You've found a flat two zones further out that costs noticeably less, and somebody says "but think of the fares". Fair. Nobody then tells you what the fares actually come to, so the comparison ends up being a cheaper mortgage you can see against a travel bill you can't.
Here's the travel bill, as a yearly number, using TfL's own 2026 prices. This is London only. The zone system doesn't work anywhere else.
What the caps and Travelcards are in 2026
TfL's adult prices for 2026 apply from 2 March 2026. They cover the Tube, DLR, Elizabeth line, London Overground and most National Rail services within the zones. Southeastern high-speed and Heathrow Express aren't included in caps or Travelcards, which matters if your nearest fast train is one of those.
For journeys that start in Zone 1, prices as at March 2026:
| Zones | Daily cap | Weekly cap (Mon to Sun) | Monthly Travelcard | Annual Travelcard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | £8.90 | £44.70 | £171.70 | £1,788 |
| 1–3 | £10.50 | £52.50 | £201.60 | £2,100 |
| 1–4 | £12.80 | £64.20 | £246.60 | £2,568 |
| 1–5 | £15.30 | £76.40 | £293.40 | £3,056 |
| 1–6 | £16.30 | £81.60 | £313.40 | £3,264 |
The step that stands out is Zone 4 to Zone 5: nearly £500 a year on an annual ticket. Zone 5 to Zone 6 is about £200.
The weekly cap runs Monday to Sunday. It isn't any seven days. TfL's own fare table labels the column "Monday to Sunday", and that's literal. If your working week straddles a weekend, you're paying daily caps, not a weekly one.
Five daily caps can come in under the weekly cap. In Zones 1–6, five days at £16.30 is £81.50, ten pence less than the £81.60 weekly cap. The weekly cap only earns its keep if you travel at the weekend too. And the daily cap is a ceiling, not a price. If your two journeys a day come to less than it, you pay less.
Should you buy the annual Travelcard?
Divide the annual price by the weekly cap and you get the number of full weeks you'd need to travel for the annual to win:
- Zones 1–2: £1,788 ÷ £44.70 = 40 weeks
- Zones 1–6: £3,264 ÷ £81.60 = 40 weeks
It comes out at 40 across the board, because TfL prices it that way. Take off holidays, bank holidays, sick days and the odd week working from home, and plenty of full-time commuters land under 40. Then it's close, and the annual mostly buys you not having to think about it.
The monthly Travelcard is the one to be careful with. Twelve months in Zones 1–6 is £3,760.80, roughly £500 more than the annual. Monthly makes sense for a short stretch, not as a year-round habit.
If you're in the office three days a week
This is where most buyers actually are, and where the annual ticket stops making sense.
Say three days a week, 46 working weeks a year, and you hit the daily cap each day. That's the most you'd pay:
| Zones | 3 days × 46 weeks, at the daily cap |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | £1,228 |
| 1–4 | £1,766 |
| 1–6 | £2,249 |
That puts Zones 1–6 at about £1,000 a year below the annual Travelcard. It also narrows the gap between zones. Two days a week narrows it further. Before you weigh a flat in Zone 6 against one in Zone 3, be honest with yourself about how many days you'll really go in, a year from now, not this month.
The arithmetic that actually decides it
Fares only mean something next to housing costs. Here's the sum in its simplest form.
A flat further out saves you £200 a month on your mortgage. That's £2,400 a year. If the extra zones cost you £700 a year in fares, you're £1,700 a year better off, not £2,400.
Run it with your own numbers:
- The monthly difference in mortgage (or mortgage plus service charge, for a flat) between the two places, times 12.
- The fare difference between the two, using the table above and your realistic days in the office.
- Subtract 2 from 1.
The answer is usually still in favour of further out. Just less than it looked, and sometimes by less than you'd accept for the extra time on a train.
The costs that aren't on the fare table
The fare is the part you can look up. These are the ones that catch people out.
A second mode at the far end. If your office is 25 minutes' walk from the nearest station, some days you'll take a bus or a bike. Budget for it rather than assuming you'll always walk.
The trains you don't catch. Delays, a missed last train, a cab home when the line's down. Small most months, not zero.
Time. The biggest cost, and the one you can't buy back. Thirty extra minutes each way, three days a week, is three hours a week. Whether that's worth £1,700 a year is a personal call, not a market one. But make it with the real journey time, which brings us to the next point.
The journey time on the listing is wrong. "15 minutes to the City" is almost always station to station. The commute you'll actually do runs door to door: the walk to the station, the wait, the change, the walk at the other end. We wrote about why “near a station” is meaningless and what to measure instead.
What to do about it
- Work out how many days a week you'll really commute. Ask your employer what the policy is, not what people do this month.
- Plan the journey door to door in TfL's journey planner, on a weekday, at the time you'd really leave. Do it for each property you're serious about.
- Check which zone the station is in, and which lines serve it. If the quick route is Southeastern high-speed or Heathrow Express, your caps and Travelcard won't cover it. Price those separately.
- Turn both fares into a yearly figure using the tables above and your real days.
- Set the fare difference against the housing difference, yearly, and look at what's left.
- Decide what the time is worth to you before you see the flat, not after you've fallen for it.
- Recheck the fares each year. The 2026 change came in March, not January, so look up the date rather than assuming it.
If you want the door-to-door bit done for you, Nookaly computes real journey times with the walks and changes included, for the places you tell it you travel to. It doesn't do the fare sum. That part's yours. For everything else worth checking about a location, see how to research an area before you buy.
The honest summary
In 2026 an annual Travelcard costs between £1,788 (Zones 1–2) and £3,264 (Zones 1–6). If you're in three days a week, you'll likely pay well under that on pay as you go, and the gap between zones shrinks with every day you work from home. Put the yearly fare difference against the yearly mortgage difference and the cheaper flat usually still wins, by less than it looked. The fare is the small cost. The hours are the big one.
Fares are TfL adult prices for 2026, effective 2 March 2026, and change each year. Check tfl.gov.uk for current prices before you rely on them. This is general information, not financial advice.