The middle Bishop's Stortford home sold for £416,250, the lowest median of the four East Herts towns. Sold-price medians for Ware, Hertford, Hoddesdon and Cheshunt.

Asking prices tell you what sellers hope for. What counts is what homes actually change hands for, and every completed sale in England and Wales is recorded by HM Land Registry and published. This page reads those records for Bishop’s Stortford and the towns around it.

Two things to fix before the numbers. First, this patch sits across two district councils, and they are not one market: Bishop’s Stortford, Sawbridgeworth, Ware, Hertford and Buntingford are in East Hertfordshire, while Hoddesdon, Cheshunt, Waltham Cross and Broxbourne are in Broxbourne borough. Over the last year those two moved in opposite directions. Second, the result most people find surprising: Bishop’s Stortford is the cheapest of the four East Herts towns on median sold price, and the reason is what it sells, not where it is.

The headline figures

The official measure is the UK House Price Index, built by the Office for National Statistics from Land Registry sales. For May 2026, the latest month published:

That gap matters if you live on the Lea rather than the Stort. East Herts is running slightly ahead of Hertfordshire as a whole, which averaged £467,251 and rose 2.5%. Broxbourne is the only one of the pair to have gone backwards, and its flats did the worst of anything in this area, down 3.2% over the year to an average of £218,693.

What the middle home actually sold for

Averages are pulled about by a handful of very large sales. The median, the middle sale in the list, is the better guide to what a normal transaction looks like. These are medians we calculated directly from HM Land Registry Price Paid data for every residential sale completed in the two districts between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026: 3,065 sales in total, with a median of £437,500.

Broken down by post town, the striking thing is how flat the patch is. Nine towns, and only about £81,000 separates the top from the bottom.

Median sold price by post town, Bishop's Stortford and district Horizontal bar chart of median sold prices for residential sales completed between July 2025 and June 2026 across the East Hertfordshire and Broxbourne districts. Sawbridgeworth is highest at £470,000 across 127 sales, then Buntingford at £468,000, Ware at £450,000 across 522 sales, Hertford at £450,000 across 503 sales, Waltham Cross at £437,250 across 654 sales, Broxbourne at £435,000, Bishop's Stortford at £416,250 across 546 sales, and Hoddesdon lowest at £388,750 across 284 sales. A dashed line marks the two-district median of £437,500. The anchor town is the cheapest of the four East Herts towns Median sold price, residential sales completed 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 (HM Land Registry Price Paid), by post town. Sawbridgeworth£470,000 Buntingford£468,000 Ware£450,000 Hertford£450,000 Waltham Cross£437,250 Broxbourne£435,000 Bishop's Stortford£416,250 Hoddesdon£388,750 Two-district median £437,500 Sales in the window: Waltham Cross 654, Bishop's Stortford 546, Ware 522, Hertford 503, Hoddesdon 284, Broxbourne 202, Sawbridgeworth 127, Buntingford 111. Bars start at zero. The whole nine-town spread is about £81,000, which is narrow for a patch this size. Post towns, not council areas: Waltham Cross covers Cheshunt, and Ware and Hertford cover a long rural tail. Much Hadham, at £741,250 across 20 sales, is left off as a village rather than a town market.
Bishop's Stortford was the second busiest market in the patch and one of the cheapest, £21,250 below the two-district median.

Why Bishop’s Stortford sits below Ware and Hertford

It is not that Bishop’s Stortford is a cheaper town to live in than Ware. It is that the two places sell different things. Split the same Land Registry records by property type and the pattern comes out clearly.

Median sold price by property type, three East Herts towns, July 2025 to June 2026
TypeBishop's StortfordHertfordWare
Detached£650,000£850,000£770,000
Semi-detached£445,000£582,500£525,000
Terraced£370,000£450,000£425,000
Flat or maisonette£241,000£274,500£248,000

Bishop’s Stortford is cheaper in every single category, and the terraced gap is the widest: £370,000 against £450,000 in Hertford, a difference of £80,000 for the same kind of house eleven miles apart. Hertford has the county town premium, a compact Georgian centre and a much smaller supply of terraces. It also sold 188 terraces to Bishop’s Stortford’s 144, so this is not a thin-data artefact.

What it means for you. If you are buying a first house rather than a flat, Bishop’s Stortford is the better value of the two, and by a wide margin. If you are selling a detached family home, you are competing in a market that prices about £120,000 below the equivalent in Hertford, so pricing off a Hertford comparable will leave your house sitting.

The Broxbourne half

The three Broxbourne post towns behave differently again. Waltham Cross, which in postal terms covers most of Cheshunt, was the busiest single market in the whole patch with 654 recorded sales and a median of £437,250. Broxbourne itself came in at £435,000 across 202 sales, and Hoddesdon was the cheapest town in the patch at £388,750.

Postcode districts sharpen it further. EN7, the Goffs Oak and northern Cheshunt side, had a median of £490,000 across 259 sales, the highest outcode in the two districts outside the villages. EN8, the rest of Cheshunt and Waltham Cross, came in at £410,000 across 395 sales, and EN11 at Hoddesdon at £388,750. Two neighbouring postcodes, about £100,000 apart.

How the area compares

Average house prices compared, May 2026
AreaAverage priceAnnual change
Hertfordshire£467,251+2.5%
East Hertfordshire£460,485+4.2%
Broxbourne£403,029−0.6%
East of England£338,224+2.3%
England£292,095+2.3%

Source: UK House Price Index, May 2026, ONS and HM Land Registry.

East Hertfordshire is close to £170,000 above the England average and rising faster than the county. Broxbourne is £111,000 above England and falling slightly. Both are a long way above the East of England figure, which is what you would expect of a district inside the London commuter belt with direct trains into Liverpool Street.

First-time buyers

The UK House Price Index publishes a separate first-time buyer average. In May 2026 it was £360,497 in East Hertfordshire and £332,698 in Broxbourne, both up or down broadly in line with their district. Set that against the median Bishop’s Stortford flat at £241,000 and the median terrace at £370,000, and the shape of a first purchase here is clear enough: a flat is comfortably inside the first-time buyer average, a terraced house is right on it.

New-build sales are a small and expensive slice. Across both districts only 41 of the 3,065 recorded sales were flagged as new build, at a median of £610,000 against £435,000 for existing homes. Bishop’s Stortford North is building out steadily, so expect that count to rise: see our planning page for where the district’s housing is actually going.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average house price in Bishop’s Stortford?

For the East Hertfordshire district, which contains Bishop’s Stortford, the average was £460,485 in May 2026, up 4.2% over the year (UK House Price Index). For the town itself, the median completed sale in the year to June 2026 was £416,250 across 546 sales in HM Land Registry Price Paid data.

Is Bishop’s Stortford expensive compared with the rest of Hertfordshire?

Less than you would think. The East Herts district average of £460,485 sits just below the Hertfordshire average of £467,251, and the town’s own median is below those of Ware, Hertford, Sawbridgeworth and Buntingford. The district is expensive; the anchor town is the affordable part of it.

Which is the cheapest town around Bishop’s Stortford?

On median sold price over the last year, Hoddesdon at £388,750, followed by Bishop’s Stortford at £416,250 and Broxbourne at £435,000.

Are prices in Cheshunt and Hoddesdon going up?

Not at the moment. The Broxbourne borough average fell 0.6% in the year to May 2026, with flats down 3.2%. East Hertfordshire, on the other side of the brand’s patch, rose 4.2% over the same period.

How much is a terraced house in Bishop’s Stortford?

The median terraced sale was £370,000 in the year to June 2026, the lowest terraced median of the main towns here and £80,000 below Hertford.

Where can I check what a specific house sold for?

Every completed sale in England and Wales is public. Look up a street or a single address for free on the HM Land Registry Price Paid search.

Sources

The UK House Price Index is provisional for recent months and is revised as more sales complete. Land Registry Price Paid records also lag completion, so the most recent weeks are always undercounted. Figures on this page were pulled on 9 August 2026.