Waltham Forest

What is it like to live in Waltham Forest?

Homes sold for a typical £550,000 in the 12 months to September 2026. At 2,867 of the 3,623 postcodes Ofcom reports on, every home and business can get gigabit broadband. The Environment Agency counts 2,510 homes and businesses at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, at 300 of its 3,816 postcodes. It has at least 51 primary schools, 16 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 Wood Street, 650 metres 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 Waltham Forest?

Homes in Waltham Forest sold for a typical £550,000 in the 12 months to September 2026, across 2,116 sales, HM Land Registry's figures show. The 12 months before gave £535,000 from 3,054 sales: not a change larger than chance would explain, given which homes happened to sell.

• Detached £675,000 35 sales
• Semi-detached £700,000 205 sales
• Terraced £690,000 1,002 sales
• Flat or maisonette £401,000 874 sales

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

Across the whole E17 district, Waltham Forest's main postcode district: a typical £564,250.

Sales at the postcodes ONS places in Waltham Forest: 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 Waltham Forest?

188 of the 3,816 postcodes now in use in Waltham Forest came into use in January 2020 or later, ONS says. In the 12 months to September 2025, 132 of the 3,054 homes sold in Waltham Forest were newly built (4%), HM Land Registry's records show; across the E17 district, 6%.

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 Waltham Forest?

Ofcom reports on 3,623 of the 3,816 postcodes in Waltham Forest. At 2,867 of them every home and business can get gigabit broadband, and at 4 some cannot get decent broadband (10 Mbit/s).

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 Waltham Forest at risk of flooding?

300 of the 3,816 postcodes in Waltham Forest 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 2,510 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 Waltham Forest?

The open schools at the postcodes in Waltham Forest (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 Waltham Forest?

The nearest railway station to the centre point of the postcodes in Waltham Forest is Wood Street Rail Station, 650 m away in a straight line.

• Wood Street Rail Station Railway station 650 mWalk
• Walthamstow Central Rail Station Railway station 900 mWalk
• Walthamstow Queens Road Rail Station Railway station 1.2 kmCycle
• Walthamstow Central Underground Station Underground, metro or tram 900 mWalk
• Blackhorse Road Underground Station Underground, metro or tram 2.1 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 Waltham Forest?

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

• Dr Dhital Practice Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report June 2019, over 3 years old · Phone 020 8430 7750 550 mWalk
• Waltham Forest Comm & Fam Hth Serv Ltd Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report March 2024 · Phone 020 8430 7710 550 mWalk
• Addison Road Medical Practice Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report May 2019, over 3 years old · Phone 020 8176 9110 650 mWalk
• The Bailey Practice Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report April 2019, over 3 years old · Phone 020 8520 5138 650 mWalk
• The Forest Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Requires improvement CQC report November 2023 · Phone 020 8498 4988 750 mWalk

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

Is Waltham Forest safe? Crime recorded around it

Police.uk records 9,429 crimes and reports of anti-social behaviour within a mile of the middle of the postcodes in Waltham Forest 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: criminal damage and arson 335, shoplifting 326, robbery 242, other crime 105, bicycle theft 95, possession of weapons 70.

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 Waltham Forest?

Councils

Waltham Forest (3,809) and Epping Forest (7)

Parliamentary constituencies

Walthamstow (1,656), Leyton and Wanstead (1,089), Chingford and Woodford Green (1,064) and 1 other

Police force areas

Metropolitan Police (3,809) and Essex (7)

Regions

London (3,809) and East of England (7)

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.