Harefield
Southampton 018 · 4 sub-areas · 6,374 residents
Southampton 018 is a residential area within Southampton, home to around 6,400 people across a broadly settled community. A typical two-bedroom flat lets for about £1,100 a month — slightly below the UK median for a two-bed — though rents here climbed around 3.5% over the past year. With a high owner-occupation rate and a notable social housing share, this is a neighbourhood with more stability than churn.
Harefield is a mid-density neighbourhood of Southampton in the South East 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.
Overview
What's it like to live in Harefield?
The area is unusually green for its density — 5 parks and 3 playgrounds sit within five minutes' walk of the centroid; Crime sits around the national average — neither a notable concern nor a notable selling point; rents are roughly in line with the national norm, at around £1,246 a month for a typical home; gigabit broadband is effectively universal.
Generated from the latest May 2026 data · refreshed automatically
Figures are aggregated across 4 sub-areas — population-weighted means for rates, sums for counts. Sources cited beneath each section.
Harefield in Southampton
Living in Harefield
Southampton 018 sits closer to the settled, owner-occupied end of Southampton's housing market than the student-heavy city centre. The population skews fairly evenly across age groups — under-18s make up around one in five residents, and there's a similar share aged 65 and over — which gives it a more family-and-retiree feel than many inner-city neighbourhoods.
The cost picture is relatively accessible by southern England standards. A median two-bedroom home lets for around £1,100 a month — broadly in line with the UK national median, and meaningfully below what you'd pay in Portsmouth or many parts of outer London. The deposit hurdle is also lower than much of the South East: you'd typically save for a deposit in around 3.7 years on a local salary, compared to six or seven years in parts of the commuter belt.
Owner-occupation here stands at nearly 59% — higher than the Southampton average — and social housing accounts for almost 28% of homes. Private renting is relatively thin at around 12%, which means turnover is slow and competition for rental properties can be stiff when something does come up. The degree-qualified share sits at around 23%, below what you'd find in the university-dense city centre wards.
For practical purposes, the nearest mainline rail station is roughly 2.4 km away — about a 30-minute walk, or a short drive. Southampton Central provides direct rail services, and the public-transport commute to London runs around 103 minutes. Most residents drive: around 60% commute by car, with only about 6% using public transport. Around 23% work from home, which is a notably high share and speaks to the resident profile. See the streets and sub-areas below for more detail on specific pockets.
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Frequently asked
- Is Southampton 018 a nice place to live?
- It depends on your priorities. It's a settled, predominantly owner-occupied area with a broad age mix and relatively affordable rents by South East standards. The trade-off is a higher-than-average crime rate and a below-average share of nearby schools rated Good or Outstanding. Good for families wanting stability; less suited to those who prioritise school quality or low crime above all else.
- What is the rent in Southampton 018?
- A one-bedroom typically runs around £873 a month, a two-bedroom about £1,100, and a three-bedroom around £1,343. Rents rose roughly 3.5% over the past year. These are estimates scaled from city-level data using local sale prices, so treat them as a guide rather than a guarantee.
- Is Southampton 018 safe?
- Crime runs at around 99 incidents per 1,000 residents a year — modestly above the UK average of roughly 80. It's not an unusually dangerous area, but it's not the lowest-crime part of Southampton either. The IMD deprivation score puts it in the more deprived third of English neighbourhoods, which tends to push crime figures higher.
- What's the commute from Southampton 018 to Southampton city centre?
- Most residents drive — around 60% commute by car. The nearest mainline rail station is about 2.4 km away, roughly a 30-minute walk. About 23% of residents work from home. There's no metro or tram service in this area.
- Who lives in Southampton 018?
- A fairly broad mix — the population is unusually evenly spread across age groups, with roughly one in five residents in each of the main bands from under-18 to 65-plus. Owner-occupiers make up nearly 59% of households, and social housing accounts for around 28%. It's a settled community with relatively low private-renter turnover.
- What schools are near Southampton 018?
- There are 59 schools within typical catchment distance, which is a wide selection. Around 44% are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted — well below the national average of around 89%. The nearest Outstanding school is roughly 3.6 km away. It's worth checking individual school ratings and catchment boundaries carefully before choosing where to live.
- How long does it take to get from Southampton 018 to London?
- The rail journey to London takes around 103 minutes by public transport from Southampton Central. Most residents drive to the station — it's roughly 2.4 km away. If you're considering this area as a London commuter base, that's a long daily round trip.