Bovingdon & Chipperfield
Dacorum 021 · 6 sub-areas · 9,523 residents
Dacorum 021 is a largely owner-occupied pocket of Dacorum in the East of England, home to around 9,500 people. A typical two-bedroom home lets for about £1,360 a month — above the national median but reflective of this area's high property values, where median sale prices sit well above £700,000. Nearly four in five residents own their home, making it one of the more settled, equity-rich parts of the district.
Bovingdon & Chipperfield is a mid-density neighbourhood of Dacorum in the East of England region. It sits between busier and quieter parts of the local authority and isn't dominated by a single use — there's a mix of workplaces, housing and local services. Most homes are owner-occupied, so turnover is low and many residents have been here a long time.
Overview
What's it like to live in Bovingdon & Chipperfield?
Greenspace is on the doorstep — a park or playing field is within walking distance of most homes; The streets feel safe by national standards — police-recorded crime is well below the country-wide median; rents are roughly in line with the national norm, at around £1,577 a month for a typical home.
Generated from the latest May 2026 data · refreshed automatically
Figures are aggregated across 6 sub-areas — population-weighted means for rates, sums for counts. Sources cited beneath each section.
Bovingdon & Chipperfield in Dacorum
Living in Bovingdon & Chipperfield
Dacorum 021 reads less like a typical rental neighbourhood and more like a place where people put down roots. Owner-occupation runs to nearly 79% — unusually high even by the standards of the wider Dacorum district — and the population skews older and more settled, with over a fifth of residents aged 65 or above. That shapes the texture of everyday life: quieter streets, longer-term neighbours, a slower residential pace.
Rents here sit above the national average for most property sizes, though they're not out of line with what you'd expect given sale prices north of £720,000. A one-bedroom flat runs around £1,090 a month; a three-bedroom home pushes to about £1,635. Those figures are estimates scaled from district-level data using local sale prices — see the cost section below for more detail. If you're renting here rather than buying, you're paying a premium for an area that the market treats as high-value owner-occupier territory.
The resident workforce is well-qualified — nearly 38% hold a degree — and the working-age population skews towards higher earners who commute out rather than work locally. Median resident salary sits around £36,500, which is meaningfully higher than the £18,700 median for jobs physically based in this area. This is a place where people live and commute from, not a major employment hub in its own right.
Practically, the nearest rail station is roughly 3 km away — about a 38-minute walk or a short drive — and public transport's role here is limited, with under 4% of residents using it to commute. Nearly 45% drive and a striking 45% work from home, which says a great deal about who lives here. Crime sits below the national average, greenspace is within a short walk for many residents, and broadband is strong, with over 82% of premises on gigabit connections. See the streets and sub-areas below for more.
What you'll need on day one
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Frequently asked
- Is Dacorum 021 a nice place to live?
- For the right person, yes. It's a quiet, settled, predominantly owner-occupied area with low crime, good broadband, and reasonable greenspace access. The trade-off is that it's car-dependent, public transport is thin, and rents and house prices are high. It suits remote workers or London commuters who want a calm residential base more than it suits people who want walkable urban life.
- What is the rent in Dacorum 021?
- Estimated rents run around £1,090 a month for a one-bedroom, £1,360 for a two-bedroom, and £1,635 for a three-bedroom. These are scaled estimates based on local sale prices rather than directly surveyed rents. Rents rose around 3.8% over the past year, and council tax (Band D) adds about £2,410 a year on top.
- Is Dacorum 021 safe?
- Yes, relatively. Crime runs at around 59 incidents per 1,000 residents a year — noticeably below the UK national rate of roughly 80 per 1,000. The area is among the least deprived in England, which tends to correlate with lower crime across most categories. It's not crime-free, but safety is unlikely to be a significant concern for most residents.
- What's the commute from Dacorum 021 to London?
- By public transport, London is around 65 minutes away. The nearest rail station is roughly 3 km from the centre of the area — about a 38-minute walk or a short drive — so you'll almost certainly need a car to reach it. That said, nearly half of residents work from home, so many people here don't commute at all.
- Who lives in Dacorum 021?
- Mostly older, settled owner-occupiers. Over a fifth of residents are 65 or above, nearly 79% own their home, and the area has a high share of degree-educated residents at 38%. It's a low-turnover neighbourhood — not somewhere with a large student or young-renter population. The typical resident is an established professional or retiree who has been in the area for some time.
- What schools are near Dacorum 021?
- There are 11 schools within a typical 2 km radius. Around 70% are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted, which is below the national average of roughly 89%. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is over 5 km away. If schools are a priority, check individual catchment boundaries carefully — proximity doesn't guarantee a place.
- Why are house prices so high in Dacorum 021?
- The median sale price here is around £725,000 — high for the East of England. The combination of a relatively affluent, established owner-occupier population, low crime, and reasonable rail access to London all push values up. At typical saving rates, it takes the average resident nearly 10 years to save a deposit, which reflects just how stretched affordability is even for well-paid residents.