Bournemouth

What is it like to live in Bournemouth?

Homes sold for a typical £314,000 in the 12 months to September 2026. At 3,728 of the 4,402 postcodes Ofcom reports on, every home and business can get gigabit broadband. The Environment Agency counts 350 homes and businesses at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, at 98 of its 4,500 postcodes. It has 29 primary schools, 10 secondary schools and 2 all-through schools at its postcodes within 12 km of its centre. At least 5 GP practices are at its postcodes. The nearest railway station is Bournemouth, 1.3 km from the middle of its postcodes in a straight line.

We don't rate places; here are the figures so you can judge.

Sources: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data; Ofcom Connected Nations; Environment Agency flood risk; Get Information about Schools; NHS GP practices; NaPTAN. Each figure is from a section of this page, which gives its date.

What do homes cost in Bournemouth?

Homes in Bournemouth sold for a typical £314,000 in the 12 months to September 2026, across 2,109 sales, HM Land Registry's figures show. The 12 months before gave £306,500 from 2,620 sales: not a change larger than chance would explain, given which homes happened to sell.

• Detached £445,000 784 sales
• Semi-detached £330,000 276 sales
• Terraced £290,500 164 sales
• Flat or maisonette £210,000 885 sales

Each bar is that kind's typical price, against the most expensive kind here.

Across the whole BH9 district, Bournemouth's main postcode district: a typical £355,000.

Sales at the postcodes ONS places in Bournemouth: standard sales of homes at market value. A typical price is the median, the middle sale. Sales take weeks to be registered, so the last month or two are incomplete. Each postcode page gives the figure for its own postcode sector.

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, files dated 28 October 2026.

Are new homes being built in Bournemouth?

93 of the 4,500 postcodes now in use in Bournemouth came into use in January 2020 or later, ONS says. In the 12 months to September 2025, 6 of the 2,620 homes sold in Bournemouth were newly built (Under 1%), HM Land Registry's records show; across the BH9 district, 0%.

The newest postcodes

A new postcode is often a new street or estate, but Royal Mail also makes new postcodes when it reorganises old ones, so not every one means new homes. Only postcodes still in use are counted.

New homes among the homes sold

Standard sales of homes at market value that HM Land Registry marks as newly built. New homes take longer to be registered than other sales, so the latest 12 months count fewer of them than were sold. A share is given from 5 sales or more.

Sources: ONS Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026; HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, files dated 28 October 2026.

What broadband can you get in Bournemouth?

Ofcom reports on 4,402 of the 4,500 postcodes in Bournemouth. At 3,728 of them every home and business can get gigabit broadband.

Ofcom gives each postcode's share of homes and businesses, not how many there are, so these count postcodes. Each postcode page has its own figures. A provider's checker answers for one address.

Source: Ofcom Connected Nations, Connected Nations, Spring 2026, data for January 2026.

Is Bournemouth at risk of flooding?

98 of the 4,500 postcodes in Bournemouth have a home or business in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, the Environment Agency says. At those, it puts 350 homes and businesses in an area at high or medium risk.

High: 3.3% or more a year (1 in 30). Medium: 1% to 3.3% a year. Low: 0.1% to 1% a year. Very low: under 0.1% a year (1 in 1,000). Each band is the chance of flooding in any one year.

Homes and businesses in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, as the Environment Agency counts them, added up over the postcodes. It is for the land, not each building, and leaves out surface water, groundwater and sewers. Each postcode page has its own figures and its flood warning areas.

Source: Environment Agency flood risk, published 6 July 2026.

Which schools are in Bournemouth?

The open schools at the postcodes in Bournemouth (the first 8 primaries by distance from its middle). A school for ages 4 to 18 is listed under both. Distances are straight lines from the middle of its postcodes. Distance is not a catchment: each council sets its own admission rules. Special schools and alternative provision, which children join by referral, are not listed.

An orange bar: the school has as many pupils as places, or more (Department for Education's figures).

Source: Get Information about Schools, read 17 October 2026. Each school opens its own record there.

How far is the station from Bournemouth?

The nearest railway station to the centre point of the postcodes in Bournemouth is Bournemouth Rail Station, 1.3 km away in a straight line.

• Bournemouth Rail Station Railway station 1.3 kmCycle
• Pokesdown Rail Station Railway station 2.8 kmCycle
• Branksome Rail Station Railway station 4.2 kmCycle

Straight-line distances from the centre point, not routes. Walk: under 1.2 km. Cycle: 1.2 to 5 km. Drive: further.

Straight-line distances from the middle of the postcodes, not routes. Each postcode page lists its own nearest stations and bus stops. The Department for Transport's register does not say how often services run.

Source: NaPTAN, read 17 October 2026.

Which GP surgeries are in Bournemouth?

The GP practices at the postcodes in Bournemouth, the first 5 by distance from its middle. Each practice sets the area it takes patients from, so check with it before registering.

• St Albans Medical Centre Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report November 2019, over 3 years old · Phone 01202 517333 350 mWalk
• The Banks & Bearwood Medical Centre Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report May 2016, over 3 years old · Phone 01202 593444 1.2 kmWalk
• Denmark Road Medical Centre Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report January 2020, over 3 years old · Phone 01202 521111 1.3 kmCycle
• Crescent Providence Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Outstanding CQC report May 2018, over 3 years old · Phone 01202 395195 1.8 kmCycle
• Woodlea House Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report March 2020, over 3 years old · Phone 01202 300903 1.9 kmCycle

Sources: NHS GP practices, read 17 October 2026; Care Quality Commission, ratings of 1 October 2026.

Is Bournemouth safe? Crime recorded around it

Police.uk records 5,138 crimes and reports of anti-social behaviour within a mile of the middle of the postcodes in Bournemouth over the 12 months from September 2025 to August 2026. August 2026 is the latest month it has published. These are counts, not a rate: we hold no count of the people who live, work or pass through, so we do not say whether a place is safe.

Each month, September 2025 to August 2026

By kind, over the 12 months

Also: drugs 112, robbery 79, bicycle theft 50, other crime 35, possession of weapons 27, theft from the person 24.

Police.uk says its locations "always represent the approximate location of a crime". Each crime is moved to the nearest of a fixed list of map points, each over a street centre, a public place or a commercial premises, chosen so that every point covers at least eight addresses or none. A mile is a wide circle: in a town it takes in the centre and its shops, where much crime is recorded.

Source: police.uk, data to August 2026, from its download of 30 September 2026.

Who runs Bournemouth?

Council

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

Parliamentary constituencies

Bournemouth East (2,350), Bournemouth West (2,058), Mid Dorset and North Poole (89) and 1 other

Police force area

Dorset

Region

South West

Country

England

Where the place crosses a boundary, a row lists each side with its number of postcodes. Check a postcode for its own. What council am I in?

Source: ONS Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026.