Top Valley East
Nottingham 038 · 5 sub-areas · 7,846 residents
Nottingham 038 is a residential neighbourhood within Nottingham, home to around 7,800 people. A typical two-bedroom flat lets for around £910 a month — notably below the UK national median — and almost all residents have gigabit broadband available. The area carries high deprivation scores, which helps explain both the lower rents and a significant share of social housing.
Top Valley East is a green, lower-density part of Nottingham — parks within walking distance of most addresses, a slower weekday rhythm, and a population skewed toward longer-tenure households rather than transient renters.
Overview
What's it like to live in Top Valley East?
2 parks and 7 playgrounds are within five minutes' walk, so greenspace is reliably close at hand; Recorded crime is higher than the national norm — common for built-up urban areas, but worth weighing if you're looking for a quieter base; rents are roughly in line with the national norm, at around £1,008 a month for a typical home; gigabit broadband is effectively universal.
Generated from the latest May 2026 data · refreshed automatically
Figures are aggregated across 5 sub-areas — population-weighted means for rates, sums for counts. Sources cited beneath each section.
Top Valley East in Nottingham
Living in Top Valley East
This part of Nottingham sits at the more affordable end of the city's rental market, with rents that undercut the UK's typical two-bedroom figure by a meaningful margin. The neighbourhood has a grounded, settled character — not a student-heavy postcode, not a gentrifying hotspot, but a place where a fair proportion of households have been here a while. Greenspace is genuinely close: the nearest is roughly 160 metres away, and nearly all residents are within an easy walk of it, which gives the area a less hemmed-in feel than some denser inner-city postcodes.
The cost picture is clear. A two-bedroom home runs around £910 a month and a three-bedroom around £1,044. Rents rose by roughly 4.8% year-on-year, in line with broader East Midlands trends. Council tax (Band D) comes to around £2,755 a year. The median home sale price is around £182,000, and the deposit-saving period for a typical buyer is estimated at around 3.4 years — competitive by national standards, though affordability is still stretched for lower earners given that rents absorb nearly 59% of typical take-home pay.
Around two in five households are social renters — a significantly higher share than most Nottingham neighbourhoods — and just over 44% own their home. The area has a notably high proportion of single-person households, at over 42%, alongside a relatively modest share of couples with children. That mix shapes the community feel: more individual, less family-suburban than some of the city's outer areas.
For getting around, most residents drive — over half use a car for the commute. The nearest mainline rail station is roughly 2.6 km away, around a 33-minute walk or a short drive. There's also a tram stop within about 2.1 km. The unemployment claimant rate of 6.1% is above the national norm, and the area ranks in the most deprived decile nationally, which is relevant context when weighing up the area's challenges alongside its low rents and green surroundings. See the streets and sub-areas below for more.
What you'll need on day one
Compare Top Valley East with
Frequently asked
- Is Nottingham 038 a nice place to live?
- It depends what you're after. Rents are genuinely low, greenspace is close — the nearest is only about 160 metres away — and broadband is excellent. The trade-off is a high crime rate (around 131 per 1,000 residents annually) and schools that fall well below the national Ofsted average. It suits renters on tighter budgets more than families prioritising school quality.
- What is the rent in Nottingham 038?
- A one-bedroom typically runs around £732 a month, a two-bedroom around £910, and a three-bedroom around £1,044. These are estimates scaled from city-level data using local sale prices. Rents rose about 4.8% year-on-year, and the typical two-bedroom figure is well below the UK national median of around £1,200.
- Is Nottingham 038 safe?
- Crime runs at roughly 131.5 incidents per 1,000 residents a year — noticeably above the UK national average of around 80 per 1,000. The neighbourhood sits in the most deprived national decile, which correlates with higher crime rates. It's not unusually dangerous within Nottingham, but it is above average by national standards.
- What's the commute from Nottingham 038 to Nottingham city centre?
- The nearest tram stop is roughly 2.1 km away and the nearest mainline rail station around 2.6 km — both walkable or a short drive. Around 54% of residents commute by car. By public transport, the nearest major UK employment hub is around 81 minutes away; Birmingham is roughly 94 minutes by rail or bus.
- Who lives in Nottingham 038?
- A mixed-age community with no single dominant age group. Nearly 42% of households are social renters — well above the Nottingham norm — and over 42% are single-person households. The degree-qualified share is relatively low at around 18%, and around 87% of residents were born in the UK.
- What schools are near Nottingham 038?
- There are 83 schools within 2 km, but only around 34% are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted — far below the national share of roughly 89%. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is approximately 1.9 km away. Families should check individual school catchments carefully before committing to the area.
- How affordable is buying a home in Nottingham 038?
- The median sale price is around £182,000 and a typical buyer can save a deposit in roughly 3.4 years — relatively quick by English standards. That said, rents absorb nearly 59% of typical take-home pay, which makes saving harder for current renters. The area's low prices reflect its high deprivation ranking rather than strong investment fundamentals.