The Most Affordable Places to Buy in the South West (2026), and Where Cheaper Still Means Lower Crime
Every South West council area ranked by median sale price, plus 17 neighbourhoods at £225,000 or less where recorded crime is below the England rate.
The South West is not a cheap region. The median standard sale across its council areas was £308,000 in the 12 months to August 2026, above England’s £295,000, and Bristol, Bath and the Cotswolds pull the figure up. But 12 of its 26 mainland council areas were below the England median, and most of the region records less crime than England: 81.0 crimes and anti-social behaviour incidents per 1,000 residents, against 94.1.
This guide ranks every council area by median sale price, then picks out the neighbourhoods where a lower price comes with recorded crime below the England rate.
The short answer
- Cheapest council areas: Plymouth (£227,000), Torbay (£245,000) and Gloucester (£249,000). Plymouth and Torbay recorded more crime than England; Gloucester has no full-year crime figure.
- Cheapest with crime below the England rate: Torridge, in north Devon, at £268,000 and 54.8 per 1,000, then Swindon (£272,250, 79.8), and Mid Devon and Somerset, both at £280,000 (58.1 and 87.9).
- Cheaper neighbourhoods with lower crime: 17 neighbourhoods had a median of £225,000 or less with recorded crime below England’s: four in Cornwall, three in Plymouth, and two each in Torbay, Torridge and North Devon.
- Terraces are the way in. The median terraced house was £250,000 or less in 13 council areas; the median semi in only two, Torridge and the Forest of Dean.
Every South West council area, cheapest first
Medians are for all standard sales in the 12 months to August 2026, so areas with many flats look cheaper. A dash means no full-year crime figure (see below). The Isles of Scilly, with 11 sales, are left out.
| Council area | All homes | Terraced | Semi-detached | Crime per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plymouth | £227,000 | £215,000 | £262,000 | 106.8 |
| Torbay | £245,000 | £220,000 | £270,500 | 105.1 |
| Gloucester | £249,000 | £215,000 | £280,000 | - |
| Torridge | £268,000 | £208,500 | £250,000 | 54.8 |
| Swindon | £272,250 | £242,750 | £300,000 | 79.8 |
| Forest of Dean | £273,450 | £205,000 | £245,000 | - |
| Mid Devon | £280,000 | £220,000 | £269,500 | 58.1 |
| Somerset | £280,000 | £231,000 | £275,000 | 87.9 |
| Cornwall | £282,500 | £230,000 | £265,000 | 70.1 |
| North Devon | £285,000 | £220,000 | £275,250 | 68.9 |
| Teignbridge | £292,000 | £232,500 | £290,000 | 58.7 |
| West Devon | £293,000 | £228,250 | £285,000 | 44.6 |
| Exeter | £296,500 | £277,750 | £330,000 | 105.7 |
| North Somerset | £315,500 | £275,000 | £321,000 | 84.4 |
| Tewkesbury | £318,000 | £250,000 | £300,000 | - |
| East Devon | £320,000 | £260,000 | £305,000 | 47.5 |
| Wiltshire | £320,000 | £262,500 | £310,000 | 58.9 |
| Cheltenham | £328,000 | £306,000 | £380,000 | - |
| Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | £333,167 | £298,000 | £340,000 | 80.6 |
| Dorset | £335,000 | £265,000 | £331,600 | 51.2 |
| South Gloucestershire | £335,000 | £300,000 | £352,500 | 77.0 |
| Stroud | £340,000 | £270,000 | £325,000 | - |
| South Hams | £350,000 | £270,000 | £300,000 | 48.0 |
| City of Bristol | £355,000 | £380,000 | £373,500 | 143.2 |
| Bath and North East Somerset | £386,250 | £350,000 | £400,000 | 86.1 |
| Cotswold | £435,000 | £335,000 | £407,000 | - |
Crime is recorded crime and anti-social behaviour per 1,000 residents. The England rate, 94.1, counts only areas whose police force published all 12 months; the South West figure, 81.0, covers the 21 council areas with a full year. Only four council areas recorded more crime than England: Plymouth, Torbay, Exeter and Bristol.
Plymouth and Torbay: the cheapest, with more crime
Plymouth is the cheapest place to buy in the region by a clear margin: its median sale (£227,000) was £81,000 below the regional figure, and terraces sold for £215,000. The city as a whole recorded 106.8 crimes per 1,000, above England’s rate, but that is pulled up by its centre: St Peter and the Waterfront recorded 386.1.
Several Plymouth neighbourhoods combine low prices with crime below the England rate. Southway, in the north of the city, had a median of £203,000 and 63.4 crimes per 1,000. Honicknowle (£200,000, 93.0) and Ham (£215,000, 90.0) had terraces at £190,000 and £185,000 but were only just below England’s rate. A little further up the price range, Plympton Chaddlewood (£232,000) and Eggbuckland (£243,000) recorded 43.9 and 51.3.
Torbay was second cheapest (£245,000) and also above England’s crime rate (105.1). Ellacombe, in Torquay, had the lowest median of any neighbourhood on the lower-crime list (£187,750, 79.3 per 1,000), from 54 sales.
At £225,000 or less, with crime below the England rate
We looked at every neighbourhood in the region with at least 30 sales in the year and a full-year crime figure: 707 of 847 have a crime figure, and 711 have 30 or more sales. These 17 had a median sale of £225,000 or less and recorded crime below England’s 94.1. The last column counts state primary schools inside each area, as a guide to how local the school run could be, not to quality.
| Neighbourhood | Council area | Median sale | Sales | Crime per 1,000 | State primaries inside |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ellacombe | Torbay | £187,750 | 54 | 79.3 | 2 |
| Honicknowle | Plymouth | £200,000 | 130 | 93.0 | 3 |
| College | Teignbridge | £202,250 | 56 | 75.5 | 1 |
| Newport | North Devon | £202,500 | 36 | 72.6 | 1 |
| Southway | Plymouth | £203,000 | 137 | 63.4 | 4 |
| Launceston South | Cornwall | £211,500 | 88 | 87.2 | 3 |
| St Blazey | Cornwall | £214,000 | 80 | 68.9 | 2 |
| Ham | Plymouth | £215,000 | 156 | 90.0 | 3 |
| Warminster North and Rural East | Wiltshire | £215,000 | 37 | 57.5 | 1 |
| Barnstaple with Westacott | North Devon | £216,000 | 62 | 69.0 | 4 |
| Helston South and Meneage West | Cornwall | £220,000 | 49 | 88.8 | 2 |
| Torpoint | Cornwall | £220,000 | 59 | 68.5 | 2 |
| Wellswood | Torbay | £220,000 | 87 | 80.4 | 2 |
| Bideford East | Torridge | £221,000 | 58 | 71.8 | 1 |
| Great Torrington | Torridge | £222,000 | 89 | 57.9 | 1 |
| Tiverton Castle | Mid Devon | £222,500 | 46 | 92.3 | 2 |
| Mannington and Western | Swindon | £225,000 | 136 | 94.0 | 2 |
Two of these are cheap partly because of what sold. In Wellswood, 52 of the 87 sales were flats, and its terraced houses sold for £255,000. Mannington and Western, in Swindon, is only just below the England rate (94.0). The lowest-crime areas on the list are Warminster North and Rural East (57.5) and Great Torrington (57.9), both from fewer sales than the Plymouth neighbourhoods.
Closer to the region’s other cities
Outside Plymouth, the cheapest lower-crime neighbourhoods in the region’s larger towns and cities cost more:
- Exeter: Exwick had a median of £247,500 and 56.6 crimes per 1,000, about half Exeter’s rate (105.7). Terraces there sold for £227,000.
- Swindon: after Mannington and Western, Gorse Hill and Pinehurst had a median of £245,000 and 81.0 per 1,000, with no flats among its 77 sales.
- Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole: Queen’s Park (£285,000, 59.7 per 1,000), though nearly half its 120 sales were flats, and Canford Heath (£305,000, 53.8).
- Bath: the cheapest lower-crime options are south of the city in the Somer Valley: Westfield (£280,000, 74.9) and Paulton (£285,000, 61.3).
- Bristol: inside the city, St George Troopers Hill (£310,000, 58.9) and Stockwood (£315,050, 91.4). Our comparison of family areas near Bristol covers the towns around it, and the Bristol house prices guide the city’s wards.
Gloucestershire: prices, but no crime figure
Gloucestershire Constabulary published no street-level crime data for February to August 2026, so a 12-month rate for Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud, Tewkesbury, the Forest of Dean and the Cotswolds would understate crime. Their prices are in the table, and Gloucester (£249,000) and the Forest of Dean (£273,450) are among the region’s cheapest. Their neighbourhoods are left out of the lower-crime lists. Our crime rate search shows which months each force is missing.
What a low price can and cannot tell you
At £250,000, the median terraced house is within reach in 13 of the 26 council areas in the table. The median semi-detached house is within reach in only two, Torridge (£250,000) and the Forest of Dean (£245,000). For a family that needs a semi, the lower-crime Plymouth neighbourhoods, such as Southway, and the north Devon towns are where that budget goes furthest.
A low median can mean several different things. It can be a good-value area that buyers have overlooked, or it can reflect higher crime, smaller homes or a lot of flats. Check what kind of homes sold before comparing prices, and read our guide to telling cheap from good value.
In much of Devon and Cornwall, the price also has to be weighed against distance: towns like Great Torrington, Launceston and Helston are a long way from the region’s main employment centres. Check the journey before you count the saving.
We do not rank schools here. Ofsted stopped giving single overall grades in September 2024, so recent grades do not compare like with like. Look up the schools near any home you are considering, read their latest reports, and check last year’s allocations.
FAQs
What is the cheapest place to buy a house in the South West?
Plymouth, where the median sale was £227,000 in the 12 months to August 2026. Torbay (£245,000) and Gloucester (£249,000) were next, followed by Torridge (£268,000) and Swindon (£272,250).
Where is cheap and lower-crime in the South West?
At council level, Torridge, Swindon, Mid Devon, Somerset and Cornwall were the cheapest areas with recorded crime below the England rate. At neighbourhood level, Southway in Plymouth, Great Torrington, St Blazey and Torpoint combined medians of £225,000 or less with crime below 70 per 1,000, against England’s 94.1.
Is Plymouth a cheap place to buy?
Yes. Plymouth’s median sale (£227,000) was the lowest of any South West council area and £68,000 below England’s. Its crime rate (106.8 per 1,000) was above England’s, largely because of the city centre, while Southway, Plympton Chaddlewood and Eggbuckland recorded less than 65.
Methodology & Sources
- Area: the 27 council areas of the South West region and their neighbourhood reports. The Isles of Scilly (11 sales) are left out of the tables.
- House prices: HM Land Registry standard residential sales, September 2025 to August 2026. Council-area and regional medians cover all standard sales. Neighbourhoods need at least 30 sales to be listed.
- Crime: police.uk recorded crime and anti-social behaviour, September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents (2021 Census). The England rate, 94.1, and the South West rate, 81.0, count only areas whose police force published all 12 months. Gloucestershire Constabulary missed February to August 2026, so its six council areas have no figure.
- Schools: state primary schools whose address is inside each neighbourhood, from the latest Ofsted register. No grades are used.