Countess Wear & Topsham
Exeter 015 · 6 sub-areas · 9,268 residents
Exeter 015 is a settled, largely owner-occupied neighbourhood within Exeter, home to around 9,300 people and notably older in age profile than much of the city. A typical two-bedroom flat lets for around £1,125 a month — noticeably below the UK national median for a 2-bed — and nearly a third of residents work from home, making it one of the more self-contained corners of the city.
Countess Wear & Topsham is a green, lower-density part of Exeter — parks within walking distance of most addresses, a slower weekday rhythm, and a population skewed toward longer-tenure households rather than transient renters. The population skews older, with a long-settled feel and a high share of retirees.
Overview
What's it like to live in Countess Wear & Topsham?
Day-to-day life sits close to greenery — a park or playing field is within easy walking distance of most addresses; Crime sits around the national average — neither a notable concern nor a notable selling point; Public transport is genuinely strong; most errands and a fair share of social life don't need a car; rents are roughly in line with the national norm, at around £1,312 a month for a typical home; gigabit broadband is effectively universal.
Generated from the latest May 2026 data · refreshed automatically
Figures are aggregated across 6 sub-areas — population-weighted means for rates, sums for counts. Sources cited beneath each section.
Countess Wear & Topsham in Exeter
Living in Countess Wear & Topsham
Exeter 015 sits on the calmer, more residential end of Exeter's spectrum. The population skews older than you'd expect for a university city: over a quarter of residents are 65 or above, and the neighbourhood has the feel of somewhere people have chosen to stay rather than pass through. Single-person households make up around a third of all homes, and two in three properties are owner-occupied — a markedly different picture from the student-heavy districts closer to the university.
On cost, this neighbourhood is genuinely competitive. A two-bedroom property runs around £1,125 a month in rent — below the UK national median — and a three-bedroom comes in at around £1,353. Council tax at Band D runs to approximately £2,495 a year. The median house price sits at roughly £410,000, which puts the deposit timeline at about seven years on a typical local salary, so it's not an easy buy, but the rents themselves leave reasonable breathing room by regional standards.
The community here is predominantly UK-born — around 91% — and relatively highly qualified, with over 40% of residents holding a degree. Crime runs at approximately 79 incidents per 1,000 residents annually, broadly in line with the UK average, so there's nothing alarming in the figures. What makes the neighbourhood stand out is how self-contained it feels: nearly a third of residents work from home, and the greenspace situation is strong — nearly three quarters of residents are within a walkable distance of green space, with the nearest patch just over 200 metres away on average.
For practical move-in planning, the nearest mainline rail station is roughly 1 km away — about a 14-minute walk — giving access to Exeter St Davids and onward connections. See the streets and sub-areas below for more detail on how different pockets of the neighbourhood compare.
What you'll need on day one
Compare Countess Wear & Topsham with
Frequently asked
- Is Exeter 015 a nice place to live?
- It's a settled, quiet residential neighbourhood — well suited to older residents, owner-occupiers and remote workers. Green space is genuinely accessible, with roughly three quarters of residents within walking distance of a park. It's not the most dynamic corner of Exeter, but it's comfortable and affordable by local standards.
- What is the rent in Exeter 015?
- A one-bedroom property runs around £910 a month, a two-bedroom around £1,125, and a three-bedroom around £1,353. These figures are estimates scaled from city-level data using local sale prices. Rents rose around 2.2% over the past year.
- Is Exeter 015 safe?
- Crime runs at roughly 79 incidents per 1,000 residents a year — almost exactly in line with the UK average of around 80. There's nothing in the data that flags an unusual concentration of any particular crime type, so the neighbourhood sits broadly in the middle of the national picture.
- What's the commute from Exeter 015 to Exeter city centre?
- The nearest mainline rail station is around 1 km away, roughly a 14-minute walk. About 48% of residents commute by car, while only around 6% use public transport — so most people drive. Nearly a third work from home, which is notably high.
- Who lives in Exeter 015?
- Predominantly older, settled owner-occupiers — over a quarter of residents are 65 or above. Around two thirds of homes are owned outright or with a mortgage, and over 40% of residents hold a degree. It's not a student or young-professional area.
- What schools are near Exeter 015?
- There are 25 schools within a typical 2 km catchment, so there's no shortage of options nearby. However, only around 9.5% of those are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted, which is well below the national average. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is approximately 8.8 km away.
- How long does it take to get to London from Exeter 015?
- The rail journey to London takes approximately 145 minutes from the nearest mainline station, which is about a 14-minute walk away. That's a long day return but manageable for occasional trips or hybrid workers.