What it's like to live in Woking

Woking is an owner-occupier town. Across the borough, 66.4% of homes are owned and 21.1% are privately rented, while social renting accounts for just 11.6%, split between 7.2% council and 4.4% housing association. That is well below the England figure of 17.1%, so social homes here are relatively scarce and tend to be held onto.

Woking Borough Council is by far the biggest social landlord with around 3,363 homes. After that come Southern Housing (262), Metropolitan Housing Trust (232), Stonewater (5) Limited (230) and The Guinness Partnership (225). Average weekly social rents in 2024/25 were about \u00a3117 for one bed, \u00a3137 for two and \u00a3155 for three.

The age profile is a working-family one: 20% under 16, 28.7% aged 25 to 44 and 16.6% aged 65 or over, slightly younger than England as a whole. The council's housing register held 1,196 households at the end of March 2025, with 154 social lettings made during the year. A register is not a simple queue, but it tells you demand is real, which is exactly why mutual exchange is worth pursuing.

Families have plenty of choice close to hand. Within a mile of the centre there are Maybury Primary School, St Dunstan's Catholic Primary School, The Horsell Village School and Goldsworth Primary School, plus the Kingsway Centre short stay school. Secondary options nearby include Woking High School, St John the Baptist Catholic Comprehensive School, The Park School, Halstead St Andrew's School and Hoe Bridge School, all within roughly a mile.

The borough skews young for the South East. Under-16s make up 20% of residents against 18.6% across England, and 25 to 44 year olds 28.7%. That shows in the demand for school places and in how busy the parks and play spaces get at weekends.

For days out with children you have Woking Park, Elizabeth II Jubilee Park, Wheatsheaf Common and two recreation grounds within walking or cycling distance, plus Woking Library a minute from the shops. The Maybury Centre, Horsell Village Hall and Horsell Parish Institute are the kind of places that host local groups and clubs. Woking Community Hospital is close by for appointments, which saves a trek when you have children in tow.

Woking station is the big one. It is right in the centre, so for many people in the town it is a walk rather than a drive, and it puts London and the south-west coast within reach without changing trains. Worplesdon is about 2.4 miles away and West Byfleet about 2.7 miles, which can be useful if you settle on the edges of town.

By road, Woking sits close to the main routes crossing north-west Surrey, with the M25 and A3 corridors serving the wider area. Traffic in and around the town centre can be slow at peak times, and parking is mostly in the shopping centre car parks, so a car is handy for bigger trips rather than short ones.

For day-to-day life, walking does a lot of the work if you live centrally. Shops, pharmacies, the library, the hospital and the station are all clustered within half a mile of each other. From Maybury, Horsell or Goldsworth, most of that is still a manageable walk or a short bus ride, and the parks and recreation grounds give you off-road routes rather than busy pavements.

For a town of this size, the centre is well stocked. Victoria Place, the Peacocks Centre and Wolsey Place sit almost on top of each other by the station, and Nova Cinema is a couple of minutes away. If you like a night out, The London Stone, Bacar\u00f3, The Junction Tap, The Herbert Wells and The Sovereigns are all within a short stroll of the centre.

Sport and fitness are easy to pick up. The Gym Group and Anytime Fitness are both in or beside the town centre, with Woking Sportsbox about a mile and a half out and Nuffield Health Fitness & Wellbeing a little further.

Green space is the quieter pleasure here. Woking Park is the main one, backed up by Wheatsheaf Common, Elizabeth II Jubilee Park, Loop Road Recreation Ground and Lakeview Recreation Ground. Between them you get playing fields, walking routes and somewhere to let children run about without getting in the car. Woking Library covers reading and local events, and Knaphill Library serves the western side of the borough.

Woking's economy is tied to its station. A large share of residents commute out to London and other Surrey towns, while the town centre itself supports retail, hospitality and health jobs, including Woking Community Hospital and Nuffield Health Woking Hospital.

The employment figures for the wider borough are strong. At the 2021 Census, 63.6% of adults were in work, well above the England figure of 57.4%, and unemployment stood at 3% against 3.5% nationally. More recently, unemployment-related benefit claimants in September 2026 were 2.8% of 16 to 64 year olds, compared with 4% across England.

For a tenant moving in, that means a reasonably healthy local job market, especially for shop, care, health and office work, with the option of commuting if the right job is elsewhere. The flip side is that a well-paid commuter population pushes living costs up, so it is worth checking how far your wages stretch locally before committing to a swap.