What it's like to live in Stockport

Housing in the Stockport council area is mostly owner-occupied: 71.1% of homes are owned, 14.4% are privately rented and 13.3% are social rented, a little below the England figure of 17.1%. Within that, 7.8% is council housing and 5.5% housing association, so social tenancies are in steady demand.

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council is comfortably the largest social landlord with around 10,953 homes, followed by Great Places Housing Association, The Guinness Partnership, Mosscare St Vincent's and Your Housing. Average weekly social rents across the area in 2024/25 were about £85 for a one bed, £97 for a two bed and £106 for a three bed.

The age profile is close to the national average, though with slightly more people aged 65 and over, at 20.1% against 18.4% for England, and a little under a fifth of residents are children. In 2024-25 the council let 921 social homes and 191 council homes changed hands through mutual exchange, with 8,208 households on the housing register at the end of March 2025. A register is not a simple queue, which is partly why swapping appeals to so many tenants here.

Families in central Stockport have a good choice of primary schools close at hand. St Joseph's Catholic Primary is almost on the doorstep, with St Thomas' Church of England Primary, Our Lady's Catholic Primary and St Matthew's Church of England Primary all within half a mile. Windlehurst School's Millbrook site is also nearby. It is worth checking admission rules early, as faith schools often have their own criteria.

For older children, Stockport Academy and St Anne's RC Voluntary Academy are both around a mile away, with Hulme Hall Grammar School, Progress Schools and Penarth Group School also within easy reach. Having several options within a short bus ride gives you room to manoeuvre at secondary transfer.

Day to day, there is plenty for children without spending much. Viaduct Park and Heaton Norris Park are the nearest open spaces, Stockport Central Library and STOCKROOM are a few minutes away, and community centres such as York Street and What if? run from the same part of town. Stepping Hill Hospital, under two miles off, is the main hospital locally, with the Alexandra Hospital a little further.

Stockport is one of the easier places in the North West to get around without a car. Stockport station is about a quarter of a mile from the SK1 centre and sits on the main line, so trains are the obvious choice for Manchester and longer journeys. Davenport, Heaton Chapel, Woodsmoor and Reddish South stations are all within two miles if you end up living on the fringes of the centre.

Buses run from Stockport Interchange, the town's bus station, a couple of minutes from the shops. Having the bus station and the train station this close together makes connecting between the two straightforward, which matters on dark evenings or with a pushchair.

On foot, the centre is compact and most daily errands are under half a mile. The catch is the hills: Stockport is built on slopes and some routes are steep, which is worth thinking about if you have mobility problems or heavy shopping. Drivers get quick access to the motorway network running past the town, though town-centre parking and traffic at peak times take patience. Many households here manage with one car or none at all.

Stockport town centre has had a lift in recent years and it shows in the evenings. There is a cluster of pubs and bars within a few minutes' walk, including the Town Hall Tavern, The Wellington, The Spinning Top, The Petersgate Tap and the Bulls Head, with Holy Diver and Club Replay for later nights. It is a town known for small, characterful places rather than big chains.

For films, The Light Stockport is right in the centre, with The Savoy Cinema a mile and a half away and a Cineworld within two and a half miles. STOCKROOM and Stockport Central Library sit side by side near the shops and are free places to spend an afternoon.

If you like to keep active, the choice is unusually good for a town centre: LifeLeisure Grand Central, Stockport Health and Fitness Centre, The Job Gym and two yoga studios are all within a few hundred metres. Parks give you the outdoor option, with Viaduct Park under the arches and the larger Heaton Norris Park a short walk north. Merseyway covers shopping, with Bredbury Shops and Cheadle Hulme Shopping Centre nearby for a change of scene.

The Stockport council area has a solid employment picture. At the 2021 Census, 58.5% of adults were in work, slightly above the England figure of 57.4%, and unemployment stood at 2.8% against 3.5% nationally. More recently, around 3% of working-age people in the area were claiming unemployment-related benefits, compared with 4% across England.

The town centre itself is a job hub: retail at Merseyway and the supermarkets, hospitality in the bars and cafés, public services, leisure centres and the NHS, with Stepping Hill Hospital under two miles away and the Alexandra Hospital not much further.

Just as important is what lies beyond. Manchester is a short train ride from Stockport station, which widens the range of work enormously without needing a car, and the motorway network puts the wider region within commuting distance. For anyone weighing up a swap, that combination of local jobs plus quick access to a city is one of central Stockport's strongest cards. These figures cover the whole council area, not just the town centre, so conditions vary from street to street.