Guildford or Woking. Which is the more attractive option?

For those readers who are homeowners in the Guildford and Woking areas we are constantly asked by property owners "Is it better to live in Guildford or Woking?" The next question is should you invest in Guildford or Woking when it comes to making decisions about which town will maximise your return on investment. 

Which town should we invest to maximise our return?

Both are attractive towns but for different reasons. One might be considered more pleasurable to live in; whereas the other might provide a better rate of return for an investor, so let's see.

Guildford's historical High Street

Guildford is renowned for its historical High Street and the pretty villages surrounding the town whereas Woking, is been better known for the writer, HG Wells and his novel "The War of The Worlds", the McLaren the motor racing team and manufacturer; plus the town's large housing estates and rather tired-looking shopping centre, which is currently undergoing work to make it more attractive. 

Guildford will always be considered the more attractive of the two towns so people will prefer to live there, if it's affordable for them.

Woking under attack from aliens in The War of The Worlds

Woking is more attractive for commuters travelling up to London, for example. It has a direct non-stop train link to London Waterloo with a journey time of under 30 minutes, compared with an average time of 38 minutes from Guildford, plus a coach link to Heathrow Airport, for those travelling abroad. Executive homes with large gardens and plenty of green areas are located within a mile of the railway station, to further reduce travelling time for those travelling to work by train. 

So the question that is always on the tip of everybody’s tongue is this. “Is my house worth more if I live in Guildford or Woking?”

The average property value in Guildford is currently £510,911 and in Woking it is a slightly lower £446,331, whilst the average asking price for rent is £2,422 per month in Guildford and £1,816 per month in Woking. This gives both towns a typical average gross yield of 5 to 5.5%. 

I have done a little research to compare the two seemingly similar towns, in more depth. 

Investing in property is all about how much you buy the property for. You make your money with your buying value, rather than your eventual sale value. Over the last five years, property values in Guildford have increased by 18.37%. so this is great for those that have already bought a property in the town. When I looked at the property values in Woking over this time, I found they have risen by a slightly higher 20.64%, so you might think that Woking would have been the slightly better location to have invested your money in, over this time period. 

On closer reflection Woking's base price was slightly lower than Guildford's so the town may have been in the process of "catching up" and this is in fact demonstrated by a comparison of the increase in property values over the last 5 years. The average price in Guildford has increased by £79,293, while the figure for Woking is £76,353, suggesting there has been barely little to choose between the two towns when looking at property prices from the perspective of a capital gain. 

However it might be interesting to see whether Woking prices continue to increase at a faster rate in the future, so watch this town ... 

If you would like our opinion on where or what to buy, feel free to have a chat by calling me on 01483 320207 or sending an email to richard@guildfordpropertyblog.co.uk