Which station to use, how long the journey takes, and how proximity to the railway affects property values in BN3.
A significant proportion of Hove buyers are commuters — people who want the space, sea, and relative value of BN3 while keeping a job in London. It's a viable arrangement, but the commute is a real daily fact of life and worth understanding in detail before you commit to it.
These are different stations and it matters which one you're planning to use.
Hove station is on the West Coastway line. It has frequent services to Brighton (around 6 minutes) and along the coast to Worthing, Chichester, and beyond. For London, most people change at Brighton — Hove does have some through services to London Victoria (via the coast route through Worthing and Horsham) but these are slower, typically 1 hour 30–45 minutes, and less frequent than services from Brighton.
Brighton station is the mainline terminus and where the faster London services originate. Direct services to London Bridge and London Victoria run approximately every 10–15 minutes during the peak. The fastest trains to London Bridge take around 53–57 minutes; Victoria is typically 55–65 minutes depending on the service.
Most Hove commuters heading to central London use Brighton station. From most of Hove, that means a 15–25 minute bus, taxi, or cycle ride to Brighton station, or a 6-minute train from Hove station with a platform change at Brighton.
Aldrington is a small station in the western part of Hove. It's on the same West Coastway line as Hove station, with a less frequent service. It's useful primarily for Hove and Brighton — getting to London from Aldrington means changing at Hove or Brighton. Properties marketed as "near Aldrington station" should be understood with this in mind: it's convenient for local journeys, not for a fast London commute.
Add your journey to Brighton station (15–25 minutes from most of Hove) and you're looking at a door-to-desk time of around 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes on a good day to central London. Budget more during disruption, which on Southern and Thameslink is not uncommon.
An annual season ticket from Brighton to London (Victoria or London Bridge zone 1) runs in the region of £5,000–£5,500 per year as of 2026. Monthly season tickets work out at a higher rate per journey. If you're commuting fewer than five days a week — which many people do post-2020 — a combination of monthly or weekly tickets and off-peak singles may be cheaper than an annual season. The Trainline and National Rail apps both have fare calculators worth using for your specific pattern.
The post-2020 shift toward hybrid working has meaningfully changed the Hove commuter calculation. Many buyers now commute two or three days a week rather than five, which changes both the cost (cheaper per-journey tickets become viable) and the tolerance for a longer door-to-desk journey. Properties that were considered too far from the station for daily commuting are now more viable for someone going in three days a week.
Proximity to Hove station (for the change to Brighton) or to Brighton station (via bus or bike) adds a measurable premium to property prices. Streets within a 10–15 minute walk of Hove station — including much of Westbourne Villas and Cliftonville — typically command higher prices than equivalent properties in the same street further from the railway. Conversely, western Hove areas like Wish Road and Aldrington, where the walk to Hove station is longer, tend to offer a discount relative to their other attributes.
If the London commute is a hard constraint for you, start your property search by drawing a 15-minute walking radius from Hove station and working outward from there.
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