Placetrics
City · South East

Living in Medway

38 neighbourhoods · 169 sub-areas
Crime vs nat. avg
0.76× nat.
24% below nat. avg · 76.8 / 1k / yr · #227 of 318 cities
Good schools
100%
#1 of 296 cities
Commute to hub
61 min
#130 of 318 cities
Jobs density
0.35
#246 of 318 cities
Avg rent
£1,241/mo
+5.1% YoY · #205 of 314 cities
Council tax
£172/mo
Estimated (Band D)
Section 1 / 8

Neighbourhoods in Medway

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.

38 neighbourhoods · 169 sub-areas

Rent, scores and YoY change at a glance.

Chatham South East£1,031+5.1%7624
Luton£1,034+5.1%7413
Gillingham North£1,051+5.1%7732
Gillingham Central£1,053+5.1%794
Chatham Central and Rochester Riverside£1,054+5.1%715
Gillingham South£1,090+5.1%6428
Chatham South West£1,160+5.1%5130
Rochester West£1,160+5.1%4925
Chatham Maritime£1,160+5.1%6128
Gillingham North East£1,162+5.1%4936
Gillingham East£1,164+5.1%5724
Strood South & Temple Marsh£1,171+5.1%3358
Wayfield£1,183+5.1%3137
Strood North & Frindsbury£1,199+5.1%6247
Lordswood£1,214+5.1%4186
Settington£1,220+5.1%3066
Rochester East£1,223+5.1%7676
Capstone£1,234+5.1%2466
Rede Common£1,251+5.1%4435
Horsted£1,251+5.1%3973
Twydall£1,254+5.1%4775
Hoo Peninsula£1,258+5.1%661
Walderslade£1,270+5.1%2971
Rainham North East£1,271+5.1%5454
Parkwood East£1,276+5.1%5788
Rochester South West£1,279+5.1%4068
Rochester South East£1,285+5.1%5069
Parkwood West£1,309+5.1%5184
Gillingham South East£1,328+5.1%3447
Hoo St Werburgh & High Halstow£1,332+5.1%1365
Wainscott & City Estate£1,338+5.1%1372
Rainham North West£1,361+5.1%4785
Cuxton & Halling£1,379+5.1%5584
Rainham South East£1,397+5.1%7184
Broomhill£1,397+5.1%5588
Cliffe£1,470+5.1%1876
Hempstead & Wigmore£1,480+5.1%3091
Rainham South West£1,566+5.1%1874

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 Medway

Three short answers to "where should I focus?" in Medway. 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.Chatham South East£1,031/mo
  2. 2.Luton£1,034/mo
  3. 3.Gillingham North£1,051/mo
  4. 4.Gillingham Central£1,053/mo
  5. 5.Chatham Central and Rochester Riverside£1,054/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.Gillingham Central79/100
  2. 2.Gillingham North77/100
  3. 3.Chatham South East76/100
  4. 4.Rochester East76/100
  5. 5.Luton74/100
Section 3 / 8

Cost of living

Median rent and council tax across Medway.

Avg rent
£1,241/mo
#205 of 314 cities
Sale price
£301,350
+2.0% YoY
Yrs to deposit
4.5 yr
Rent & price breakdownBy bedroom count · property type · affordability
council-area level rent by bedroom
ONS PIPR median for the council area
1 bed£902/mo
2 bed£1,145/mo
3 bed£1,344/mo
4 bed£1,842/mo
Sale price by property type
HMLR HPI average
Detached£534,721
Semi-detached£353,648
Terraced£275,508
Flat£169,723
Affordability
Price-to-earnings9.0×
Rent / take-home44%
Council tax (estimated, full council area)£2,062/yr
Mortgage (25y, 5%)£1,605/mo

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

Section 4 / 8

Safety in Medway

Crime in Medway runs at 24% below the national average. Below median (#227 of 318 cities) The supporting per-1,000-residents-per-year rate is 76.8, 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.

Total crime / 1k / yr
76.8
#227 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
29.8
Anti-social behaviour
14.4
Criminal damage & arson
7.3
Other theft
5.0
Shoplifting
4.9
Vehicle crime
3.6
Drugs
3.2
Public order
3.0
Other crime
2.7
Burglary
2.1
Possession of weapons
1.2
Robbery
1.1
Bicycle theft
1.0
Theft from the person
0.7
Safest neighbourhoods in Medway
by safety score (higher = safer)
Hempstead & Wigmore91/100
Broomhill88/100
Parkwood East88/100

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 Medway

100% of schools serving Medway are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted. Best 5% nationally (#1 of 296 cities)

Good or Outstanding
100%
#1 of 296 cities
Good w/in 2 km
36%
#139 of 318 cities
School breakdownOfsted distribution · best neighbourhoods for schools
Ofsted rating distribution
Good100%
Outstanding (count)0
Good (count)1
Requires improvement0
Inadequate0
Best neighbourhoods for schools in Medway
by school score
Chatham Central and Rochester Riverside92/100
Chatham Maritime89/100
Rochester West87/100

Ofsted school inspection ratings, latest inspection per school.

Section 6 / 8

Transport in Medway

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

To London
61 min
Median across local areas
To Birmingham
170 min
Median across local areas
To Bristol
181 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
61 min
Birmingham
170 min
Bristol
181 min
Cardiff
202 min
Sheffield
212 min
Manchester
220 min
Leeds
222 min
Liverpool
230 min
Edinburgh
336 min
Glasgow
365 min
How residents travel to work
Census 2021, mode share
Car58%Public6%Active7%WFH25%
Best-connected neighbourhoods in Medway
by transport score
Gillingham Central98/100
Chatham Central and Rochester Riverside97/100
Chatham South West95/100

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

Section 7 / 8

Job access from Medway

Medway has 0.35 jobs per resident locally. Bottom quartile

Jobs per resident
0.35
#246 of 318 cities
5y jobs growth
+6.5%
Job access detailReachability tiers · sector mix in this council area
Reachable jobs by mode
Drive — 100 jobs6 min
PT — 100 jobs5 min
Drive — 500 jobs7 min
PT — 500 jobs11 min
Drive — 5,000 jobs11 min
PT — 5,000 jobs23 min
Local job mix by sector
ONS BRES, % of local jobs
Retail & hospitality
20.3%
Health & social care
18.0%
Education
10.1%
Construction
7.8%
Manufacturing
7.5%
Professional & business svcs
4.6%
Finance & insurance
2.8%
Tech & ICT
2.6%

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

FAQ

Frequently asked about Medway

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 Medway?
The median monthly rent across Medway is £1,241, 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 Medway?
The cheapest neighbourhood in Medway by estimated median rent is Chatham South East at approximately £1,031/month. The full top-five cheapest list and our methodology are above.
What's the best neighbourhood to live in Medway?
By our composite liveability score (which blends safety, transport, schools, rent affordability and EPC), the top-ranked neighbourhood in Medway is Gillingham Central at 79/100. The score is editorial; see /methodology/scoring/liveability for the formula.
Is Medway a safe area?
Medway has an average safety score of 55/100 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 Medway?
The most common council tax band in Medway is not yet published, with the Band D annual charge currently around £1,944. Council tax is set at the local authority level so the same banding applies to every postcode within Medway.
What is the average salary in Medway?
The median annual resident salary in Medway is £33,857, per ONS ASHE 2025. This is salary for people who live in Medway, not for people who commute in to work there. Workplace median salary is published separately.
What is the average house price in Medway?
The average property price in Medway is approximately £298,252 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 Medway?
Gross rental yield in Medway is approximately 4.5% — 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 Medway?
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 4.5 years in Medway. Faster if you save more, slower if rents are eating into savings.
Is gigabit broadband available in Medway?
100% of premises in Medway 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 Medway?
4.3% of 16-64 residents in Medway 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 Medway?
Medway contains 38 neighbourhood neighbourhoods covering 169 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 Medway

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.