Placetrics
City · London

Living in Kensington and Chelsea

21 neighbourhoods · 100 sub-areas
Crime vs nat. avg
1.4× nat.
1.4× nat. avg · 145.5 / 1k / yr · #315 of 318 cities
Good schools
33%
#296 of 296 cities
Commute to hub
14 min
#29 of 318 cities
Jobs density
0.88
#7 of 318 cities
Avg rent
£3,599/mo
-1.1% YoY · #314 of 314 cities
Council tax
£193/mo
Estimated (Band D)
Section 1 / 8

Neighbourhoods in Kensington and Chelsea

Tap any row or map polygon to drill into that neighbourhood — hovering on desktop will preview the link before you click. Switch the tab strip above the table to focus on Affordability, Schools, Transport, Safety or Wealth — the columns swap and the default sort follows.

21 neighbourhoods · 100 sub-areas

Rent, scores and YoY change at a glance.

Golborne & Swinbrook£2,587-1.1%2415
West Brompton£2,801-1.1%5360
Earl's Court£2,812-1.1%256
Fulham Road£2,955-1.1%3435
North Kensington£3,010-1.1%2229
Kensington Gardens£3,022-1.1%4754
Portobello£3,098-1.1%1715
Notting Dale£3,274-1.1%7323
Chelsea Riverside West£3,320-1.1%1310
Ladbroke Grove£3,410-1.1%4635
Notting Hill Gate£3,551-1.1%2630
Holland Park£3,590-1.1%5970
Notting Hill South£3,633-1.1%1923
South Kensington£3,741-1.1%4245
Notting Hill West£3,855-1.1%2020
Chelsea Manor & Royal Hospital£3,953-1.1%3153
Chelsea Riverside East£4,092-1.1%3140
Queen's Gate£4,407-1.1%3342
Kensington Abingdon£4,408-1.1%4156
Brompton£4,493-1.1%3428
Hans Town£4,728-1.1%2316

Sources: ONS, MHCLG, DfT, DESNZ, Defra, Police.uk, Ofsted, Ofcom, HM Land Registry. Some columns (salary, council tax, HPI) are published at council-area level.

Section 2 / 8

Where to look in Kensington and Chelsea

Three short answers to "where should I focus?" in Kensington and Chelsea. Each list is filtered from the same neighbourhood data above — the basis of each shortlist is stated above the list so you know what's been weighted.

Top 5 cheapest

Lowest estimated monthly rent. Rent is the LAD-published ONS PIPR median, scaled per neighbourhood by local sale prices (Land Registry).

  1. 1.Golborne & Swinbrook£2,587/mo
  2. 2.West Brompton£2,801/mo
  3. 3.Earl's Court£2,812/mo
  4. 4.Fulham Road£2,955/mo
  5. 5.North Kensington£3,010/mo
Top 5 most desirable

Highest composite liveability — combines safety, schools, transport access and rental affordability into one 0–100 score (higher = more liveable).

  1. 1.Notting Dale73/100
  2. 2.Holland Park59/100
  3. 3.West Brompton53/100
  4. 4.Kensington Gardens47/100
  5. 5.Ladbroke Grove46/100
Section 3 / 8

Cost of living

Median rent and council tax across Kensington and Chelsea.

Avg rent
£3,599/mo
#314 of 314 cities
Sale price
£1,156,666
-11.2% YoY
Yrs to deposit
11.4 yr
Rent & price breakdownBy bedroom count · property type · affordability
council-area level rent by bedroom
ONS PIPR median for the council area
1 bed£2,572/mo
2 bed£3,341/mo
3 bed£3,966/mo
4 bed£5,513/mo
Sale price by property type
HMLR HPI average
Detached£4,392,451
Semi-detached£2,959,767
Terraced£2,330,129
Flat£973,965
Affordability
Price-to-earnings22.9×
Rent / take-home93%
Council tax (estimated, full council area)£2,318/yr
Mortgage (25y, 5%)£5,617/mo

Rent: ONS PIPR (council area). Council tax: VOA + MHCLG. Sale prices: HM Land Registry.

Section 4 / 8

Safety in Kensington and Chelsea

Crime in Kensington and Chelsea runs at 1.4× the national average. Bottom 10% (#315 of 318 cities) The supporting per-1,000-residents-per-year rate is 145.5, averaged across the council area's neighbourhoods.

How crime is measured

What's counted. Incidents recorded by territorial police forces and published to data.police.uk each month. Rates use the latest 12 months of data divided by the area's mid-2024 ONS resident population — so the figure is reported incidents per 1,000 residents per year.

Anti-social behaviour is the largest category in most areas and is worth reading carefully — it's a community-reports bucket (noise, rowdiness, nuisance), not "crime" in the legal sense. ASB and shoplifting are weighted lower than violent offences in the safety score on each page.

Caveats. The denominator is residents, so workday and tourist destinations can look worse than they feel for someone living there. Greater Manchester forces stopped publishing to data.police.uk in 2020, so figures for those areas are intentionally blank rather than misleadingly low.

ContextRates are per resident. As a major workday and tourist destination, the daytime population here is much larger than the resident base — so the per-resident figure overstates a typical resident's exposure.
Total crime / 1k / yr
145.5
#315 of 318 cities
Crime detailTop crime types · safest neighbourhoods in this council area
All crime categories
incidents / 1,000 residents / year — sorted high → low
Violent & sexual offences
30.1
Anti-social behaviour
27.5
Other theft
13.3
Vehicle crime
11.6
Shoplifting
9.1
Theft from the person
8.2
Public order
7.6
Burglary
7.4
Criminal damage & arson
6.8
Drugs
5.4
Robbery
3.3
Bicycle theft
2.1
Other crime
1.4
Possession of weapons
1.1
Safest neighbourhoods in Kensington and Chelsea
by safety score (higher = safer)
Holland Park70/100
West Brompton60/100
Kensington Abingdon56/100

Source: data.police.uk — incident counts adjusted for population, then averaged across the council area's neighbourhoods. National average = England + Wales population-weighted mean.

Section 5 / 8

Schools in Kensington and Chelsea

33% of schools serving Kensington and Chelsea are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted. Bottom 10% (#296 of 296 cities)

Good or Outstanding
33%
#296 of 296 cities
Good w/in 2 km
49%
#26 of 318 cities
School breakdownOfsted distribution · best neighbourhoods for schools
Ofsted rating distribution
Good33%
Outstanding (count)0
Good (count)1
Requires improvement0
Inadequate0
Best neighbourhoods for schools in Kensington and Chelsea
by school score
Chelsea Riverside East99/100
Chelsea Riverside West99/100
Fulham Road98/100

Ofsted school inspection ratings, latest inspection per school.

Section 6 / 8

Transport in Kensington and Chelsea

Modelled door-to-door commute from this council area to nearby employment hubs. Closest first.

To London
14 min
Median across local areas
To Birmingham
98 min
Median across local areas
To Bristol
102 min
Median across local areas
Transport detailAll city commute times · mode share · best-connected neighbourhoods
Commute to major UK cities
public transport, off-peak typical
London
14 min
Birmingham
98 min
Bristol
102 min
Cardiff
123 min
Sheffield
141 min
Manchester
148 min
Leeds
153 min
Liverpool
158 min
Edinburgh
267 min
Glasgow
293 min
How residents travel to work
Census 2021, mode share
Car7%Public15%Active13%WFH63%
Best-connected neighbourhoods in Kensington and Chelsea
by transport score
South Kensington99/100
West Brompton99/100
Kensington Gardens99/100

DfT Journey Time Statistics + ONS Travel-to-Work.

Section 7 / 8

Job access from Kensington and Chelsea

Kensington and Chelsea has 0.88 jobs per resident locally. Best 5% nationally

Jobs per resident
0.88
#7 of 318 cities
5y jobs growth
-4.3%
Job access detailReachability tiers · sector mix in this council area
Reachable jobs by mode
Drive — 100 jobs6 min
PT — 100 jobs4 min
Drive — 500 jobs6 min
PT — 500 jobs3 min
Drive — 5,000 jobs9 min
PT — 5,000 jobs12 min
Local job mix by sector
ONS BRES, % of local jobs
Retail & hospitality
34.2%
Health & social care
14.8%
Professional & business svcs
10.3%
Education
5.8%
Tech & ICT
5.3%
Finance & insurance
2.9%
Construction
1.9%
Manufacturing
1.3%

ONS BRES (jobs density) + DfT job-accessibility minutes.

FAQ

Frequently asked about Kensington and Chelsea

Short answers to the questions we get most often. Each answer is anchored in the data above and links onward where you can dig deeper.

What is the average rent in Kensington and Chelsea?
The median monthly rent across Kensington and Chelsea is £3,599, based on ONS Private Rental Prices data. Individual neighbourhoods vary — see the shortlist above for the cheapest and most desirable areas.
Where is the cheapest place to rent in Kensington and Chelsea?
The cheapest neighbourhood in Kensington and Chelsea by estimated median rent is Golborne & Swinbrook at approximately £2,587/month. The full top-five cheapest list and our methodology are above.
What's the best neighbourhood to live in Kensington and Chelsea?
By our composite liveability score (which blends safety, transport, schools, rent affordability and EPC), the top-ranked neighbourhood in Kensington and Chelsea is Notting Dale at 73/100. The score is editorial; see /methodology/scoring/liveability for the formula.
Is Kensington and Chelsea a safe area?
Kensington and Chelsea has an average safety score of 36/100 across its constituent neighbourhoods (higher is safer). The score is the national percentile rank of police-recorded crimes per 1,000 residents per year, inverted so 100 means the safest 1% of England + Wales.
What is council tax in Kensington and Chelsea?
The most common council tax band in Kensington and Chelsea is not yet published, with the Band D annual charge currently around £1,156. Council tax is set at the local authority level so the same banding applies to every postcode within Kensington and Chelsea.
What is the average salary in Kensington and Chelsea?
The median annual resident salary in Kensington and Chelsea is £46,690, per ONS ASHE 2025. This is salary for people who live in Kensington and Chelsea, not for people who commute in to work there. Workplace median salary is published separately.
What is the average house price in Kensington and Chelsea?
The average property price in Kensington and Chelsea is approximately £1,225,499 according to HM Land Registry's House Price Index. Individual neighbourhoods vary — typically ±20% around this council area median.
What's the rental yield in Kensington and Chelsea?
Gross rental yield in Kensington and Chelsea is approximately 3.8% — the council-area level median rent annualised over the council-area level median sale price. Net yield (after agency, void, maintenance and tax) typically runs 30–40% lower.
How long does it take to save a deposit in Kensington and Chelsea?
Saving a 10% deposit at the council area median sale price on the council area median salary, while putting away 10% of takehome pay each month, takes approximately 11.4 years in Kensington and Chelsea. Faster if you save more, slower if rents are eating into savings.
Is gigabit broadband available in Kensington and Chelsea?
100% of premises in Kensington and Chelsea are gigabit-capable per Ofcom Connected Nations 2025. Coverage is patchier in older terraces and rural fringes — check your specific postcode for service availability.
What's the unemployment rate in Kensington and Chelsea?
3.5% of 16-64 residents in Kensington and Chelsea are on the DWP Claimant Count — Universal Credit while seeking work, or Jobseeker's Allowance. That's the live monthly local indicator. It's narrower than the ONS Labour Force Survey "ILO unemployment rate" (which counts anyone actively job-seeking on a separate denominator) and narrower again than Census 2021's "% unemployed" (which is calculated against all 16+ residents and so isn't directly comparable).
How many neighbourhoods are in Kensington and Chelsea?
Kensington and Chelsea contains 21 neighbourhood neighbourhoods covering 100 sub-areas (local areas). Browse the full list at the bottom of this page or use the neighbourhood map above to drill into a specific area.
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Section 8 / 8

All sub-areas in Kensington and Chelsea

Every local area, ordered by crawl priority. Most readers want the neighbourhood-level view — these are for deep-link cases or external search-engine arrivals.

Showing 80 of 100 sub-areas. Drill into any neighbourhood above for the full sub-area list.