way above it, which tells you a few very expensive sales are pulling the average up.
House prices per square metre in WC2E
The last five years of sales put WC2E at roughly £17,090 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, WC2E runs 181% above it.
A typical WC2E 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 | £800,000 | £800,000 | 6 |
| 2025 | £1,350,000 | £1,382,283 | 19 |
| 2024 | £1,359,000 | £1,444,896 | 10 |
| 2023 | £1,050,000 | £1,153,694 | 7 |
| 2022 | £1,175,000 | £1,377,822 | 13 |
| 2021 | £585,000 | £740,685 | 7 |
| 2020 | £1,700,000 | £2,205,785 | 7 |
| 2019 | £2,607,500 | £3,417,808 | 24 |
| 2018 | £1,447,500 | £1,929,545 | 14 |
| 2017 | £1,000,000 | £1,363,900 | 19 |
| 2016 | £1,542,500 | £2,157,973 | 14 |
| 2015 | £1,587,500 | £2,243,138 | 14 |
| 2014 | £1,822,500 | £2,585,535 | 22 |
| 2013 | £1,600,000 | £2,302,240 | 27 |
| 2012 | £1,010,000 | £1,486,594 | 18 |
| 2011 | £650,000 | £981,250 | 13 |
| 2010 | £595,000 | £933,113 | 11 |
| 2009 | £455,000 | £731,416 | 12 |
| 2008 | £850,000 | £1,393,329 | 7 |
| 2007 | £434,000 | £736,185 | 10 |
| 2006 | £410,000 | £711,708 | 25 |
| 2005 | £490,000 | £872,003 | 13 |
| 2004 | £490,000 | £889,936 | 23 |
| 2003 | £605,000 | £1,114,557 | 36 |
| 2002 | £572,500 | £1,077,154 | 30 |
| 2001 | £472,000 | £907,396 | 29 |
| 2000 | £265,000 | £520,063 | 11 |
| 1999 | £345,000 | £687,567 | 10 |
| 1998 | £261,200 | £527,251 | 28 |
| 1997 | £295,000 | £604,985 | 15 |
| 1996 | £167,500 | £353,250 | 12 |
| 1995 | £252,200 | £548,244 | 16 |
In cash terms the typical WC2E home went from £252,200 in 1995 to £800,000 in 2026, roughly 3.2 times the price. Inflation explains only part of it: in today's money the rise is still about 46%, a genuine increase in what a home here costs. Measured in today's money the market peaked in 2019; the current median sits about 77% below that. Someone who bought at the 2019 peak has not yet seen that price back in real terms.
Year-on-year change in the WC2E 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 2022 (+100.9% on the year before); the weakest, 2021 (−65.6%). 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) | −40.7% | −42.1% |
| 5 years (since 2021) | +6.5% | +1.6% |
| 10 years (since 2016) | −6.4% | −9.4% |
| 20 years (since 2006) | +3.4% | +0.6% |
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 WC2E
How many homes change hands
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 last five years, month by month
Registrations by month. The repeating sawtooth is seasonality, and the right-hand edge always dips because the register lags completions.
The register shows 19 WC2E 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 22 sales a year before the financial crisis and 11 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 WC2E
For renting purposes WC2E sits in Westminster. The ONS average private rent there is £3,163 a month (May 2026). The spread runs from £2,517 a month for a typical one-bed to £5,378 at four-plus bedrooms, which is size doing most of the pricing.
Average monthly rent by size, Westminster
ONS Price Index of Private Rents, May 2026.
£3,163 a month is £37,956 a year, which against the £800,000 median sold price makes a gross yield of 4.7%. 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.
Reading the WC2E market
This is a thin market: 19 sales in the last twelve months of data. With that few transactions, one street selling well (or one block of cheap transfers) can move the median, so read the year lines as a range rather than a verdict. 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.
Common questions on WC2E (Covent Garden)
Is WC2E (Covent Garden) a good place to buy a house?
How much did a house sell for in WC2E (Covent Garden)?
Are property prices falling in WC2E (Covent Garden)?
What happens to WC2E prices now?
The record answers a different question than "what happens next": the median is up 37% over five years in cash and up 8% 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 WC2E today
Everything above is what homes in WC2E sold for. Turning to what is actually available: 2 homes on the market right now, from an agent publishing to HomesIndex, at a typical asking price 16% below the WC2E median sold price.
Of everything listed here, 0% asks less than the sold record of comparable homes. Each listing is compared with recent recorded sales of similar homes nearby.
See every WC2E 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 WC
Real sold prices by size across the WC area, straight from the Land Registry record. 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%) | — | — |
Medians of recorded sales over the last four years, by built form and bedroom count. Sold homes carry no advertised bedroom count, so sizes are estimated from their EPC records; a small number of homes will sit one size out. Where too few homes exist to say anything meaningful, the cell is blank.
The risers and the fallers
WC2E ranks 3 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 WC2E, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| WC2E 7 | £1,300,000 | 3 |
| WC2E 9 | £680,000 | 3 |
How WC2E 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 (this report) | £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% |
Before you sell in WC2E: what the record supports
Start from what homes here actually sold for, not an estimate. Before booking a house valuation or flat valuation in WC2E, use the average prices map for a rough value: zoom from WC2E's shading down to the sold homes on your own street. The figures above are every recorded WC2E sale; agents price with this same Land Registry record, and now you have it too.
Estate agents working WC2E: the featured spot on this report is free for founding agents, one per district. Claim WC2E.
Dig further
The AI answers from the same Land Registry data this report is built on, already scoped to WC2E. Free after a one click sign in.
Two maps carry on from here: every WC2E 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.
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.