PO31 7SR Isle of Wight

Live postcode, introduced January 1980. Ward: Cowes North. Region: South East.

Streets

House prices and rents in Isle of Wight

A typical home in Isle of Wight cost £245,670 in August 2026, 1.1% less than a year before. That is 7% more than five years earlier and 33% more than ten years earlier.

HomeTypical price, Aug 2026
Detached£390,434
Semi-detached£274,146
Terraced£211,057
Flat or maisonette£136,524
Bought by a first-time buyer£200,374

Private renters in Isle of Wight paid £953 a month on average in September 2026, 6.8% more than a year before. That is 34% more than five years earlier.

HomeAverage rent a month, Sep 2026
One bedroom£664
Two bedrooms£874
Three bedrooms£1,092
Four or more bedrooms£1,519

Sources: UK House Price Index (HM Land Registry, with the ONS and the Welsh Government), to August 2026; ONS Price Index of Private Rents, to September 2026. Figures for the whole council area. The typical price is adjusted for the mix of homes that sold, so it is not the value of any one home. Rents are the average paid on all private tenancies, new and existing, so they move more slowly than rents being advertised.

Council tax

What each band costs in Isle of Wight in 2026-27: Band D £2,626 a year on average, including the police, fire and any county and parish charges.

ABCDEFGH
£1,751£2,042£2,334£2,626£3,209£3,793£4,376£5,252

Homes by band in the neighbourhood around this postcode: most are in band B (24% of about 1,680 homes).

Sources: Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties, homes at 31 March 2026 (counts rounded to the nearest 10), for the neighbourhood (census area of about 700 homes) around it, not just this postcode; Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, council tax levels 2026-27. Bands are charged as fixed shares of Band D; the actual bill depends on the parish and on discounts such as the single-person discount. Check a home's own band with the official council tax band checker.

Planning and heritage

  • Conservation area: no postcode centre in this postcode is in one.
  • Listed buildings within 100 m of this postcode: none.
  • Article 4 direction (removing permitted development rights): none recorded, though not every council has published theirs.
  • Tree preservation orders: none recorded, though not every council has published theirs.
  • Green belt: no.

Brownfield land registered for housing within 1 km (0.6 miles)

Source: planning.data.gov.uk (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), compiled from councils and, for listed buildings, Historic England's National Heritage List. Conservation areas, Article 4 directions, tree preservation areas and the green belt are checked at each postcode's centre. Listed buildings and protected trees are counted within 100 m of this postcode. Councils publish Article 4 directions, tree preservation orders and brownfield registers to different standards, and some not yet. Planning applications are not here: there is no national open record of them yet.

Energy projects nearby

1 energy project near the postcode.

ProjectKindSizeStageDistance
Greenhill Anaerobic Digestion Plant Isle of Wight P/01378/12 Anaerobic digestion 1 MW Operational Oct 2016 4.3 km (2.7 miles)

Planned projects can change or not go ahead; search the planning authority's applications by the reference shown for the plans, conditions and any objections. Construction brings traffic for some months; once built, solar farms and batteries are usually quiet, while turbines and waste plants can be seen or heard further away.

Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q2 2026 extract, Open Government Licence: renewable electricity and storage projects over 150 kW, operating, being built, permitted or applied for. Shown: wind turbines and plants that burn or digest waste within 5 km (3.1 miles), other projects of 1 MW or more within 2 km (1.2 miles); refused, withdrawn and abandoned projects are left out. Distances are from the nearest postcode centre to each project's grid reference.

Flood risk

Rivers, the sea or surface water: in this postcode, 2 addresses are in areas at high risk, 2 at medium risk and 2 at low risk. Each address counts once, at the higher of its rivers-and-sea and surface-water risk.

Rivers and the sea alone: no home is in an area at risk.

High: 3.3% (1 in 30) or more chance of flooding a year. Medium: 1% to 3.3%. Low: 0.1% to 1%. Very low: under 0.1%. The rivers and sea figures allow for flood defences. Counts cover whole postcodes, which can include other streets.

Flood zone for planning: no postcode centre is in flood zone 2 or 3.

Recorded floods

No recorded flood covers the centre of this postcode.

Recorded floods are where floodwater was seen or surveyed after a flood. Many floods were never mapped, an outline over a postcode's centre does not mean every home in it flooded, and homes outside one may have. Ask the seller whether the home itself has flooded.

Sources: Environment Agency Recorded Flood Outlines; Environment Agency Flood risk: postcode search tool data (loaded 29 October 2026), Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea: postcodes in areas at risk (loaded 29 October 2026) and Flood Map for Planning (loaded 28 October 2026). Flood zones are checked at each postcode's centre point. These are models of areas, which their publishers say are not suitable for showing whether an individual property is at risk, and they do not cover flooding from sewers or drains. Check an address on the official long-term flood risk service.

© Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2026. All rights reserved. Some features are based on digital spatial data from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, © NERC (CEH); the postcode data is produced in part from PAF® and Multiple Residence Data, © Royal Mail Group Limited.

Coastal erosion

The nearest projected erosion zone is 680 m (0.4 miles) from the postcode (by 2105, if defences are not maintained or built).

ProjectionPolicy for the frontageErosionDistance
By 2055, with the shoreline management plan carried outHold the line IoW none (the line is held)800 m (0.5 miles)
By 2105, with the shoreline management plan carried outHold the line IoW none (the line is held)800 m (0.5 miles)
By 2105, if defences are not maintained or builtNo intervention IoW up to 121 m680 m (0.4 miles)
Ground instability zone Cowes, Isle of WightUnstable cliffs or slopes where the ground has moved, with a margin for movement over the next 100 years650 m (0.4 miles)

Each shoreline management plan sets a policy for each stretch of coast: hold the line (keep defences where they are), managed realignment (let the shore move back in a controlled way), advance the line, or no active intervention. Erosion is the distance the shore may move back, counted from today, for the higher central climate change allowance. The maps are guidance from national modelling, not a survey of any one home; the council's coastal team can say more.

Sources: Environment Agency, National Coastal Erosion Risk Mapping 2024 (England), and Natural Resources Wales, National Coastal Erosion Risk Management (Wales), Open Government Licence. Distances are from the nearest postcode centre to the edge of each zone; where a postcode centre is inside a zone, some homes on it may not be.

Storm overflows

9 storm overflows within 1 km (0.6 miles) of the postcode spilled 241 times, for 428 hours in all, in 2025. They discharge into The Solent, River Medina Estuary, The River Medina, Medina Estuary and others.

OverflowIntoSpillsHoursDistance
St Mary Road Cowes Wwps Cso Southern Water The Solent 51 98 530 m (0.3 miles)
Terminus Road Cowes Cso Southern Water The Solent 5 2 530 m (0.3 miles)
High Street Pumping Station Southern Water River Medina Estuary 61 226 540 m (0.3 miles)
Market Hill Cowes Cso Southern Water The River Medina 23 40 610 m (0.4 miles)
Thetis Wharf Ps Southern Water Medina Estuary 48 38 630 m (0.4 miles)
The Parade Ps Southern Water Cowes Harbour 1 1 760 m (0.5 miles)
Castle Street Cowes Cso Southern Water The Solent 40 22 770 m (0.5 miles)
Floating Bridge Cowes Cso Southern Water River Medina 3 0 800 m (0.5 miles)

A storm overflow lets sewage diluted with rainwater into a river, stream or the sea when heavy rain overwhelms the sewers, so the spills here affect the water they run into, not homes. A spill is counted the regulators' way: a first 12 hours, then each 24 hours it goes on.

Source: Environment Agency, Event Duration Monitoring storm overflow annual return for 2025, from the water companies' monitors on each overflow in England, Open Government Licence. Distances are from the nearest postcode centre to each overflow's outlet. A year's figures are published the following spring; a monitor that worked for less of the year undercounts.

Coal mining

No postcode centre here is in a coalfield: the Mining Remediation Authority records no coal mining risk here.

Source: Mining Remediation Authority (formerly the Coal Authority), development high and low risk areas, Open Government Licence. Checked at each postcode's centre, so a home near the edge of an area may differ. It covers coal mining only, not other mining (such as tin, lead, iron or chalk), and is no substitute for a coal mining search. About the risk areas.

Historic landfill

1 historic landfill site is within 500 m (0.3 miles) of the postcode, the nearest 100 m away.

SiteWaste went inWasteDistance
Granville Railway Bridge Cowes, Isle of Wight Not recorded Inert 100 m

Closed tips can give off gas (methane and carbon dioxide) and leak into the ground for years. An environmental search, which conveyancers usually order, looks at landfill and contaminated land around the home; the council keeps a register of land it has found to be contaminated.

Sources: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, historic landfill sites (places where waste was put into or onto the land and no environmental permit is now in force), Open Government Licence. Distances are from the nearest postcode centre to the edge of each site as mapped; the outlines and dates come from old records and can be approximate. Landfill still operating is not included.

Height above sea level

The postcode's 15 addresses are between 13 m and 16 m above sea level (14 m on average).

Source: Ordnance Survey, OS Terrain 50, July 2026: the height of the ground on a 50 m grid, read at each address, in metres above Ordnance Datum (mean sea level at Newlyn). It is the lie of the land, not floor or threshold levels, and is accurate to a few metres. Being low-lying is not in itself a flood risk; the flood section above says what the flood maps show.

Broadband

Superfast 100%, ultrafast 100%, gigabit 100% of premises; 0% cannot get 10 Mbit/s. Ofcom Connected Nations, data as at January 2026.

Getting around

Sources: Department for Transport, NaPTAN (every public transport stop), as at 31 October 2026; Office of Rail and Road, Estimates of station usage 2024–25 (which stations are on the National Rail network, and their journeys: entries and exits in the year to March); OurAirports (public domain, kept by volunteers); car parks and charging points from Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-10-21.0, which gathers business listings from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and others: not an official register, so some will be missing, private or out of date. Distances are straight lines from the postcode's centre, not routes, and say nothing about how often anything runs. Stations opened since the end of ORR's year appear when ORR publishes the next one, each December; heritage railways are left out.

NearestDistance
Railway stationsRyde Pier Head 129,000 journeys in 2024–2510.2 km (6.4 miles)
Ryde Esplanade 130,000 journeys in 2024–2510.4 km (6.5 miles)
Ryde St Johns Road 53,000 journeys in 2024–2510.9 km (6.8 miles)
Bus stops13 stops within 400 m (0.2 miles), 27 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Fire Station Cowes60 m
Bus or coach stationIOW Festival Fairlee5 km (3.1 miles)
Ferry terminalRed Jet Ferry Terminal Cowes470 m (0.3 miles)
Car parksCowes Park and Ride1.1 km (0.7 miles)
EV charging points7 within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Be.EV Charging Station260 m
Airport with scheduled flightsSouthampton Airport SOU21.6 km (13 miles)
Nearest large airportLondon Gatwick Airport LGW89.5 km (56 miles)

Local services

Sources: NHS Organisation Data Service, as at 31 October 2026: GP practices, community pharmacies and dental practices with an NHS contract, open now, each placed at the centre of its postcode; hospitals are NHS trust and Welsh health board sites named as hospitals, and may not have an emergency department. Ratings and care homes: Care Quality Commission, latest ratings as at 2 November 2026 (England only; the CQC does not rate dental practices, and Wales's inspectorates give no ratings). Police stations and cash machines from Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-10-21.0, which gathers business listings: not an official register, so some will be missing or out of date. Distances are straight lines from the postcode's centre. Nothing here says whether a practice is taking new patients or a dentist new NHS patients.

NearestDistance
GP surgeries2 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Cowes Medical Centre Good Sep 2022900 m (0.6 miles)
Pharmacies4 pharmacies within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Day Lewis Pharmacy330 m
NHS dentists5 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Amery House Dental Practice330 m
HospitalSt Mary's Hospital Good Jul 20265.4 km (3.4 miles)
Care homes5 homes within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Cherry Tree Care Home Good Apr 2025550 m (0.3 miles)
Police stationNewport Police Station6.6 km (4.1 miles)
Cash machines1 machine within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest The Southern Co-operative Cowes Mill Hill Road, Cowes570 m (0.4 miles)

Nurseries and childcare

4 nurseries, pre-schools and clubs within 1.5 km (0.9 miles), the nearest 370 m from the postcode's centre.

ProviderKindPlacesLatest inspectionDistance
Blackberry Lane Pre-School PO31 8HF Full day care 50 Good (Jun 2022, overall grade under the previous framework) 370 m
Little Love Lane Pre-School and Nursery CIC PO31 7ET Full day care 65 Good (Apr 2025, overall grade under the previous framework) 770 m (0.5 miles)
Gurnard Pre-School PO31 8DS Sessional day care 39 Outstanding (Jun 2022, overall grade under the previous framework) 1.1 km (0.7 miles)
Seashells Early Years Centre PO32 6EA Full day care 91 Good (Apr 2023, overall grade under the previous framework) 1.3 km (0.8 miles)

Ofsted also registers 29 childminders and 11 home childcarers (nannies) in Isle of Wight. It does not publish their addresses, so they cannot be shown here; the council's family information service lists those taking children.

Source: Ofsted, childcare providers and inspections management information, as at June 2026, Open Government Licence: providers on the Early Years and Childcare Registers on non-domestic premises, placed at their postcode. Since November 2025 Ofsted gives a standard for each of six areas (Exceptional, Strong, Expected, Needs attention, Urgent improvement) rather than one overall grade; older grades stand until a provider is inspected again. Distances are straight lines from the postcode's centre.

Parks and green space

Source: Ordnance Survey, OS Open Greenspace, April 2026: public parks and gardens, play spaces, playing fields and allotments, with their entrances. Distances are straight lines from the postcode's centre to a site's nearest entrance (or its edge where none is recorded), not walking routes; sizes are the area OS maps for each site. Some sites, such as school playing fields, may not be open to the public.

NearestDistance
Park or garden2 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Northwood Park 6.8 ha240 m
Play area5 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Unnamed 880 m²430 m (0.3 miles)
Playing field1 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Unnamed 6.1 ha690 m (0.4 miles)
Allotments1 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Moorgreen Road Allotments 7,510 m²210 m

Within 800 m (0.5 miles): 2 parks and gardens, 7.3 hectares in all.

Landmarks

The nearest historic landmark is Church of St Mary, a listed building (Grade II*), 390 m north. 87 listed buildings are within 1 km (0.6 miles), 6 of them Grade II*.

Historic places
NameWhat it isFrom the postcode's centre
Church of St MaryListed building, Grade II*390 m north
Ivy HouseListed building, Grade II*420 m (0.3 miles) north-east
Northwood HouseListed building, Grade II*450 m (0.3 miles) north
88 and 89, High StreetListed building, Grade II*500 m (0.3 miles) north-east
Norris CastleRegistered park or garden, Grade I2.1 km (1.3 miles) east
OsborneRegistered park or garden, Grade II*2.7 km (1.7 miles) east
Natural landmarks within 5 km (3.1 miles)
NameWhat it isFrom the postcode's centre
Cowes HarbourTidal water720 m (0.4 miles) north-east
Jennys WoodWood830 m (0.5 miles) north-west
Egypt PointWetland1.3 km (0.8 miles) north-west
Gurnard CliffCliff or slope1.8 km (1.1 miles) west
Spring HillHill1.8 km (1.1 miles) east
Upper PondLake or reservoir2.9 km (1.8 miles) south-east

Sources: Historic England's registers through planning.data.gov.uk (MHCLG), and Cadw through DataMapWales (Welsh Government): World Heritage Sites within 10 km (6.2 miles), battlefields within 5 km (3.1 miles), registered parks and gardens within 3 km (1.9 miles), scheduled monuments within 2 km (1.2 miles), and Grade I and II* listed buildings within 1 km (0.6 miles). Ordnance Survey, OS Open Names, October 2026: named hills, valleys, lakes, woods, wetlands and coast (it has no rivers). Distances are in a straight line to the middle of each site, and being on a register does not mean there is public access.

Air quality

Source: Defra, modelled background air pollution, annual means for 2024, for the 1 km square that holds the postcode's centre. These are background levels, away from the kerb: beside a busy road nitrogen dioxide in particular can be several times higher. UK limits are the legal annual limits for England and Wales; the World Health Organization's 2021 guidelines are much stricter, and most towns and cities are above them.

Annual means in µg/m³ (micrograms per cubic metre of air)
PollutantHereUK limitWHO guideline
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)7.54010
Fine particles (PM2.5)5.8205
Particles (PM10)8.74015

All three are within the UK legal limits; PM2.5 is above the WHO guideline, as in most towns and cities.

Road and rail noise

Source: Defra, strategic noise mapping Round 4 (England), modelled for 2021 and published in December 2023, and its airport maps of the same round for the fifteen largest English airports, published in April 2026: Lden, the average sound level over a whole day with extra weight for the evening and night, on a 10 m grid, read at each address. These are models of traffic, not measurements; they leave out smaller airports and airfields, industry and neighbours, and a room at the back of a house is often much quieter than the front. The World Health Organization's guidelines are 53 dB for road traffic, 54 dB for railways and 45 dB for aircraft (below the lowest level shown here).

Addresses by modelled noise level (Lden, dB)
LevelRoad trafficRailways
55 to 5920
Under 551315

2 of the postcode's 15 addresses are modelled at 55 dB or more from road traffic, above the WHO guidelines.

Road safety

Source: Department for Transport, road safety data (STATS19), collisions in 2021 to 2025, as published by November 2026. Collisions in which someone was hurt and which were reported to the police, within 250 m of the postcode's centre. Severity is the worst injury as the police recorded it.

11 collisions in which someone was hurt were reported around the postcode in 2021 to 2025: 0 fatal, 4 serious and 7 slight, in which 4 people were seriously hurt. 2 involved a pedestrian; 3 involved a cyclist; 2 involved a motorcyclist; 2 involved a child under 16. 27% happened in the dark, and 18% on a wet or icy road. Most were on roads with a 30 mph limit.

By year
YearCollisionsFatal or serious
202131
202222
202320
202410
202531
The most recent 10 of 11
DateSeverityWho was hurtRoadConditions
6 Aug 2025 15:03 Serious 1 person: 1 cyclist Minor road, 30 mph Daylight
13 Jul 2025 00:24 Slight 1 person Minor road, 30 mph Dark, street lights on
7 Mar 2025 10:28 Slight 1 person Minor road, 30 mph Daylight
16 Dec 2024 17:26 Slight 1 person: 1 pedestrian, 1 child B3325, 30 mph Dark, street lights on
26 Sep 2023 11:12 Slight 1 person: 1 motorcyclist Minor road, 30 mph Daylight
25 Sep 2023 10:30 Slight 2 people Minor road, 30 mph Daylight
20 Sep 2022 12:54 Serious 1 person Minor road, 30 mph Daylight
3 Mar 2022 07:22 Serious 1 person: 1 pedestrian Minor road, 30 mph Daylight
28 Dec 2021 20:49 Serious 1 person: 1 cyclist Minor road, 30 mph Dark, street lights on, wet road
8 Jun 2021 18:30 Slight 1 person: 1 motorcyclist Minor road, 30 mph Daylight

Only collisions in which someone was hurt and which the police were told about are here: damage-only collisions and near misses are not, and some injuries are never reported. Positions are recorded by the police, usually to within a few metres. Each year's figures are published the following September.

Traffic on nearby roads

No traffic count point is within 500 m (0.3 miles) of the postcode. The Department for Transport counts every motorway and A road and only a sample of minor roads, so a quiet residential street usually has none.

Source: Department for Transport, road traffic statistics, annual average daily flows to 2025, Open Government Licence. Distances are from the nearest postcode centre to each count point.

Climate, daylight and earthquakes

Monthly temperatures and rainfall, sunrise and sunset through the year, and earthquakes recorded nearby since 1970 are much the same across the area, so they are worked out once for Isle of Wight: see them on the Isle of Wight page.

People and work

Source: ONS Census 2021, taken on 21 March 2021, for the Output Area (a small census area of about 125 households) that this postcode is in: 271 residents in 128 households. The census was taken during a lockdown, so working from home is high and travel to work low compared with now. ONS swaps a few records between neighbouring areas and adds small amounts of noise to counts to protect privacy, so small differences mean little. Industry is not published for areas this small.

Who lives here

Around this postcodeEngland
Median age4540
Children under 1518%17%
Aged 65 and over18%18%

Homes

Around this postcodeEngland
Owned (outright or with a mortgage)71%61%
Owned outright35%33%
Shared ownership0%1%
Social rented3%17%
Private rented26%21%

Work and commuting

Around this postcodeEngland
Adults (16 and over) in work63%57%
Unemployment (of those working or looking for work)7%6%
Retired (of adults)21%22%
Long-term sick or disabled (of adults)2%4%
Work mainly from home (of those in work)28%32%
Travel to work by car or van49%48%
By train, Underground, metro or tram0%4%
By any public transport, including bus1%8%
On foot or by bicycle17%10%
Work within 10 km (6 miles) of home (of those who travel to work)82%65%
Work 30 km (19 miles) or more away4%8%

Education and languages

Around this postcodeEngland
Degree or other higher qualification, Level 4+ (of adults)39%34%
No qualifications9%18%
Apprenticeship as highest qualification4%5%
Main language English (aged 3 and over)97%91%
Cannot speak English well or at all2%2%

Deprivation

The neighbourhood around this postcode is in decile 6 of 10 on the English Indices of Deprivation 2025, where 1 is the most deprived tenth of England's 33,755 neighbourhoods and 10 the least.

Source: English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), by LSOA (about 1,500 people), through the ONS Postcode Directory. The index combines income, employment, health, education, crime, housing and living environment; it ranks areas against each other and does not describe any one household. Ranks in England and Wales are worked out separately and cannot be compared.

The full dossier for this postcode's main street is on St Mary's Road.