The quintessentially pretty village of Ockley, south of Dorking, has been named among a number of Surrey villages in a postcode where house prices have skyrocketed. This is partly thanks to the area’s direct rail access to London and Horsham, and also, possibly unknowingly, due to its storied history that spans the Roman and Saxon periods.
The RH5 postcode for Capel, Westhumble, and Mickleham, as well as Ockley saw properties sell for an average of 15.4 per cent more in the past year than they did the year before, according to Land Registry figures. This increase was second only to the popular market town of Dorking in RH4 and counted as one of just six areas in the county where prices rose by more than 10 per cent.
The average RH4 selling price in the 12-month to the end of March 2024 stood at £780,000. A total of 111 sales were made across RH4 in the 12 months referred to by the Land Registry, 189 fewer than the year before.
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Semi-detached properties accounted for the majority of transactions in Ockley across the past year with an average price of £625,000, according to Rightmove. Detached homes sold for an average of £1.04m in the same period and flats fetched an average of £420,000.
The village of Ockley is situated along the typically arrow-straight Roman road - the A29 Stane Street, initially built to connect London to the south coast at Chichester in West Sussex. It is a modest size with a majority of homes found within a single kilometre stretch.
It has a village hall, cricket green, and a couple of well-regarded pubs, including The Inn on the Green - the area’s top-ranked restaurant on Tripadvisor with a four-star rating based on nearly 100 reviews. One person described: “The staff were exceptional at this historic, quirky, 15th century, former coach house.
“Nothing was too much trouble, the room was lovely, the bed was comfortable, and breakfast was superb. Cannot recommend it enough.” The Cricketers Arms a short way further along Stane Street also has a four-star rating and has been described as a “smashing” and “unspoiled” pub.
Ockley has nearby schools, farm shops, and surprisingly for a village of its size, a station that has direct trains to London. It is also just a five-minute drive to the A24.
The Surrey Hills National Landscape borders the village with both Leith Hill and Holmbury Hill 10 minutes away, while Box Hill can be reached in just 15 minutes. Gatton Manor Hotel and Country Club and the Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden are to the south of the village.
Estate agent Alex Harvey commented that Ockley has a “quintessential village charm”. He told SurreyLive: “You’ve got a really established cricket club, you’ve got two pubs, which is rare. But it also, it seems, a real sense of community as well.”
He added that people have looked at the village with commuting in mind and said: “What we also found, part of the charm and the reason they bought in Ockley was because it has that village atmosphere. You can also use it as a commuter village via the railway station or the fast roads that go in all directions, which gives it a lot of appeal as well.”
Mr Harvey continued: “If you look into a lot of the history that’s actually associated with Ockley, it goes right the way back through the Saxon times, through the Roman times, even to the Iron Age. It’s steeped in history and it’s also a very pretty village, and that’s probably one of the biggest draws. Aesthetically, it’s what people expect of a Surrey village.”
The value of RH4 properties increased by more than £104,000 when compared to the £676,000 average the year before. Analysis of data, meanwhile, shows 42 of Surrey’s 67 postcode areas experienced a drop in property prices. The average price change in the county amounted to a £27,000 drop, or if Surrey’s million-pound postcodes are omitted the average price fell by £13,000.
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