Photo: Tigershrike · Public domainMeasured against local pay, Looe costs more to live in than 95% of UK towns
Looe’s median home sold for £260,000. That is the middle of 283 standard sales from September 2023 to August 2026, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. Looe grades D for cost of living: prices, rent and council tax against what households in the area earn, #18 of 35 in Cornwall.
What Looe’s housing numbers say
Renting is where Looe is dear
The ONS puts the average private rent in the Cornwall council area at £1,000 a month. Set against what households here earn (£45,985 a year, mean), a year’s rent is 26% of income. Buying compares better: the median home is 5.7× income, cheaper for local incomes than in 46% of UK towns. Renting ↓
Prices have kept pace with the typical town
Over ten years the median sale in Looe went up 39%; in the typical UK town it went up 42%. Since 1995–96 prices have gone up 5.6 times, from £50,000. Price trend ↓
Rents have risen more slowly than across England
The average rent in the Cornwall council area went up 1.8% in the year to August 2026, against 4% across England. Over five years it rose 28% (England 35%). Renting ↓
Written from the data on this page: HM Land Registry sales since 1995, ONS private rents and household income, and council tax from MHCLG and the Welsh Government.
Looe grades D for cost of living
Each cost against what households in the Cornwall council area earn (£45,985 a year, mean), ranked against UK towns.
Council tax pulls the grade down: against local incomes it costs more than in 91% of UK towns. Looe is #18 of 35 Cornwall towns for cost of living.
Up 7% in a year, up 39% in ten
The median of every standard sale in Looe each year (September to August), against the typical UK town of 2,500+ (the middle of all their medians). Ten years: Looe +39%, typical town +42%. Five years: +1.8% against +11%.
Show as a table
| Year to August | Looe | Typical town | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025–26 | £277,500 | £277,000 | 97 |
| 2024–25 | £260,000 | £280,000 | 83 |
| 2023–24 | £257,500 | £275,000 | 103 |
| 2022–23 | £280,500 | £280,000 | 128 |
| 2021–22 | £279,000 | £265,000 | 134 |
| 2020–21 | £272,500 | £250,000 | 170 |
| 2019–20 | £224,995 | £230,000 | 129 |
| 2018–19 | £205,000 | £225,000 | 168 |
| 2017–18 | £206,500 | £219,950 | 156 |
| 2016–17 | £230,500 | £210,000 | 138 |
| 2015–16 | £200,000 | £195,000 | 133 |
| 2014–15 | £195,000 | £183,500 | 181 |
| 2013–14 | £190,000 | £173,500 | 151 |
| 2012–13 | £185,000 | £165,000 | 107 |
| 2011–12 | £175,000 | £162,500 | 111 |
| 2010–11 | £175,000 | £163,250 | 99 |
| 2009–10 | £180,000 | £163,975 | 127 |
| 2008–09 | £169,000 | £155,000 | 76 |
| 2007–08 | £190,500 | £172,625 | 124 |
| 2006–07 | £179,000 | £169,000 | 191 |
| 2005–06 | £175,000 | £159,000 | 171 |
| 2004–05 | £171,000 | £154,000 | 113 |
| 2003–04 | £149,950 | £141,250 | 172 |
| 2002–03 | £138,497 | £122,000 | 152 |
| 2001–02 | £94,975 | £94,950 | 190 |
| 2000–01 | £75,250 | £80,000 | 198 |
| 1999–00 | £75,999 | £71,000 | 204 |
| 1998–99 | £70,000 | £63,500 | 161 |
| 1997–98 | £59,950 | £59,437 | 172 |
| 1996–97 | £56,000 | £55,747 | 187 |
| 1995–96 | £50,000 | £52,000 | 153 |
The median Looe home sold for £200K in the year to August 2016, and £278K in the year to August 2026.
HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard (category A) sales of houses and flats inside the built-up area, by the year to August. These are actual sale prices, not an index: a year with more flats or new builds moves the median as well as prices do. The newest months are still being registered.
What homes sell for, by type
Medians of 283 standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026. The tick on each bar is the typical UK town of 2,500+.
Against the typical UK town, flats here sell for 23% more and detached houses 8% less.
Show as a table
| Type | Median | Sales | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | £357,500 | 94 | 33% |
| Semi-detached | £260,000 | 55 | 19% |
| Terraced | £230,000 | 78 | 28% |
| Flat or maisonette | £195,000 | 56 | 20% |
HM Land Registry Price Paid: category A sales (one home at full market value), so repossessions, company buy-to-lets and bulk sales are left out. In the last 12 months the median was £277,500 (97 sales).
About 100 sales a year, down from 190 before 2008
Standard sales in Looe each year to August. Since the 2008 crash the market here has run at about 50% of its mid-2000s pace.
The last bar (97 sales) is still filling: Land Registry adds a sale when the transfer is registered, often two to three months after completion.
A typical Looe home costs 5.7 years of area income
Most lenders cap a mortgage at about 4.5 times household income. The calculator starts from the area’s mean household income; switch to your own.
An estimate, not a mortgage offer: borrowing of up to 4.5× income, a 25-year repayment mortgage at the rate shown, and Band D council tax (your band may differ). Stamp duty uses England’s rates from 1 April 2025, with first-time buyers’ relief. Other debts, fees and survey costs aren’t included.
A two-bedroom rents for about £880 a month
The average private rent in the Cornwall council area is £1,000 a month (August 2026): £459 less than England’s, £245 less than South West’s.
By size a month, the tick is England
ONS Price Index of Private Rents: the mean rent of all private tenancies, new and existing (not asking rents), for the whole Cornwall council area. It’s the smallest area the ONS publishes.
Band D is £2,633 for 2026–27
Looe’s bill is the Cornwall council’s share with the county or combined authority, police and fire shares, plus the parish or town council precept of about £243 a year. England’s average Band D is £2,392. Since 2009–10, Cornwall’s average Band D has risen from £1,411: 84% in 17 years.
| Band value in 1991 | A year | A month |
|---|---|---|
| Band A up to £40,000 | £1,755 | £176 |
| Band B £40,001–52,000 | £2,048 | £205 |
| Band C £52,001–68,000 | £2,340 | £234 |
| Band D £68,001–88,000 | £2,633 | £263 |
| Band E £88,001–120,000 | £3,218 | £322 |
| Band F £120,001–160,000 | £3,803 | £380 |
| Band G £160,001–320,000 | £4,388 | £439 |
| Band H over £320,000 | £5,266 | £527 |
Your band comes from what your home would have sold for in April 1991, set by the Valuation Office Agency; look it up on GOV.UK. Each band pays a fixed fraction of Band D, from six ninths (A) to two (H). Living alone takes 25% off.
69% of households own their home; 17% rent privately
Census 2021, all households. More households own outright than across Cornwall’s towns (48% against 39%).
Cornwall and England: all residents of their built-up areas (towns and cities), from the same Census 2021 output areas.
365th of 604 UK towns its size for what a home costs against income
Median sale price ÷ the area’s mean household income, cheapest first, for UK towns of 4,000 to 7,000 people: the towns either side of Looe, and others in Cornwall.
| # | Town | Median home | ÷ income | Rent | Band D | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Horden County Durham | £57K | 1.3× | £650 | £2,912 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 196 | St Blazey Cornwall | £210K | 4.6× | £1,000 | £2,455 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 362 | Tangmere West Sussex | £325K | 5.6× | £1,333 | £2,480 | C |
| 363 | Stokenchurch Buckinghamshire | £394K | 5.6× | £1,475 | £2,482 | B |
| 364 | Callington Cornwall | £260K | 5.7× | £1,000 | £2,700 | D− |
| 365 | Looe Cornwall | £260K | 5.7× | £1,000 | £2,633 | D |
| 366 | North Baddesley Hampshire | £370K | 5.7× | £1,235 | £2,331 | B+ |
| 367 | Finningley South Yorkshire | £243K | 5.7× | £694 | £2,169 | B |
| 368 | Bagshot Surrey | £420K | 5.7× | £1,503 | £2,628 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 509 | Wadebridge Cornwall | £315K | 6.9× | £1,000 | £2,706 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 548 | St Ives Cornwall | £350K | 7.6× | £1,000 | £2,677 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 604 | Moor Park Hertfordshire | £1.3M | 17.2× | £1,826 | £2,381 | D |
Rent and Band D are for each town’s main council area; Northern Ireland has no council tax (its towns pay domestic rates) and no council-area rents; Scotland’s rents are published for broad areas, not councils. Cost letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; this order is context only.
Fowey sells for £175K more; Liskeard for £45K less
Median sale, September 2023 to August 2026, for the built-up areas around Looe, shaded against Looe’s median. Five-year change where both years had 20+ sales.
Fowey, 8.5 miles away, has the dearest homes nearby (£435,000). Liskeard is the cheapest (£215,000).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Sale prices aren’t valuations. A median is the middle sale, so a year with more flats or new builds moves it even if no home changed in value. The ONS House Price Index adjusts for the mix; it is published by council, not for Looe’s built-up area.
- Rent is for the whole council. The ONS publishes private rents by council only, so the figure covers the whole Cornwall council area, not just Looe.
- Income is a mean. The grade divides costs by the ONS’s mean household income for the council area (£45,985), which a few high earners pull up; the median household’s is lower.
- The newest months are thin. Land Registry registers a sale weeks or months after completion, so the year to August 2026 will gain sales as registrations catch up.
Questions about living costs in Looe
Is Looe expensive to live in?
The median home in Looe sold for £260,000 between September 2023 and August 2026, £17,000 less than the typical UK town. That is 5.7 times the area’s mean household income, cheaper for local incomes than in 46% of UK towns. The average private rent of £1,000 a month takes 26% of that income.
Are house prices falling in Looe?
The median sale was £277,500 in the year to August 2026, up 7% on the year before. Over five years prices held flat, and over ten went up 39%.
How much is rent in Looe?
The ONS puts the average private rent in the Cornwall council area at £1,000 a month in August 2026: £688 for one bedroom, £880 for two, £1,077 for three and £1,502 for four or more. Rents held flat over the year, against 4% across England.
How much is council tax in Looe?
Band D is £2,633 for 2026–27, against England’s average of £2,392. Band A is £1,755 and Band C £2,340. Your bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
How much do I need to earn to buy in Looe?
With a 10% deposit and borrowing of 4.5 times income, a household needs about £52,000 a year to buy the median Looe home of £260,000, or about £39,000 for the median flat (£195,000).
Is Looe cheaper than St Austell?
No: St Austell’s median sale was £240,000 over the same three years, against Looe’s £260,000.
Sources: HM Land Registry Price Paid (standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026) · HM Land Registry Price Paid, every standard sale since 1995 (years to August), by council ward and postcode district · ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026, by council) · ONS Price Index of Private Rents, monthly since January 2015 (councils, regions, England and Wales) · MHCLG and Welsh Government council tax, Band D 2026–27 (with parish precepts in England) · MHCLG Band D council tax by council, 1993–94 to 2026–27; Welsh Government council tax levels 2026–27 · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023) · ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.