Moving to Ely

Ely at a glance

Six figures, each of which opens the page or the section that proves it.

• People20,5742021 census
• To Cambridge15 minfastest direct train
• To London1 hour 10 minutesKing's Cross, direct
• Typical home£350,550230 sales, 12 months
• Council tax£2,479.89band D, 2026/27
• Schools95 primary, 1 secondary

If you work in Cambridge

The fastest direct train from Ely reaches Cambridge in 15 minutes, and the typical one takes 19. No change, on CrossCountry, Great Northern and Greater Anglia. The same line carries on to Cambridge North and Cambridge South, so which of the three you want depends on where you work.

• Cambridge15 minutestypical 19 minutes, direct, on CrossCountry, Great Northern and Greater Anglia

Ely station has 3 platforms, 135 car parking spaces and 330 cycle spaces. This station has step free access to all platforms via a ramped subway. There is more on the transport page, including buses and where to park in town.

If you are leaving London

The honest version. Ely to King's Cross is 1 hour 10 minutes on a direct train, and the typical one takes 1 hour 11 minutes. That is a real commute, not a short one, and it is the number worth deciding on rather than a round figure from a property advert.

What the distance buys: the middle home here sold for £350,550, and the middle terraced house for £312,500. Stansted is 49 minutes away on a direct train.

Where else the trains go

Ely is a junction, which is why so much is reachable without changing. Fastest direct train to each, with the typical one underneath.

• Cambridge15 minutestypical 19 minutes, direct
• Peterborough34 minutestypical 36 minutes, direct
• Kings Lynn35 minutestypical 35 minutes, direct
• Norwich49 minutestypical 59 minutes, direct
• Stansted Airport49 minutestypical 52 minutes, direct
• London Kings Cross1 hour 10 minutestypical 1 hour 11 minutes, direct
• London Liverpool Street1 hour 43 minutestypical 1 hour 44 minutes, direct

Scheduled times from National Rail's own departure board, sampled across a four hour window on 15 September 2026. Direct trains only, no changes counted.

If you have children

9 schools sit inside Ely: 5 primary and 1 secondary, plus 3 special, post-16 and independent. 2 were rated good or outstanding at their last graded inspection.

Ofsted stopped giving schools a single overall grade at newer inspections, so some have judgements by area and no one word, and a page that prints a word Ofsted did not use is making it up. Every school, what Ofsted actually said and the date it said it is on the schools page, with term dates and how to apply.

Villages around Ely have their own primary schools, which are not counted here. Which school a child is offered depends on the council's catchment areas, not on distance alone.

What it costs to live in Ely

House prices

230 homes inside Ely changed hands in the 12 months to 23 July 2026. The middle one sold for £350,550. The average is £384,602, which is higher because a handful of large sales pull it up, and the middle price is the one to trust.

• Flat or maisonette£215,00019 sales, £155,000 to £345,000
• Terraced£312,50076 sales, £170,000 to £575,000
• Semi-detached£360,00059 sales, £143,000 to £772,500
• Detached£495,00076 sales, £207,000 to £1,250,000

These are the prices on the deeds, from HM Land Registry's own record of every registered sale. They are not asking prices and not an estimate from a portal. Area figures only: no home and no sale is named. Land Registry's file gives the postal town, which is "Ely" for houses in Soham, Witchford, Littleport and Haddenham, so 440 of the 670 sales in these postcodes are outside Ely and are not counted here.

Council tax

A band D home in Ely pays £2,479.89 a year in 2026/27.

• Band A£1,653.26
• Band B£1,928.80
• Band C£2,204.35
• Band D£2,479.89
• Band E£3,030.98
• Band F£3,582.06
• Band G£4,133.15
• Band H£4,959.78

That is the whole bill. East Cambridgeshire District Council's own share of it is £142.14 and has not changed since 2013/14; the councilsays it is the only district, county or unitary authority in the country not to have raised bills in that time, and that the frozen share is less than 6% of what you pay. The rest goes to Cambridgeshire County Council, Ely City Council, the emergency services and the Combined Authority, and those have risen.

How that compares nearby

Every parish in the district is set in the same notice, so this is one document rather than figures gathered from anywhere. At band D, Ely is cheaper than 8 of the 10 parishes around it.

• Bottisham£2,451.72
• Witchford£2,454.42
• Ely (here)£2,479.89
• Burwell£2,487.27
• Little Thetford£2,491.14
• Soham£2,491.95
• Little Downham£2,495.82
• Haddenham£2,497.80
• Stretham£2,504.46
• Sutton£2,510.40
• Littleport£2,549.10

Doctors, dentists and pharmacies

Ely has 2 GP practices, 5 dentists, 4 pharmacies and 7 opticians inside the town, along with 5 care homes. Whether a practice is taking new patients changes week to week and is a question for the practice, not for this page.

Each one with a Care Quality Commission rating carries it, with the date it was given, on the health page. Some ratings are years old, so the date matters as much as the word.

Is Ely safe

Police recorded about 8 crimes per 1,000 people in an average month over the last three months, which is 165 offences a month across the whole town.

A single rate is a poor way to answer this and we would rather say so than dress it up. What matters is which offences and which streets, and the crime page breaks it down by type, shows how it has moved over the year and maps where offences were reported.

What there is to do

1,010 businesses in Ely are listed here, each checked rather than scraped, including the town's estate agents. 14 sport and leisure sites hold 61 facilities between them, from pitches and pools to courts, on the sport page.

The what's on page is rebuilt every night from the venues' and organisers' own listings, so it shows what is genuinely happening this week rather than a page somebody updated last year.

Your first week

• Bins. Which bin goes out when, by street, is on the bin collections page.
• Council tax. East Cambridgeshire District Council bills it, through Anglia Revenues Partnership. You tell them the day you move in, not before.
• A doctor. Register with a practice as soon as you have an address. The health page lists every practice in Ely.
• Schools. Cambridgeshire County Council handles applications and catchments, and the deadlines are fixed. The schools page has the dates.
• Parking. Where you can park in town, for how long and what it costs is on the transport page.
• A plumber, an electrician, a cleaner. Every one listed in Ely, with its hours and its number: plumbers, electricians and cleaners.