Old Town & Motcombe
Eastbourne 009 · 5 sub-areas · 8,353 residents
Eastbourne 009 is a residential part of Eastbourne, home to around 8,350 people and noticeably older in profile than most comparable towns on the South East coast. A typical two-bedroom flat lets for around £1,070 a month — slightly below the national median for a 2-bed — and the area skews heavily towards owner-occupation, with nearly two in three homes owned outright or with a mortgage.
Old Town & Motcombe is a settled residential pocket of Eastbourne. The bigger gravitational centre is London, around 106 minutes away by direct train, but most days don't require leaving — local life is what people are here for.
Overview
What's it like to live in Old Town & Motcombe?
Day-to-day life sits close to greenery — a park or playing field is within easy walking distance of most addresses; 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 £1,160 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.
Old Town & Motcombe in Eastbourne
Living in Old Town & Motcombe
This part of Eastbourne has the feel of a settled, mature residential area. The population skews older than you'd find in most south-eastern towns — more than a quarter of residents are over 65, and the under-35s make up a relatively small share of the community. That shapes everything from the pace of the streets to the type of housing stock you'll find here: largely owner-occupied, a mix of houses and flats, with only around one in five homes privately rented.
On cost, Eastbourne 009 sits at the more accessible end of the South East market. A 2-bed runs around £1,070 a month, which is a touch below the UK median for that bedroom count — meaningful in a region where much of the coast and commuter belt commands a significant premium. That said, rent absorbs a substantial share of a typical local wage: with a median resident salary of just over £31,000 a year, you'd be spending close to 59% of take-home on a 2-bed at current rates. That's a squeeze worth factoring in.
Nearly a third of residents work from home — one of the higher rates you'll see in a town of this size — and the car is by far the dominant mode for those who do commute out, with 46% of residents driving to work. Public transport use is low at around 5%, which tells you something about both the local bus and rail network and the nature of where people are heading. The rail station is roughly 1.4 km away — about an 18-minute walk.
Greenspace is a genuine plus: almost three in four residents live within walkable distance of green space, and the average distance to the nearest park or open area is under 250 metres. If outdoor access matters to you, this part of Eastbourne delivers. See the streets and sub-areas below for more detail on how the neighbourhood breaks down.
What you'll need on day one
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Frequently asked
- Is Eastbourne 009 a nice place to live?
- It's a calm, settled residential area with good greenspace access — nearly three in four residents are within walking distance of a park — and crime rates below the national average. The trade-off is that local wages are modest relative to rents, and school quality within catchment distance is notably below the national norm.
- What is the rent in Eastbourne 009?
- A 1-bed runs around £813 a month, a 2-bed around £1,070, and a 3-bed around £1,294. These are neighbourhood-level estimates scaled from Eastbourne-wide official data using local sale prices. Rents rose only around 1% year-on-year — slower than much of the South East.
- Is Eastbourne 009 safe?
- Crime runs at around 70 incidents per 1,000 residents annually, below the UK national rate of roughly 80 per 1,000. It's broadly reassuring for a coastal town, though as always it's worth checking street-level data for the specific roads you're considering.
- What's the commute from Eastbourne 009 to the city centre?
- The nearest mainline rail station is about 1.4 km away — an 18-minute walk. The public-transport journey to London takes just over 104 minutes, which rules out a daily London commute for most people. Around a third of residents work from home, which is unusually high for a town of this size.
- Who lives in Eastbourne 009?
- Predominantly older, settled homeowners: over a quarter of residents are 65 or older, and two in three homes are owner-occupied. One-person households make up nearly 39% of the total. It's a relatively homogeneous community with 87% of residents UK-born.
- What schools are near Eastbourne 009?
- There are 44 schools within 2 km, but only around 20% are rated Good or Outstanding — significantly below the national share of approximately 89%. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is roughly 4.7 km away. It's worth researching individual schools and catchment boundaries carefully before committing.
- How affordable is Eastbourne 009 compared to the rest of the South East?
- Rents are modest by South East standards — a 2-bed at around £1,070 sits slightly below the UK national median for that size. The affordability challenge is the gap between rents and local wages: at a median resident salary of around £31,200, housing costs absorb close to 59% of take-home pay.