Old Portsmouth & Southsea Common
Portsmouth 024 · 5 sub-areas · 8,253 residents
Portsmouth 024 sits within the city of Portsmouth, home to around 8,250 residents and carrying a noticeably mixed rental market. A typical two-bedroom flat runs about £1,124 a month — slightly below the UK national median for a 2-bed — though the rent-to-income squeeze here is real, with renters spending well over half their take-home pay on housing.
Old Portsmouth & Southsea Common is a green, lower-density part of Portsmouth — parks within walking distance of most addresses, a slower weekday rhythm, and a population skewed toward longer-tenure households rather than transient renters. The rental market is active and turnover is high — people move through rather than stay; a high share of adults are degree-educated, which often shows up in the kind of jobs people commute to.
Overview
What's it like to live in Old Portsmouth & Southsea Common?
3 parks and 2 playgrounds are within five minutes' walk, so greenspace is reliably close at hand; food and drink within walking distance is workable but not dense — around 43 restaurants and 5 pubs in five minutes; Recorded crime is higher than the national norm — common for built-up urban areas, but worth weighing if you're looking for a quieter base; Public transport is genuinely strong; most errands and a fair share of social life don't need a car; rents are roughly in line with the national norm, at around £1,357 a month for a typical home; gigabit broadband is effectively universal.
Generated from the latest May 2026 data · refreshed automatically
Figures are aggregated across 5 sub-areas — population-weighted means for rates, sums for counts. Sources cited beneath each section.
Old Portsmouth & Southsea Common in Portsmouth
Living in Old Portsmouth & Southsea Common
Portsmouth 024 is a dense, predominantly residential part of Portsmouth with a character shaped by its high proportion of single-person households — nearly half of all homes here are occupied by one person. It's not the city's most prosperous corner, but it's not the most deprived either, sitting in the sixth deprivation decile nationally. What you get is an area that feels lived-in and unpretentious, with greenspace genuinely close by: the typical resident is within about 188 metres of a green space, and more than eight in ten homes have walkable access to it.
On rents, Portsmouth 024 is competitive. A one-bedroom comes in at around £893 a month, a two-bed at roughly £1,124, and a three-bed at about £1,345. Those figures are modest by South East standards, though the catch is a high rent-to-income ratio — renters here typically spend around 62% of their take-home pay on rent, which is a significant strain. Rents have been rising, up about 2.7% over the past year.
The neighbourhood skews toward younger adults: nearly a third of residents are aged 18–34, well above what you'd find in many comparable Portsmouth areas. That's balanced by a sizeable 65-plus population at around 23%, giving the area a mixed generational feel rather than a purely student or young-professional tone. Private renting is the dominant tenure — just under half of homes are privately rented — with owner-occupation at around 45% and a smaller social housing share of about 9%.
Practically speaking, the nearest mainline rail station is roughly 1,167 metres away — about a 15-minute walk — connecting Portsmouth to London in around 107 minutes by rail. Working from home is notably common here, with over a third of residents doing so. See the streets and sub-areas below for more on the pockets within Portsmouth 024.
What you'll need on day one
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Frequently asked
- Is Portsmouth 024 a nice place to live?
- It's a mixed picture. Greenspace is genuinely close — most residents are within a short walk of a park — and rents are relatively affordable for the South East. The trade-off is a high crime rate, roughly double the national average, and a school catchment picture that's well below the national norm. It suits people who prioritise cost and greenspace access over school quality or low crime.
- What is the rent in Portsmouth 024?
- A one-bedroom flat runs around £893 a month, a two-bed around £1,124, and a three-bed around £1,345. These are estimates scaled from city-level data using local sale prices. The two-bed figure is slightly below the UK national median of around £1,200, though renters here typically spend around 62% of take-home pay on housing — so affordability relative to local salaries is tighter than the headline rent suggests.
- Is Portsmouth 024 safe?
- Crime here runs high — around 182 offences per 1,000 residents annually, which is more than double the UK national rate of roughly 80. This reflects Portsmouth's broader urban crime profile rather than an extreme local outlier, but it's a meaningful factor. Checking street-level crime data on police.uk before renting is worth doing.
- What's the commute from Portsmouth 024 to Portsmouth city centre?
- The nearest mainline rail station is about a 15-minute walk away. For broader commuting, the rail journey to London takes around 107 minutes. Notably, over a third of residents here work from home — one of the higher rates in the city — so the daily commute question is less relevant for a significant share of the population.
- Who lives in Portsmouth 024?
- Mostly younger adults and solo renters. Nearly a third of residents are aged 18–34, and around 47% of households are single-person. About 46% hold a degree-level qualification. It's a roughly even split between private renters and owner-occupiers, with a smaller social housing share. Families with children are relatively rare here.
- What schools are near Portsmouth 024?
- There are around 60 schools within 2km, but only about 20% are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted — well below the national average of roughly 89%. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is about 5.3km away. Families should research catchment areas carefully; the local school quality picture is one of the area's more significant drawbacks.
- Is Portsmouth 024 good for working from home?
- Yes, in practical terms. Over 36% of residents already work from home — one of the higher rates in Portsmouth — and broadband infrastructure is excellent, with 99.7% of premises able to access gigabit-capable connections and no properties below the minimum broadband standard.