Placetrics
City · South East

Living in Portsmouth

26 neighbourhoods · 125 sub-areas
Crime vs nat. avg
≈ nat. avg
In line with nat. avg · 97.0 / 1k / yr · #286 of 318 cities
Good schools
100%
#1 of 296 cities
Commute to hub
103 min
#230 of 318 cities
Jobs density
0.50
#80 of 318 cities
Avg rent
£1,357/mo
+2.7% YoY · #229 of 314 cities
Council tax
£154/mo
Estimated (Band D)
Section 1 / 8

Neighbourhoods in Portsmouth

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.

26 neighbourhoods · 125 sub-areas

Rent, scores and YoY change at a glance.

Somers Town£1,056+2.7%8511
Southsea West£1,154+2.7%7527
Portsmouth 028£1,182+2.7%834
Fratton Kingston£1,186+2.7%9758
North End West & Whale Island£1,189+2.7%6132
Landport£1,213+2.7%735
Fratton North£1,250+2.7%9680
Paulsgrove East£1,304+2.7%7950
Southsea Fawcett Road£1,318+2.7%8241
North End East£1,326+2.7%9569
Wymering£1,347+2.7%7528
Southsea Prince Albert Road£1,369+2.7%9687
Hilsea£1,382+2.7%7730
Old Portsmouth & Southsea Common£1,384+2.7%4018
Alexandra Park£1,393+2.7%9782
Milton£1,396+2.7%8664
Southsea Haslemere Road£1,398+2.7%9784
Anchorage Park & Copnor£1,409+2.7%3641
Eastney£1,412+2.7%7975
Portsmouth 027£1,415+2.7%8514
Paulsgrove West & Port Solent£1,426+2.7%7558
Baffins£1,478+2.7%7664
Southsea Waverley Road£1,497+2.7%1615
Cosham South£1,578+2.7%7084
Drayton & Farlington£1,682+2.7%6287
Cosham North£1,750+2.7%8690

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 Portsmouth

Three short answers to "where should I focus?" in Portsmouth. 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.Somers Town£1,056/mo
  2. 2.Southsea West£1,154/mo
  3. 3.Portsmouth 028£1,182/mo
  4. 4.Fratton Kingston£1,186/mo
  5. 5.North End West & Whale Island£1,189/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.Alexandra Park97/100
  2. 2.Fratton Kingston97/100
  3. 3.Southsea Haslemere Road97/100
  4. 4.Southsea Prince Albert Road96/100
  5. 5.Fratton North96/100
Section 3 / 8

Cost of living

Median rent and council tax across Portsmouth.

Avg rent
£1,357/mo
#229 of 314 cities
Sale price
£250,000
-2.1% YoY
Yrs to deposit
4.1 yr
Rent & price breakdownBy bedroom count · property type · affordability
council-area level rent by bedroom
ONS PIPR median for the council area
1 bed£893/mo
2 bed£1,124/mo
3 bed£1,345/mo
4 bed£1,951/mo
Sale price by property type
HMLR HPI average
Detached£515,128
Semi-detached£345,847
Terraced£271,430
Flat£165,845
Affordability
Price-to-earnings8.2×
Rent / take-home53%
Council tax (estimated, full council area)£1,843/yr
Mortgage (25y, 5%)£1,342/mo

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

Section 4 / 8

Safety in Portsmouth

Crime in Portsmouth runs at in line with the national average. Bottom quartile (#286 of 318 cities) The supporting per-1,000-residents-per-year rate is 97.0, 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
97.0
#286 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
40.8
Shoplifting
8.8
Anti-social behaviour
8.0
Public order
6.9
Criminal damage & arson
5.8
Other theft
4.9
Vehicle crime
4.6
Drugs
3.1
Burglary
2.5
Possession of weapons
1.8
Other crime
1.8
Bicycle theft
1.7
Robbery
1.5
Theft from the person
1.1
Safest neighbourhoods in Portsmouth
by safety score (higher = safer)
Cosham North90/100
Southsea Prince Albert Road87/100
Drayton & Farlington87/100

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 Portsmouth

100% of schools serving Portsmouth 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
30%
#230 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 Portsmouth
by school score
Hilsea98/100
Cosham South97/100
Anchorage Park & Copnor94/100

Ofsted school inspection ratings, latest inspection per school.

Section 6 / 8

Transport in Portsmouth

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

Best hub
103 min
#230 of 318 cities
To London
103 min
Median across local areas
To Bristol
152 min
Median across local areas
To Birmingham
188 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
103 min
Bristol
152 min
Birmingham
188 min
Cardiff
206 min
Sheffield
259 min
Manchester
297 min
Leeds
301 min
Liverpool
307 min
Edinburgh
415 min
Glasgow
442 min
How residents travel to work
Census 2021, mode share
Car48%Public7%Active18%WFH24%
Best-connected neighbourhoods in Portsmouth
by transport score
Portsmouth 02897/100
Somers Town97/100
Old Portsmouth & Southsea Common97/100

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

Section 7 / 8

Job access from Portsmouth

Portsmouth has 0.50 jobs per resident locally. Above median

Jobs per resident
0.50
#80 of 318 cities
5y jobs growth
-4.7%
Job access detailReachability tiers · sector mix in this council area
Reachable jobs by mode
Drive — 100 jobs6 min
PT — 100 jobs4 min
Drive — 500 jobs7 min
PT — 500 jobs7 min
Drive — 5,000 jobs10 min
PT — 5,000 jobs18 min
Local job mix by sector
ONS BRES, % of local jobs
Retail & hospitality
22.5%
Health & social care
17.4%
Education
10.6%
Manufacturing
7.6%
Professional & business svcs
4.3%
Tech & ICT
4.2%
Construction
3.7%
Finance & insurance
1.7%

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

FAQ

Frequently asked about Portsmouth

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 Portsmouth?
The median monthly rent across Portsmouth is £1,357, 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 Portsmouth?
The cheapest neighbourhood in Portsmouth by estimated median rent is Somers Town at approximately £1,056/month. The full top-five cheapest list and our methodology are above.
What's the best neighbourhood to live in Portsmouth?
By our composite liveability score (which blends safety, transport, schools, rent affordability and EPC), the top-ranked neighbourhood in Portsmouth is Alexandra Park at 97/100. The score is editorial; see /methodology/scoring/liveability for the formula.
Is Portsmouth a safe area?
Portsmouth has an average safety score of 50/100 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 Portsmouth?
The most common council tax band in Portsmouth is not yet published, with the Band D annual charge currently around £1,908. Council tax is set at the local authority level so the same banding applies to every postcode within Portsmouth.
What is the average salary in Portsmouth?
The median annual resident salary in Portsmouth is £30,962, per ONS ASHE 2025. This is salary for people who live in Portsmouth, not for people who commute in to work there. Workplace median salary is published separately.
What is the average house price in Portsmouth?
The average property price in Portsmouth is approximately £248,387 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 Portsmouth?
Gross rental yield in Portsmouth is approximately 5.3% — 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 Portsmouth?
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 4.1 years in Portsmouth. Faster if you save more, slower if rents are eating into savings.
Is gigabit broadband available in Portsmouth?
100% of premises in Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth?
4.6% of 16-64 residents in Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth?
Portsmouth contains 26 neighbourhood neighbourhoods covering 125 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 Portsmouth

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.