Cathays Property Market: House Prices, Sold Data & Development Finance, Q3 2026 Edition

Cathays: University quarter with strong HMO and student housing market near Cardiff University.

The Cathays property market recorded 5,144 residential sales in the 12 months to 31 May 2026, with a median sale price of £267,500. This places Cathays in line with the Cardiff county median, and £18k below the approximate UK median of £285,000.

Prices in Cathays have shown modest growth, a year-on-year change of +0.9%. Within Cardiff, Cathays ranks 4th by price out of 6 principal towns, and 4th by transaction volume.

On a quarterly view, Cathays median prices moved from £265,000 in Q4 2024 to £270,000 in Q1 2026, a change of +1.9% over 5 quarters.

Cathays shares a HM Land Registry reporting district with neighbouring towns, and the source data does not distinguish Cathays-specific sales from the wider district. The figures above reflect the whole shared district rather than Cathays alone.

Cardiff Council, the local planning authority covering Cathays, approved 511 residential planning applications and refused 53 in the last 12 months, with 206 still awaiting a decision. That is an approval rate of 91%.

Those applications propose around 1,099 homes, an estimated £270.7m of development value at local sale prices. Treat the unit total as an upper bound, since an outline permission and its reserved-matters application both count.

Cardiff Council covers more than one town in Cardiff, so these figures are authority-wide rather than specific to Cathays alone.

Property prices in Cathays vary significantly by type. The table below compares Cathays prices with Cardiff county averages and UK national figures.

Detached homes in Cathays command £461,750, while flat properties are most accessible at £161,250. The £301k spread between the most and least expensive types indicates a diverse market with opportunities across the development spectrum.

HM Land Registry has so far registered 95 new-build sales in Cathays for the past 12 months, 1.8% of registered transactions. New-build sales are typically registered 6 to 18 months after completion, so this understates current delivery and is not a completions figure.

On those registered sales, new builds in Cathays sold at a premium of 72.1% to existing stock.

Across the wider Cardiff market, 570 new-build sales have registered so far. See our Cardiff property market report for the full county picture.

The table below shows the most recently registered residential sales in Cathays, evidence of achieved prices for buyers, sellers and developers:

These transactions are sourced from HM Land Registry Price Paid data and represent completed, registered sales. The range from £210,000 to £421,000 illustrates the breadth of the Cathays market.

For developers considering Cathays, the local market data translates directly into finance structuring. With a median value of £267,500 and detached homes at £461,750, lenders can assess scheme viability with confidence.

A typical development finance facility for a scheme in Cathays with a GDV of £461,750 would attract senior debt of approximately £300,138 at 65% LTGDV. Mezzanine finance can stretch total borrowing to 85-90% of costs, while bridging loans enable rapid site acquisitions completing in as little as 5 working days.

With prices rising 0.9% year-on-year, Cathays presents a supportive environment for new development. Lenders view positive price momentum favourably when assessing loan applications.

Ready to develop in Cathays? Submit your scheme for indicative terms within 24 hours from our panel of 100+ lenders.

To put Cathays's market in context, the table below compares it with similarly-priced towns across Cardiff:

For the full Cardiff town-by-town breakdown, see our comprehensive Cardiff property market report.