How to research an area before you move
You can learn a great deal about an area before you ever set foot in it, from data that is free and official. The trick is knowing what to check and how to read it. Here is the checklist we would run through ourselves, roughly in the order that saves you the most wasted viewings.
1. Start with the postcode, not the town
A town or even a postcode district can hide big differences street to street. Two homes a mile apart can sit in different school catchments, different flood zones and very different price brackets. So once you have a rough area in mind, drill down to the postcode district (like HD3) or sector (like HD3 4) rather than judging the whole town. Every landdata.uk area page works this way: search a postcode and it breaks down to the smallest area we have data for.
2. House prices: what sold, not what is listed
Asking prices are wishful. What matters is what actually changed hands. HM Land Registry records the sold price of every residential property in England and Wales, and that is what the area pages show: the average sold price and how many sales it is based on. A high average from three sales is far less reliable than a similar figure from three hundred. Also look at the trend over the last few years, because the direction often tells you more than the level.
3. Crime: the recorded picture
Recorded crime, from Police.uk, is one of the first things people check and one of the easiest to misread. A raw count of crimes means little without knowing how many homes it covers, which is why it is worth looking at crime per 1,000 properties and how it compares to the national average. It is also worth knowing what recorded crime does and does not capture. We cover that properly in reading crime stats.
4. Schools, if they matter to you
If your move is really about schools, this is where to spend your time. Check the number of schools nearby, how many are Ofsted-rated Good or Outstanding, and, crucially, the catchment rather than just the nearest school. Catchments move year to year and a top school on the map does not mean a place. Our Ofsted and catchments guide explains how to use the ratings without being caught out.
5. Flood risk
Flooding is cheap to check and costly to ignore. The Environment Agency models the risk of flooding from rivers and the sea, and the area pages show the band for the area. Two things to remember: this is an area-level indication, not a survey of the specific house, and it does not include surface-water (flash) flooding, which is modelled separately. Before you commit, read how to check flood risk.
6. Deprivation and the wider area
The deprivation decile is a broad measure of how an area compares to the rest of England across income, employment, health, education, crime, housing and environment. It is useful context, but it is a blunt tool and easy to over-read. Our deprivation deciles explained guide covers what the number does and does not mean.
7. Broadband and getting around
Two practical checks that people forget until it is too late. Broadband: is the area gigabit-ready, or are you stuck on slow copper? Ofcom data shows the coverage. Getting around: how does the commute actually work, not in theory but at the times you would travel? Data can only take you so far here, so pair the numbers with a real journey test.
How to weigh it all up
You will rarely find an area that scores well on everything, so decide in advance which two or three things you are unwilling to compromise on, and use the rest as tie-breakers. The point of doing this from a screen is not to replace visiting. It is to rule places out cheaply, so the viewings you do make are the ones worth making. When you have found the one, the next step is the legal side, and you can get a fixed-fee conveyancing quote to see what that will cost.
Data sources: HM Land Registry (sold prices), Police.uk (crime), Environment Agency (flood), DfE and Ofsted (schools), ONS and the English Indices of Deprivation, Ofcom (broadband). All indicative, not a regulated property search.
Common questions
What is the most important thing to check before moving to an area?
There is no single answer, because it depends on your priorities. If you have school-age children, catchment and Ofsted results usually top the list. If you are stretching your budget, sold prices and the direction of travel matter most. For almost everyone, it is worth spending five minutes on recorded crime and flood risk, because both are easy to check and expensive to get wrong.
Can I trust free area data?
The underlying data on landdata.uk comes from official public sources: HM Land Registry for sold prices, Police.uk for crime, the Environment Agency for flood risk, the Department for Education and Ofsted for schools, and the ONS for population and deprivation. It is accurate for what it measures. The thing to watch is not accuracy but interpretation, which is what these guides are about.
Is online research a substitute for visiting?
No. Data tells you the shape of an area: prices, crime levels, schools, flood risk. It cannot tell you whether a street feels right, how the light falls, or what the neighbours are like. Use the data to build a shortlist and rule places out cheaply, then visit the ones that survive, ideally at different times of day.