London commuter townsBraintree vs Chelmsford
Braintree vs Chelmsford: which commuter town suits you?
Chelmsford is 25 minutes closer to London, but Braintree is £62k cheaper on the average sold price.
Braintree
#73 of 118
Chelmsford
#52 of 118
Train to London
60 min
35 min
Annual season ticket
£5,016
£5,175
Average house price
£334k
£395k
Price to local earnings
Years of the local authority's median wage
8.8x
10.3x
Crime index
0–100, lower is safer
52
71
Broadband
Average available download speed, from Ofcom
898 Mb
914 Mb
Life satisfaction
ONS, 0–10
7.3
7.6
Historic landmarks
Protected sites within 3 miles
42
28
Parks and fields
Hectares within 3 miles
128 ha
486 ha
Places to eat and drink
Restaurants, cafes and pubs within 3 miles
113
328
Estimates only. Prices from HM Land Registry (August 2025 to July 2026), crime from police.uk (August 2025 to July 2026); broadband, life satisfaction and train times from Ofcom, ONS and National Rail, reviewed periodically. A tinted figure is the better of the two on that row alone, not an overall verdict.
