Woking among best places to buy a home: Surrey town has fast trains and excellent schools for London commuters looking to move in 2020

Woking’s property market links with London’s and over the past five years house prices have remained steady.
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Ruth Bloomfield7 January 2020

Not the poshest option in the home counties but Woking is wildly affordable compared to, say, Guildford, and it has a simply brilliant commute.

Trains to Waterloo take from just 24 minutes and an annual season ticket costs from £3,440.

Another reason to look beyond Woking’s tired estates of executive homes is the fact that most of its schools are high achieving. Hoe Valley School (secondary) and The Knaphill Lower School (primary) both hold “outstanding” Ofsted reports.

Victoria Square in Woking's town centre is part of a huge regeneration project bringing 200 new flats to rent, along with shops and restaurants
Blink Image Limited 2018

Why Woking is tipped as one to watch in 2020

Woking’s real let-down has historically been its dreary town centre, but that is being sorted out with a £540 million regeneration project.

Victoria Square topped out in September and is due to open in May 2021 with 125,000sq ft of shops and restaurants - Marks & Spencer has already signed up - and two skyscrapers with more than 400 apartments to rent.

Pros: Woking has everything you need on the doorstep - lots of local restaurants and pubs, a leisure centre and theatre.

The Lightbox arts centre was designed by architects Marks Barfield, of London Eye fame, and has an excellent programme of exhibitions as well as a permanent collection. The Surrey Hills are just to the south of the town for long walks and bike rides.​

Cons: swathes of really bland, boring, boxy new housing were built in the town between the Eighties and Noughties.

West Woking is considered the “posher” end of town, while some parts of the east of town are quite down-at-heel and don’t have a great reputation.

The town centre is dominated by chain stores, and the new shopping centre doesn’t look likely to change that pattern.

Average house prices in Woking — and what there is to buy

Woking’s market is inextricably linked with London’s and over the past five years prices in GU18 have remained steady, currently standing at £525,000 according to Rightmove.

On the outskirts you could easily drop a couple of million on a lovely country house.

£750,000: a four-bedroom house in the heart of Horsell Village, a mile from Woking mainline station

Closer to the station a four-bedroom Thirties house would cost around £700,000 to £800,000.

On the new-build front a one-bedroom flat at Spectrum House, a gated development close to the station, is priced at £220,000 and Help to Buy is available.