Flats to Rent in Waltham Forest

Renting in Waltham Forest

Waltham Forest is an outer north-east London borough that runs from Leyton and Leytonstone in the south, through Walthamstow, to Highams Park and Chingford on the Essex border. The Lee Valley reservoirs run along its western edge and Epping Forest along its eastern side. On the ONS measure in the table above, its average rent is well below the London average and well below neighbouring Hackney's. Council tax goes the other way: Band D is £2,386.96 in 2026/27, against a London average of £2,068 (MHCLG), one of the higher bills in London.

Waltham Forest also runs selective licensing across most of the borough. The current scheme started in May 2025 and runs until 30 April 2030. It covers every ward except Hatch Lane, Highams Park North and Endlebury, in the north, and applies to homes let to one person, a single family or two unrelated sharers, whose landlords need a council licence. A separate borough-wide additional licensing scheme, in force from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030, covers homes shared by three or more people from two or more households that do not already need a mandatory HMO licence, in every ward, including the three outside the selective scheme.

The neighbourhoods

Walthamstow town centre and the market

Walthamstow Market runs for about a kilometre along the High Street, from Tuesday to Saturday. It started in 1885, and the council, which runs it, calls it Europe's longest outdoor street market. Walthamstow Central, near the market's eastern end, is the northern terminus of the Victoria line and a stop on the Overground's Weaver line to Liverpool Street; Walthamstow Queen's Road, a short walk south-west, is on the Suffragette line. Much of the housing around the centre is late-Victorian and Edwardian terraces, many split into flats, alongside newer blocks near the station. In 2019 Waltham Forest was the Mayor of London's first London Borough of Culture.

Walthamstow Village

East of the town centre, Walthamstow Village is the oldest part of Walthamstow and has been a conservation area since 1967. It grew up around St Mary's Church, founded in the twelfth century, and the Ancient House opposite, a fifteenth-century timber-framed hall house. The Vestry House Museum, the borough's local history museum, is in the parish workhouse of 1730. Orford Road, leading up to the church, has small restaurants and cafés. Homes are mostly Victorian houses on quiet streets.

Blackhorse Road and Blackhorse Lane

At the western end of Walthamstow, Blackhorse Lane runs north past former industrial land that has been turning into workshops, studios and new blocks of flats. A cluster of brewery taprooms on the old Uplands Business Park, east of the reservoirs, is known as the Blackhorse Beer Mile. Blackhorse Workshop, a social enterprise, has an open-access wood and metal workshop and a café. Blackhorse Road station has the Victoria line and the Suffragette line, and Walthamstow Wetlands is a short walk west.

Wood Street and St James Street

Wood Street and St James Street are the Weaver line's other Walthamstow stops. Wood Street, to the east, has a small high street and an indoor market of small shops in a former cinema; God's Own Junkyard, the late sign-maker Chris Bracey's collection of neon, is nearby and opens Friday to Sunday. St James Street, at the western end of the High Street, is mostly terraced streets. Across Walthamstow and Highams Park there are many Warner flats: red-brick terraces built by the Warner estate as pairs of upper and lower flats, each with its own front door.

Leyton

Leyton, in the south, is on the Central line, one stop from Stratford (in Newham) and its Elizabeth line and Jubilee line connections. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is on its southern edge, with the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre at the park's northern end, in Leyton. Leyton Orient play at Brisbane Road, and Francis Road has a run of independent cafés and shops. Leyton Midland Road station is on the Suffragette line, and Lea Bridge station, on the western side, has Greater Anglia trains to Stratford and Tottenham Hale. Homes are mostly Victorian terraces, many of them flats.

Leytonstone

Alfred Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone in 1899, above his father's shop at 517 High Road, and the passageway at Leytonstone station has 17 mosaics of his life and films, unveiled in 2001. The station is on the Central line, where the line splits for Epping and the Hainault loop, and Leytonstone High Road station is on the Suffragette line. Hollow Pond and Leyton Flats, part of Epping Forest, are on the northern edge, with rowing boats for hire. The High Road is busy; the streets of Victorian and Edwardian terraces behind it are quieter.

Highams Park

Highams Park is a suburb of mainly Victorian and 1930s houses around its Weaver line station, with a small shopping street by the level crossing. The park that gave it its name, with Highams Park Lake, laid out to a plan by Humphry Repton, is part of Epping Forest. Highams Park North ward is outside the selective licensing scheme, though shared houses there still need an HMO licence.

Chingford

Chingford, in the far north, is the most suburban part of the borough: inter-war semis, larger gardens and Epping Forest at the end of many roads. Chingford station, in zone 5, is the terminus of the Weaver line's Chingford branch, with trains to Liverpool Street. Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge, built for Henry VIII in 1543 and now a free museum, stands at the edge of the forest. Journeys into central London take longer than from Walthamstow.

Getting around

Which line you live near decides your commute. The Victoria line runs from Walthamstow Central and Blackhorse Road to King's Cross, Oxford Circus, Victoria and Brixton, and through the night on Fridays and Saturdays. The Central line from Leyton and Leytonstone goes to Stratford, the City and the West End. The Weaver line runs from Chingford through Walthamstow to Liverpool Street, and the Suffragette line crosses the borough from Blackhorse Road to Leytonstone High Road, towards Gospel Oak and Barking Riverside. No single train runs from Leyton or Leytonstone to Highams Park or Chingford, so journeys from the south of the borough to the north mean a change of train or a bus. Check a specific commute on the TfL Journey Planner before you sign.

Schools

State secondaries include Walthamstow School for Girls, Highams Park School, Chingford Foundation School, Heathcote School, Kelmscott School, Walthamstow Academy, Norlington School (boys), Leytonstone School, George Mitchell School and Holy Family Catholic School. Sir George Monoux College and Leyton Sixth Form College take students at 16. Faith and single-sex schools set their own admissions rules, and popular primaries can have small distance catchments, so read each school's admissions criteria and its latest Ofsted report before choosing a street for a school.

Parks and open space

Walthamstow Wetlands, ten working reservoirs beside the River Lea, opened to the public in 2017 and is free to visit; Thames Water owns it, and the London Wildlife Trust manages it as a nature reserve in partnership with Thames Water and the council. Epping Forest, which the City of London Corporation looks after, runs about 13 miles from east London into Essex, and the borough reaches it at Leyton Flats, Highams Park and Chingford. Lloyd Park, off Forest Road, is home to the William Morris Gallery, in the house where Morris lived with his family from 1848 to 1856; the gallery is free and won the Art Fund Museum of the Year prize in 2013. The Lee Valley marshes and towpaths run down the western edge.

Safety

Crime concentrates around Walthamstow town centre and the market, the busiest stations and the main roads, such as Leyton and Leytonstone High Roads; residential side streets are usually quieter. For a specific street, the police's crime map at police.uk shows reported crime month by month.

Who it suits

Waltham Forest suits Victoria line commuters who want Walthamstow's market, terraces and lower rents than Hackney; Central line commuters to the City and Stratford in Leyton and Leytonstone; and families who want houses with gardens near Epping Forest in Highams Park and Chingford. It suits people less well if they want a short trip to central London from the north of the borough or often need to cross it without a car. When comparing costs, add the council tax, which is above the London average.

Useful links

Waltham Forest Council: walthamforest.gov.uk (council tax, property licensing, school admissions)
Crime by street: police.uk
Journeys: tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey
William Morris Gallery: wmgallery.org.uk
Walthamstow Wetlands: wildlondon.org.uk/nature-reserves/walthamstow-wetlands
Epping Forest: cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/epping-forest

The listings above are homes and rooms advertised by their landlords in Waltham Forest now. Check whether each one is near the Victoria line, the Central line or one of the two Overground lines, and whether it is in a selective licensing ward.