Elstree in brief: homes, prices, what is extra
Elstree is a ridge-top village on the old Watling Street, with timber-framed cottages on the High Street, Arts and Crafts villas along Barnet Lane and Elstree Hill South, and small modern closes and flat blocks tucked in behind. Whichever you are leaving, our end of tenancy clean is a fixed price set by bedrooms: £156 for a studio, £207 for a one-bed, up to £425 for a four-bed house. The oven and carpets are add-ons you choose.
Last updated October 2026.
Two things often confuse people new to the area. The station called Elstree & Borehamwood, on the Thameslink line to St Pancras, is in Borehamwood, as are the BBC Elstree Centre and the film studios. And the village itself is small: 5,110 people at the 2011 census, at a crossroads where the A5183 meets the A411, with Green Belt on every side. This page is about the village and the streets running off it.
Village cottages to Barnet Lane villas, priced side by side
The table sets the main kinds of rented home in and around the village against our fixed prices, with the part of each that takes the cleaner longest.
| Elstree home | Price | Where the time goes |
|---|---|---|
| Studio flat in a block off the High Street | £156 | Compact kitchen, bathroom scale |
| One-bed flat, e.g. The Bartons or Watling Court | £207 | Kitchen units, window sills |
| Two-bed cottage on the High Street or Elstree Hill North | £243 | Sash windows, old joinery, steep stairs |
| Three-bed house in a close such as West View Gardens or May Gardens | £339 | Bathrooms, patio doors, the stairs |
| Four-bed villa on Barnet Lane or Elstree Hill South | £425 | Large rooms, fireplaces, picture rails, long sash runs |
| Five bedrooms or more | Quoted from the room count | We fix the figure from bedrooms, bathrooms and reception rooms |
| Part job or unusual layout | £30 per cleaner per hour | One room, an annexe, a flat over a business |
Rents here sit at the top of the Hertfordshire range. The ONS put Hertsmere’s average private rent at £1,829 a month in August 2026, up 3.6% in a year: £1,258 for a one-bed, £1,941 for a three-bed and £2,797 for four bedrooms or more.
A detached house in the borough averaged £1.2 million to buy, and Hertsmere had the third highest average price in the East of England. With rents like these the deposit is a large sum, and the fixed price means you know the cost of the clean before you book.
Private renting is growing in the borough. At the 2021 census 17.3% of Hertsmere households rented privately, up from 12.5% in 2011, a bigger rise than across the East of England as a whole.
A village split between two counties until 1993
For most of its history Elstree’s four roads divided it between two counties and four parishes. The southern half was in Middlesex, its western quarter in Harrow and its eastern in Barnet; the northern half was in Hertfordshire. Boundary changes in 1993 put the whole village in Hertfordshire and in Elstree parish. That is why the conservation area, first designated in August 1976, was originally declared jointly by Harrow, Barnet and Hertsmere councils.
The conservation area covers most of the village. Hertsmere’s 2014 appraisal lists four late-medieval timber-framed hall houses (the Holly Bush inn and numbers 1 to 3, 9 and 12 High Street), three 17th-century timber-framed buildings, two Georgian town houses, a Victorian church and modest cottages.
Around 1890 the first Lord Aldenham paid for almshouses, a school and cottages in soft orange brick, and the village then spread south along Elstree Hill South and east along Barnet Lane as detached and semi-detached villas in ample grounds. Walls are timber-frame, brick, render, weatherboard and flint; windows are mostly wooden sashes.
Later building filled the land behind the old houses: West View Gardens and Court (18 houses on a former farmyard), Yew Tree Court, Oak Tree Court and George’s Mead off Barnet Lane, the houses of May Gardens, and flats at The Bartons, Romeland Court and Watling Court. A housing estate to the south-west and the Centennial Park business area sit outside the conservation area. The A5183 still carries heavy traffic through the middle of it all.
The station called Elstree & Borehamwood is in Borehamwood, as are the BBC Elstree Centre and the film studios.
Hertsmere licensing and the 2026 tenancy rules
Elstree’s landlords answer to Hertsmere Borough Council. Hertsmere runs the national mandatory licence for houses in multiple occupation, needed where five or more people from two or more households share facilities, and has no selective licensing scheme for ordinary family lets.
In April 2026 the council made an Article 4 Direction on new HMOs; it covers four Potters Bar wards and, if confirmed, takes effect on 6 May 2027. The council’s own evidence paper counted five HMOs in Elstree village, so shared houses are rare here.
The national rules changed on 1 May 2026, when the Renters’ Rights Act turned private tenancies in England into rolling tenancies. A tenant now leaves by giving two months’ notice, and that notice date is the date to book the clean against.
The Tenant Fees Act 2019 still bars a landlord from making a professional clean compulsory; the landlord can instead claim from the deposit if the home is dirtier than at check-in, allowing for fair wear and tear. Hertsmere’s HMO page explains when a shared house needs a licence.
The clean in a period village house
End of tenancy cleaning
from £156
For a studio, fixed by property size, agreed before we start.
Get your price0333 555 2076 · 8am to 7pm
Affinity Water supplies Hertsmere, and its postcode checker shows how hard the water is on your street. Expect scale on shower screens, taps and tiles in any house that has had a few years of use; descaling is part of the fixed price.
- Kitchen: inside all cupboards and drawers, worktops, hob, splashback, extractor hood and filter, fridge and freezer, the washing machine drawer and seal, the floor behind appliances that pull out.
- Bathrooms: scale off the screen, taps, shower head and tiles, grout scrubbed, toilet, bath, basin and extractor cover.
- Reception rooms and bedrooms: skirting, picture rails, panelled and ledged doors, fireplace surrounds and hearths, radiators, switches, sash frames, sills and the glass from inside, inside wardrobes and cupboards.
- Floors: boards and tiles vacuumed and mopped, carpets vacuumed.
The cleaners are vetted (each one interviewed in person), insured and trained on our 57-point checklist. We have been cleaning since 2014, in London and the towns around it, more than 300 letting agents work with us, and tenants have won back £1.2m in deposits after our cleans. Our Google rating is 4.7. Should the agent or clerk find anything on our work within 48 hours, we return and re-clean it free.
The oven is never in the fixed price. Booked with the clean, a single or single wide oven is £31, and a double or a 90cm range cooker £62; see our oven cleaning page for more.
Carpets added to the clean are £29 per bedroom, £36 for a living room, £47 for a through lounge, £35 a flight of stairs, £20 a hallway and £8 a landing, with more on our carpet cleaning page. A cottage with carpeted stairs and a landing is £35 plus £8.
Booking a clean on the High Street
Booking takes three steps
- Your postcode and the property. The form gives the price.
- A date that suits you. Seven days a week.
- We confirm it with you by phone or WhatsApp.
0333 555 2076 · 8am to 7pm
Get a price from the calculator at the top of the page, or call 0333 555 2076 between 8am and 7pm, any day of the week. Tell us the postcode, bedrooms, bathrooms, the check-out date and any oven or carpets.
The A5183 through the village carries heavy traffic, so tell us where the cleaner can park; if parking has to be paid for, it goes on the quote at what it costs us. The home should be empty, with power and hot water on and the fridge defrosted the night before.
We also clean in Radlett, the next Thameslink stop north of Elstree & Borehamwood and another Hertsmere village. The full list of towns we cover is on our end of tenancy cleaning Hertfordshire page.
Elstree tenants’ questions
The station says Elstree & Borehamwood. Do you cover the village itself?
Yes. We clean in Elstree village and along Barnet Lane, Elstree Hill North and South and Watford Road, as well as in Borehamwood. The price is the same fixed price by bedrooms.
Is my Elstree flat covered by a landlord licensing scheme?
Only if it is a shared house or flat of five or more people from two or more households, which needs Hertsmere’s mandatory HMO licence. Ordinary family and couple lets need no licence. Your check-out is judged against the inventory either way.
We are leaving a five-bedroom house off Barnet Lane. How is it priced?
Homes above four bedrooms are quoted from the room count. Give us the bedrooms, bathrooms and reception rooms, and we fix the price before you book.
Is descaling extra?
No. Descaling taps, screens, shower heads and tiles is part of every Elstree clean.
I gave two months’ notice. When should I book?
As soon as the last day is set. Book the clean for after the furniture has gone and before the check-out visit, and allow a week’s notice for dates at the end of a month.
