Yes, and on land reclaimed from the sea that should surprise nobody. About a fifth of the area sits in the highest-risk river-and-sea zone. Almost all of it falls inside the climate-adjusted flood zone. Much of the high-risk ground is modelled with defences in place, not all of it. The risk here is managed, permanent, and part of the price of every house.
The Environment Agency's river-and-sea flood zones put 22% of the area's postcodes in flood zone 3, the highest-probability band, and a further 7% in flood zone 2, the medium-probability fringe beyond it. The two bands do not overlap, so zone 2 being the smaller figure is not a mistake: it is the thin strip at the edge of the main risk area. These are shares of postcodes on the rivers-and-sea measure only.
Surface-water flooding, from heavy rain that cannot drain away, is not separated out in the figures available for the area. It is folded into the postcode indicators further down, alongside rivers and sea. On land this flat, with every postcode inside the Romney Marshes Area Internal Drainage Board's patch, drainage is not background plumbing. It is the reason the ground is dry at all.
Looking forward, the Environment Agency's climate-adjusted flood zone covers 99% of the area's postcodes. That is the modelled extent once future rainfall and sea levels are allowed for, and it includes almost everywhere.
For insurance, a home in or near the high-risk zones can expect questions, a higher premium, or a larger excess, and some insurers will decline outright. The listing will mention sea views. It will not mention sea levels. Get an indicative quote on the exact address before paying for a survey, not after.
On this site's postcode indicators, which take the worst reading across rivers, sea and surface water, 8% of postcodes rate high on at least one measure, another 8% medium and 34% low. Those bands overlap with the flood-zone figures above, because they draw on the same sources and more, so they should never be added to them.
Counting homes rather than postcodes, the Environment Agency's rivers-and-sea mapping lists 2,498 properties in the area's postcodes that carry some risk. Of those, 158 are at high risk, 151 of them residential, 53 at medium risk, 308 at low risk and 950 at very low risk. Only postcodes carrying some risk appear in that count at all, so homes on safer ground are simply not in the list.
The more uncomfortable question is whether anything stands between the water and the house. In the Environment Agency's modelled extents, 22% of postcodes fall in the high-risk area without defences taken into account, and 6% remain in it once defences are included. That gap is what the sea wall and the drainage are doing. "Defended" means a defence exists in the model; it does not mean a property is safe, and it does not mean the defence will never be overtopped.
The coast is close. Around 31% of postcodes lie within 500 metres of the shoreline, the nearest just 17 metres from it, and the median postcode is about 1,630 metres away. The 500-metre line is a threshold in the data, not a verdict on any single address.
The shoreline management plan's policy for this stretch is to hold the line at the 20, 50 and 100-year horizons, meaning the stated intention is to maintain the existing defences rather than let the coast retreat. That is a plan written by public bodies with budgets, not a guarantee and not a wall that has already been built for the century ahead. Buyers who treat a policy document as a warranty are doing the estate agent's job for them.
At Dover, the nearest tide gauge, the recorded sea level rose by about 2.2 millimetres a year over its record from 1961 to 2010. That is a measured historic rate, not a forecast.
The Environment Agency's historic flood records show no recorded flood outlines over the area. That is reassuring, and it is not proof. The town's own story turns on the flood of 1287, which filled the harbour with silt and sent the river out to sea somewhere else.
Flood risk is New Romney's weakest point, and it is structural rather than occasional. Buy on the right side of the zone line with your eyes open, and do the checking before the conveyancing starts.