The Notswolds is 25% below the Cotswolds. If you own here, that is your question.
A regional average tells a buyer where to look. It tells an owner almost nothing about their own house.
open for offer lets you test the market before you list. Your home sits in the pre-market, buyers register interest, and nothing is advertised.
For about two years the newspapers have called Rutland and the country either side of it the Cotswolds without the price tag. In August we put a number on it.
We measured both regions the same way on the same day, 15 August 2026: 26,425 homes in the Notswolds against 29,440 in the Cotswolds. The Notswolds average sits 25% lower.
Those figures are open for offer market estimates, built on HM Land Registry sold prices, not sold prices themselves. That is why we publish the ratio and not the two price levels.
Our estimate runs high across the whole country. That bias sits on both sides of a ratio. It does not cancel inside a single figure, so we do not print one.
Where the Notswolds is
The name has no council boundary and no official map. Our working definition is four postcode districts: PE9, LE15, PE8 and LE16.
On the ground that is Stamford, Oakham, Uppingham, Oundle and Market Harborough. The building stone is the same seam as the Cotswolds. The distance from London is not.
What a regional average is for
A regional average is a buyer's number. It tells someone comparing two parts of England where the same kind of house costs less, and it sends them to look.
For an owner it is a poor number. Your house is not the average. It is a particular house, on a particular street, with a last recorded sale on a particular date.
The 25% says a Notswolds home costs less than its Cotswolds equivalent. It does not say what a buyer would pay for yours this autumn. Nothing published does.
The question the gap leaves open
If you own in Stamford or Oakham, the gap creates a question rather than answering one. Whether a buyer is there for your home is unknown until somebody asks.
The newspapers will not ask on your behalf. Neither will a regional average, however carefully it was measured.
The traditional way of asking is to list. You choose an agent, agree an asking price, and the advert goes up. The answer arrives in public.
If the price was wrong, the cut is public too. You can cut the price. You cannot un-list.
Ask first, then decide
Testing the market asks the question before anything is advertised. You set no asking price.
Buyers register interest in the pre-market, and the queue shows you how much interest came back.
Nothing is advertised, and there is no board outside. You see every registered interest in one place and decide what happens next. Nothing obliges you to answer any of it.
If nothing comes back, nothing public has happened. There is no asking price to be seen reducing, and no days-on-market clock.
Start with your own number
Start with a market estimate for your home. It is based on the home's last recorded sale, adjusted for price movement since, from HM Land Registry data, and it costs nothing.
We hold records on 14.4 million homes in England and Wales. If yours is one of them, its estimate is already there, whether or not you have spoken to us.
It is an estimate, not a valuation, and its source sits beside it on the page. It is where the owner's question starts, not where it ends.
Then test the market on it. A regional average told the buyer where to look. The queue shows you how much interest came, before you have decided anything.
Get your market estimate · Test the market on your home · The Notswolds market page
Common questions
Where is the Notswolds?
It has no official boundary. We define it as four postcode districts, PE9, LE15, PE8 and LE16, which covers Stamford, Oakham, Uppingham, Oundle and Market Harborough.
How was the 25% gap measured?
The same measurement was run over both regions on the same day, 15 August 2026: 26,425 Notswolds homes against 29,440 Cotswolds homes, comparing average open for offer market estimates built on HM Land Registry sold prices.
Why not publish the two average prices?
Our market estimate runs high across the whole country. That bias sits on both sides of a ratio, but it does not cancel in a single absolute figure, so we publish the ratio only.
Does the gap tell me what my home is worth?
No. It compares two regional averages. Your home's own market estimate is based on its last recorded sale adjusted for price movement since, and whether a buyer is there is only known once buyers can register interest.