Living in Digbeth: rents, getting around and what is going up

Short version: Digbeth is a flats-only neighbourhood, one-beds sit at around £950 to £1,150 a month, and you can walk to the Bullring in under 10 minutes. The tram now reaches Millennium Point. Expect building work for years yet.

What Digbeth is like

Digbeth is Birmingham’s creative quarter, a former industrial area that Visit Birmingham calls the heartland of the “City of a Thousand Trades”. Today it is creative businesses, quirky shops, bars and restaurants, with the Custard Factory, on the site of the old Bird’s Custard factory, as the best-known base. Street food is part of the identity too, Digbeth Dining Club included. Time Out put it on its 2025 list of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world and calls it Brum’s creative quarter and Irish quarter. Visit Birmingham puts it under a 10-minute walk from Bullring and Grand Central.

What you will rent

Housing here is almost entirely apartments: studios and one-beds in converted buildings, and two-beds in modern new-builds. Houses are not really part of the picture.

Martin & Co’s B5 area guide gives ranges of about £950 to £1,150 a month for a one-bed and £1,300 to £1,650 for a two-bed. Those are listing snapshots from autumn 2026, not official statistics, so treat them as “around”.

• One-beds: Rightmove listings ran from about £850 to £1,150. OnTheMarket’s area insight for Digbeth One 2 shows an average one-bed rent of £964.
• Two-beds: mostly around £1,400 to £1,625, with the Abacus Building on Bradford Street (Get Living’s Sherlock Quarter) at £1,657. That listing is pet-friendly and under 15 minutes’ walk from New Street station.
• Built-for-renters: Hairpin House on Bradford Street, run by ila, lists one-beds from about £1,095 to £1,125, with a 24-hour concierge, flexible tenancies and a co-working space.

Other blocks that turn up in listings include Apex Lofts on Warwick Street (one-beds around £950 to £1,275), Fabrick Square on Lombard Street (one-bed around £850), Timber Yard on Hurst Street and Digbeth Square on Cheapside.

One catch: Martin & Co point out that B5 covers more than Digbeth, and Digbeth addresses also fall under B9 and B12 (Bradford Street is B12). So a B5 range will not fit every flat. Compare the actual property, what is in it today and what building work is next door. Do not rely on future schemes being finished.

For a dated benchmark, developer Miller Rose, citing PropertyData for summer 2024, gave averages of £945 for a one-bed and £1,205 for a two-bed. Rents have moved since.

Getting around

• On foot: the Bullring is under 10 minutes away and New Street station under 15 from the Abacus Building. For many residents, that is the commute.
• Tram: the first phase of the West Midlands Metro Eastside extension opened to passengers on Easter Sunday 2026, running from Bull Street to a temporary Millennium Point stop next to the HS2 site, with two new stops. Work on the final link, bridging the gap between Bull Street and Digbeth at HS2’s Curzon Street site, started in October 2026. Trams will pass beneath the station through a tunnel formed by HS2’s concrete beams. The Curzon Street stop opens later, alongside the station. See the Metro expansion page.
• Coach: Birmingham Coach Station, formerly Digbeth Coach Station, is a major interchange in Digbeth serving Great Britain, Belfast and Dublin. Handy for weekends away.
• Further out: a separate East Birmingham extension is proposed, running from Digbeth through Bordesley and St Andrew’s to the Sports Quarter.

What is being built

A lot. Birmingham City Council has sought investors for a Digbeth regeneration prospectus covering 10 development sites across 35 plots, with plans for 6,000 homes, mostly near Curzon Street and the Eastside Metro. Councillors approved a 687-home first phase of Lendlease’s Smithfield scheme (Building). 1 Beorma Place, a tower mixing offices, retail and apartments, was the sixth tallest building in Birmingham as of October 2025.

HS2 says Curzon Street station will sit at the heart of Eastside, with a 70-metre-wide arched roof and 49 minutes to central London (HS2 Ltd). The Birmingham East Mayoral Development Corporation has been approved by government as an £11bn regeneration vehicle.

The Curzon masterplan describes Digbeth as a conservation area and expects more independent retail, artists’ space, alternative nightlife, hotels, homes and student housing. In plain terms, the character that draws people here is meant to stay, with a lot built around it.

Who it suits

Digbeth suits renters who want a flat, a short walk to the centre and a creative, late-running neighbourhood on the doorstep. It is less obvious for anyone after a house or a quiet street, and building work is part of the deal. Check the exact postcode, the block and what is going up next door before you sign.