Deptford ends up a middling choice, and crime is the reason: about 140 offences are recorded for every 1,000 people. For a buyer, that figure decides which street, which floor and which route home you can live with. Most of the rest is better than that number suggests. There's a park round nearly every corner, the river is a short walk away, and the high street still has its market.
The Metropolitan Police recorded about 140 crimes per 1,000 residents across Deptford in the year to May 2026, roughly 16% above the Lewisham average. The mix matters more than the total. Theft from the person makes up about 7% of recorded crime here, against 2% across England and Wales. Anti-social behaviour is about 20%, against 16% nationally. Violence and sexual offences are about 25%, well below the national share of 35%. So the risk is mostly to your pocket and your patience, less to your person. The Met charged someone in about 10% of cases over the same year, against 12% nationally, and ranks 33rd of 42 forces on that measure. Reporting a stolen phone is mainly paperwork for the insurer.
Flooding is the other serious item, and the two main measures say different things. About 66% of Deptford's postcodes fall in the Environment Agency's highest river-and-sea flood zone. About 13% of postcodes are rated high on at least one flood indicator, which includes surface water. The Environment Agency's modelling shows how much the defences do. Without them, about 36% of postcodes would fall in the high-risk extent. With them, about 3% do. The last recorded flood, in 1968, came when the main river overtopped those defences, so this is a place whose dry floors depend on a wall holding.
Only about 24% of households own their home, and the typical resident is about 32. The Office for National Statistics models average gross household income at about £74,000 for the financial year to March 2023, averaged across the area and before tax. That is a lot of money in a place where three households in four rent. Goldsmiths, the University of Greenwich and Laban all have students here. Lewisham College is on Deptford Church Street. On a long lease, the neighbours change about as often as the bin rota.
History is thick on the ground, and the paperwork follows it. There are 142 listed buildings: one at Grade I, 17 at Grade II* and 124 at Grade II. Three conservation areas fall inside the wider mapped area. Albury Street has a row of early houses built between 1705 and 1717, popular with naval captains and shipwrights. If you own one, new windows go through a conservation officer first. The shipwrights had a shorter queue for permission than you will.
Getting around is easier than the crime figures would lead you to expect. Deptford station is the oldest passenger-only railway station in London. Its 1836 building was knocked down in the 2011 to 2012 rebuild, so the history now exists mainly as a fact. St Johns, to the south, has its own station, and New Cross is close by. There are 163 bus stops, averaging about 486 weekday departures each and about 24 an hour at peak, and every one of them has a weekend service. About 63% of households had no car at the 2021 Census, and about 47% of workers were working from home then. Gigabit broadband reaches about 88% of premises. The Department for Transport modelled a public-transport trip to the nearest town centre at about 12 minutes in 2019. Services can have changed since then, though the buses here don't look short of drivers.
Ofsted has graded 35 settings here, and 34 came out good or better, four of them outstanding. The eight primary schools in the district average about 105 in the Key Stage 2 maths tests. The Department for Transport's 2019 modelling put the nearest primary about six minutes' walk away and the nearest secondary about 13. Deptford Park Primary School, Grinling Gibbons Primary School and Tidemill Academy are all in the area. One local primary has closed recently, so older maps are out of date. Schools aren't the problem here.
The Land Registry recorded 186 sales in the twelve months to May 2026, at a median of about £420,000. Flats made up 149 of those sales, at a median of about £382,000. Only 35 terraced houses sold, at a median of about £665,000, so anyone after a house is competing for a very short list. Band B is the most common council-tax band, and about 48% of homes are in bands A or B.
On renting, a typical private rent across the Lewisham area is about £1,820 a month. The figure is an Office for National Statistics borough-wide average for April 2026, not a Deptford figure and not an average of advertised listings.
The housing is mostly flats. The council-tax valuation list puts flats at about 84% of every dwelling and terraced houses at about 12%. Semis and detached houses are both under 1%. Only about 16% of homes were built before 1930, and most of the stock is post-war or later. That shows in the energy certificates, where about 78% rate A to C. About 49% of homes are on mains gas, and just over a quarter heat with electricity alone. Electric-only heating makes a big difference to running costs, so check which kind you're viewing.
The surroundings are the strongest part of the case. The nearest green space is about 84 metres from the average home, and there are about 55 green spaces within a kilometre. Open water is about 250 metres away, at the Thames or Deptford Creek. John Evelyn hosted Peter the Great at Sayes Court for about three months in 1698. Sayes Court is gone now, but there is still plenty of green space within a few minutes of most front doors. Emperor Norton was born here in 1818 and later declared himself Emperor of the United States. Drake was knighted at the docks.
Deptford works for people who rent or want a flat, don't need a car, work from home some of the time, and want a park and a river within a few minutes' walk. Families who need a house with a garden should look further south, because the terraces are few and they go quickly. So should anyone who wants to stop thinking about where their phone is on the walk home from the station.
Safety is the thing to plan around. Keep your phone in your pocket, choose a building with secure entry, and walk the route home at night before you buy. Get those right and Deptford is a middling, liveable place with more green space, river and history than its prices suggest.