What it's like to live in Godalming

Waverley is a heavily owner-occupied area. Census 2021 found 71.8% of homes owned outright or on a mortgage, 14.7% privately rented and just 12.3% social rented, below the England figure of 17.1%. Social housing is therefore in short supply, and a swap is often the most realistic way in.

Waverley Borough Council is by far the biggest social landlord in the area with around 4,777 homes, followed by Vivid Housing with 589, Metropolitan Housing Trust with 434, Clarion with 412 and Southern Housing with 310.

Average weekly social rents across the council area in 2024/25 were about £119 for a one-bed, £141 for a two-bed and £159 for a three-bed. The area skews a little older than England overall: 28.1% are aged 45 to 64 and 21.8% are 65 or over, with under-16s at 19.1%.

There is a good choice of primaries close in. Moss Lane School is about 0.1 miles from the centre, with Godalming Junior School around half a mile, St Edmund's Primary School and St Mark & All Saints Primary School under a mile, and Busbridge Junior School roughly the same. For a town this size, that is a strong spread.

For older children, Broadwater School is about 1.4 miles away and Gosden House School, a special school, around 2.4 miles. Charterhouse School and St Catherine's are also nearby, though these are independent.

Family life is easy to arrange here. The Burys Field and the Phillips Memorial Cloister are both a couple of minutes from the centre, and the Lammas Lands meadows at Overgone and Catteshall give proper open space for running about. Godalming Library, the Wilfrid Noyce Community Centre and Surrey Youth Support Services are all within walking distance of the middle of town.

Trains are Godalming's strongest card. Godalming station is about 0.2 miles from the centre, with Farncombe under a mile away and Milford around 1.8 miles. Shalford is within three miles too, so if you move to the edges of town you still have options.

Buses run from stops right by the station and from The Square in the centre, with further stops at Old Station Way and St John's Church. It is a modest network rather than a big-city one, so it pays to check the routes you would actually need before you commit to a swap.

On foot, the town works well. Shops, the library, the pharmacies and the community centres all sit within a short walk of each other, and the meadows and riverside paths link parts of the town together. If you drive, you have easy reach of Guildford and the wider Surrey road network, but a car is not essential for town-centre living.

For a town of 23,000, there is more going on than you would expect. Borough Hall Cinema shows films in the centre, and the same building hosts other events. MJC and MJCJAZZ run live music nights about a third of a mile out.

The pub scene is close-packed and varied: The Star Inn, The Jack Phillips, The Moore The Merrier, The Antelope taproom and bottle shop, and The Wharf Bar for Indian food, all within a few minutes of the centre.

If you like being active, Snap Fitness Godalming and Well & Good are both very central, with The Fitness Hangout a little further out. Otherwise the outdoors does the work here. Westbrook and the Lammas Lands meadows are all within half a mile or so, and the surrounding Surrey countryside is a short walk or ride away.

Employment in the wider Waverley area is healthy. Census 2021 put 58.6% of adults in work, slightly above the England figure of 57.4%, and unemployment at 2.3% against 3.5% nationally. By August 2026, unemployment-related benefit claimants stood at around 2% of working-age people, half the England rate of 4%.

Much of that reflects commuting rather than jobs inside the town itself. The train links from Godalming and Farncombe put Guildford and London within reach, and plenty of people here travel out for work.

Locally, the picture is small-town: shops and supermarkets on the high street, schools, health services and hospitality. That means real jobs on the doorstep, but if you need a wide choice of work you will likely be looking beyond the town boundary.