Kensington and Chelsea

What is it like to live in Kensington and Chelsea?

Homes sold for a typical £1,020,000 in the 12 months to September 2026, down 16.1% on the 12 months before. At 3,288 of the 4,085 postcodes Ofcom reports on, every home and business can get gigabit broadband. The Environment Agency counts 27 homes and businesses at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, at 57 of its 4,254 postcodes. It has at least 43 primary schools, 10 secondary schools and 4 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 West Brompton, 1.4 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 Kensington and Chelsea?

Homes in Kensington and Chelsea sold for a typical £1,020,000 in the 12 months to September 2026, across 1,096 sales, down 16.1% on the 12 months before, HM Land Registry's figures show.

• Detached £9,300,000 9 sales
• Semi-detached £10,250,000 17 sales
• Terraced £3,000,000 192 sales
• Flat or maisonette £847,500 878 sales

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

Across the whole SW3 district, Kensington and Chelsea's main postcode district: a typical £1,162,367.

Sales at the postcodes ONS places in Kensington and Chelsea: 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 Kensington and Chelsea?

89 of the 4,254 postcodes now in use in Kensington and Chelsea came into use in January 2020 or later, ONS says. In the 12 months to September 2025, 90 of the 1,790 homes sold in Kensington and Chelsea were newly built (5%), HM Land Registry's records show; across the SW3 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 Kensington and Chelsea?

Ofcom reports on 4,085 of the 4,254 postcodes in Kensington and Chelsea. At 3,288 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 Kensington and Chelsea at risk of flooding?

57 of the 4,254 postcodes in Kensington and Chelsea 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 27 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 Kensington and Chelsea?

The open schools at the postcodes in Kensington and Chelsea (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 Kensington and Chelsea?

The nearest railway station to the centre point of the postcodes in Kensington and Chelsea is West Brompton Rail Station, 1.4 km away in a straight line.

• West Brompton Rail Station Railway station 1.4 kmCycle
• Kensington (Olympia) Rail Station Railway station 1.5 kmCycle
• London Paddington Rail Station Railway station 2.0 kmCycle
• High Street Kensington Underground Station Underground, metro or tram 350 mWalk
• Gloucester Road Underground Station Underground, metro or tram 700 mWalk

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 Kensington and Chelsea?

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

• Scarsdale Medical Centre Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report May 2018, over 3 years old · Phone 020 7938 1887 200 mWalk
• The Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report March 2024 · Phone 020 7581 3040 350 mWalk
• Emperor's Gate Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report November 2023 · Phone 020 7244 5670 400 mWalk
• Holland Park Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report February 2017, over 3 years old · Phone 020 7221 4334 450 mWalk
• The Abingdon Health Centre Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report October 2017, over 3 years old · Phone 020 7795 8470 700 mWalk

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

Is Kensington and Chelsea safe? Crime recorded around it

Police.uk records 13,199 crimes and reports of anti-social behaviour within a mile of the middle of the postcodes in Kensington and Chelsea 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 408, criminal damage and arson 359, robbery 254, bicycle theft 251, other crime 99, possession of weapons 50.

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 each way 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 Kensington and Chelsea?

Councils

Kensington and Chelsea (4,253) and Westminster (1)

Parliamentary constituencies

Kensington and Bayswater (3,095) and Chelsea and Fulham (1,159)

Police force area

Metropolitan Police

Region

London

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.