Sawston
Cambridgeshire · East of England
Best for: Families · Safety
Property & affordability
What can I get here?
£425,000
Typical property price
£200,500–£641,500
Range across property types
+2.0%
Price change, past year
£641,500
Detached
£400,000
Semi-detached
£345,000
Terraced
£200,500
Flat/apartment
Vs London: 17% cheaper than the London reference figure.
Recent movement: Up 2.0% over the past year.
Vs nearby: Around the middle of the pack among the other 28 Cambridgeshire candidates in this dataset.
We don't hold per-bedroom price data for these towns - the figures above are the overall median and by property type, not broken down by bedroom count.
London commute
63 min
Fastest journey
60
Trains per day
Whittlesford Parkway
Nearest station
London destination: London Liverpool Street
The reality: More realistic for occasional commuting (2-3 days a week) than five days a week.
Sawston has no station of its own - these figures are Whittlesford Parkway's, the nearest mainline station, used as a real-geography proxy rather than a measurement of Sawston specifically.
The verdict
Sawston ranks #20 of 80 in this dataset with a VillageScore of 57.8 (Grade B). It scores particularly well on Risk & Safety and Family & Education, making it a strong fit for the Family First profile in particular. Its weakest area is Connectivity (26.5/100 among the 80 candidates) - worth weighing against what matters most to you.
Why is Sawston #20?
57.8Data last updated: August 2026
around the middle of the field
Based on:
- 70% weight: property prices here compared with London prices (cheaper relative to London scores higher)
- 30% weight: one-year house price growth (stronger recent growth scores higher)
- Both figures are converted to a percentile rank across all 80 candidates before combining - the score is relative standing, not a raw price
below average
Based on:
- 70% weight: fastest rail journey time to London from the nearest station
- 30% weight: number of trains per day on that route
- 32 of the 80 candidates have their own sourced station data; the other 48 inherit the figures for their nearest mainline station as a proxy, since a direct entry wasn't available for every location.
around the middle of the field
Based on:
- Average of 6 factors, each independently percentile-ranked: footpath access, green space access, and proximity to a supermarket, GP, pharmacy, and community facilities
- Distance-based factors are inverted so being closer scores higher
top tier among the 80 candidates
Based on:
- Based on recorded crime per 1,000 population for the local authority this location sits in (lower crime scores higher)
- Calculated at local-authority level, not per-village - every town in the same local authority receives the same D4 score, even if their real-world feel differs street to street.
comfortably above average
Based on:
- Average of 5 factors, each independently percentile-ranked: primary school quality, secondary school quality, distance to nearest primary school, distance to nearest secondary school, and family recreation provision
- Distance factors are inverted so being closer scores higher
comfortably above average
Based on:
- Weighted average of 6 named sub-components, by local authority: Housing Pipeline (25%), Planning Protection (20%), Infrastructure Investment (20%), Employment Growth (15%), Digital Infrastructure (10%), Climate Adaptation (10%)
- Housing Pipeline uses the government's Housing Delivery Test %; Planning Protection uses years of 5-year housing land supply
- Employment Growth uses ONS BRES employee jobs data (% change 2022-2024); Digital Infrastructure uses Ofcom's gigabit-capable broadband coverage %
- Climate Adaptation uses Environment Agency flood-risk scoring; Infrastructure Investment uses UK Shared Prosperity Fund allocation per resident
- Calculated at local-authority level, like D4. Planning Protection specifically has no sourced figure for 2 of the 13 authorities (Broxbourne, Epping Forest) - their Future Change score is computed from the other 5 sub-components, reweighted to 100%.
Every dimension score (0-100) is itself a percentile rank among these same 80 candidates, not a raw measurement on a fixed scale. A score of 80 means "stronger than roughly 80% of these 80 locations on this factor" - not "80 out of 100" in absolute terms. Full methodology →
The good
- +Risk & Safety: top tier among the 80 candidates (84.2/100)
- +Family & Education: comfortably above average (69.7/100)
- +Future Change: comfortably above average (66.3/100)
The bad
- −Connectivity: below average (26.5/100)
What it's actually like
Read off the same scores as the rest of this page, not local knowledge we hold about Sawston specifically.
The vibe: Leans toward families with school-age children - its Family & Education score (70/100) is one of its clearest strengths.
You'll probably love it if...
- ·You value risk & safety - it scores 84/100, among the strongest of the 80 candidates.
- ·You value family & education - it scores 70/100, among the strongest of the 80 candidates.
- ·You value future change - it scores 66/100, among the strongest of the 80 candidates.
You might not like it if...
- ·Connectivity matters a lot to you - it scores 27/100, one of the weaker results in the dataset.
Who lives here: We don't hold demographic data directly, but the scoring pattern - particularly its Family & Education score - suggests this location skews toward families with school-age children. That's an inference from the scores, not a measured fact about who actually lives here.
Weekends: Lifestyle scores 54/100, around the middle of the field - a mix of some local amenities and some reliance on nearby towns.
Local amenities & green space
Real counts within a 5-mile radius, plus a sample of named pubs, cafes, and green spaces from OpenStreetMap - not a curated or rated recommendation list.
Pubs & dining: Around 56 pubs and 282 restaurants & cafes within 5 miles.
The Three Horseshoes (2.2 mi) · Red Lion (2.3 mi) · The SideQuest (2.6 mi) · Three Tuns (3.0 mi) · Sweet Tea (0.4 mi) · Dorringtons (0.5 mi) · Breakfast Voyage (0.5 mi) · SmallTown (1.0 mi)
Shopping: 15 supermarkets and around 707 independent businesses (a proxy for local shops, not a shopping-centre count) within 5 miles.
Green space: 566.7 hectares of green space across 310 sites within 5 miles, including 2 registered parks & gardens.
Orchard Park (0.1 mi) · Mill Lane Park (0.4 mi) · Town Close Park (0.5 mi) · Pampisford Park (0.8 mi) · Brewery Field Community Green Space (1.7 mi)
Sawston sits near a county boundary - these counts may undercount amenities just across it, since the underlying data is compiled per county.
Named venues © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
Risk & opportunity
Figures for the South Cambridgeshire local authority area, not just Sawston itself - the same authority-level basis as Risk & Safety and Future Change above.
Risk
Low flood risk - around 21,300 properties across the authority area (Environment Agency, 2024)
5.5 years of housing land supply
153% of target homes delivered over the last 3 years (Housing Delivery Test)
Future opportunity
+2.4% change in local jobs, 2022-2024 (ONS)
£10.37 per resident in UK Shared Prosperity Fund investment, 2022-25
82.9% of premises have access to gigabit-capable broadband
Doesn't cover transport dependency, named developments, or population trends - we don't hold real data on those for any of the 80 candidates.
Who it's best for
Best fit: the Family First profile scores highest here (67.2/100).
No persona profile scores notably low here relative to the other 79 candidates.
Similar locations
Closest VillageScore to Sawston, Cambridgeshire candidates first.
Things to know before you view
- ·Connectivity is this location's weakest dimension (26.5/100 among the 80 candidates) - worth researching in more depth before committing.
- ·Risk & Safety and Future Change are calculated at local-authority level, not per-village - see "How we score it" below for what that means here.
- ·All dimension scores are percentile ranks among these 80 candidates, not absolute measurements - a lower score means relatively weaker within this specific list, not necessarily bad in absolute terms.
v2.0 Production · last updated 2026-08-21