Buying in Dorking: the data-sheet

Dorking is a market town in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, covered by the RH4 postcode, sitting between Box Hill and the Greensand Ridge where the River Mole cuts through the North Downs. Three railway stations sit within about 1.5 km of the centre — Dorking Deepdene and Dorking West at roughly 1.2 km, and Dorking itself at about 1.4 km — giving separate routes towards London and towards Reading and Guildford.

The figures below come from the same datasets that sit behind our reports. Each one carries the window it was measured over, because a property number without a date is not a number you can act on.

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The 6-dimension summary

Dimension	Dorking (RH4)	Source and vintage
Median sold price	£450,000	HMLR PPD, 12 months to 31 Jul 2026
State primaries and secondaries within 3 km rated Good or Outstanding	7 of 9	Ofsted / GIAS, as at 17 Sep 2026
Recorded crime per 1,000 residents (Mole Valley)	54.3	Home Office / ONS, year to Mar 2026
Premises with 100 Mbit/s or faster available	83.7%	Ofcom Connected Nations 2025, loaded 18 Sep 2026
Council tax, Band D	£2,519.86	Mole Valley, 2026/27
Land within 2 km of the centre in Flood Zone 2 or 3	4.9%	EA Flood Map for Planning, Jul 2026

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Schools

Within 3 km of the town centre there are seven state primary schools and two state secondary schools. Five of the primaries hold a Good rating, one was rated Requires Improvement at its last inspection in March 2023, and one academy converter has no current rating in the register. Dorking Nursery School, a local-authority nursery, holds an Outstanding rating — from an inspection in October 2012.

Both state secondaries are rated Good:

School	Ofsted rating	Last inspection	Distance from centre
The Priory Church of England School	Good	12 March 2019	0.9 km
The Ashcombe School	Good	28 January 2015	1.1 km

Notice the inspection dates. The Ashcombe School’s grade is from January 2015 and The Priory’s from March 2019 — both predate the framework changes that removed single-word overall grades. A rating carried for a decade tells you what inspectors found then, not what a Year 7 intake would find now. We explain what changed and how to read grades from different eras in how the Ofsted changes affect school ratings.

There are no independent schools inside the 3 km radius, which sets Dorking apart from Leatherhead and Godalming, where several sit within walking distance of the centre.

What to check. Which primary serves the admissions area for the specific address — Surrey County Council sets that, and proximity is not the same thing as catchment. Distances here are straight-line from the town centre, not walking routes.

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Crime

Area	Recorded crime per 1,000 residents	Period
Mole Valley	54.3	Apr 2025 – Mar 2026
Surrey (11 districts)	59.1	Apr 2025 – Mar 2026
England	80.3	Apr 2025 – Mar 2026

Mole Valley recorded 4,822 offences across a population of 88,808 in the year to March 2026, below both the Surrey and the England rates. A district is a coarse unit, though: Dorking’s retail core and the villages out towards Westcott and Brockham sit inside the same average. For a purchase, what matters is the rate for the postcode by category — burglary and vehicle crime behave differently from town-centre anti-social behaviour. Our crime methodology sets out how the per-postcode rate is built, and the lowest-crime towns in Surrey on a population-weighted basis shows where Mole Valley sits.

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Broadband

Coverage tier	RH4 (% of premises)	Source
30 Mbit/s or faster	97.1%	Ofcom Connected Nations 2025, loaded 18 Sep 2026
100 Mbit/s or faster	83.7%	Ofcom Connected Nations 2025, loaded 18 Sep 2026
300 Mbit/s or faster	83.7%	Ofcom Connected Nations 2025, loaded 18 Sep 2026
Gigabit-capable	83.7%	Ofcom Connected Nations 2025, loaded 18 Sep 2026
Unable to receive 30 Mbit/s	2.9%	Ofcom Connected Nations 2025, loaded 18 Sep 2026

Each figure is the mean, across the 584 postcodes in RH4, of Ofcom’s per-postcode percentage of premises. These are download-speed tiers, not technologies: Ofcom does not publish full-fibre coverage at postcode level, and the tiers nest, so every premise counted at 300 Mbit/s is also counted at 100 and at 30.

More than four in five RH4 premises can reach 100 Mbit/s or faster and 2.9% cannot reach 30 Mbit/s. Averages hide street-level variation, and the residual sits in the outlying lanes rather than the centre. The Surrey postcodes still below 30 Mbit/s shows the county-wide pattern.

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Council Tax

Dorking is billed by Mole Valley District Council. The charges below are the 2026/27 all-in figures — district, county, police and fire precepts combined.

Band	Annual charge 2026/27
Band B	£1,959.89
Band C	£2,239.88
Band D	£2,519.86
Band E	£3,079.83
Band F	£3,639.80
Band G	£4,199.77

Mole Valley’s Band D is the lowest of the four districts covered in this series — under Elmbridge (£2,557.75), Tandridge (£2,594.85) and Waverley (£2,604.87). The gap between Band D and Band F is £1,119.94 a year, which is the sort of difference worth settling while you’re still viewing, not after you commit. Band D by district across Surrey has the previous year’s full comparison.

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Property Market

Across the 12 months to 31 July 2026, 199 sales were registered in RH4 at a median of £450,000. The middle half of those sales fell between £335,000 and £650,000; 14 went above £1m. Just under a third — 32.2% — were leasehold.

Property type	Sales	Median price
Terraced	57	£450,000
Flat or maisonette	57	£275,000
Semi-detached	43	£580,000
Detached	24	£935,000
Other	18	£400,000

Snapshot from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data for sales registered between 1 August 2025 and 31 July 2026. Price Paid Data lags completion by several weeks, so the most recent months fill in over time.

Read the mix, not just the median. Terraces and flats were 114 of the 199 sales in this window — 57% of it — and they sit at the lower end of the price range. The median is the middle transaction in that particular mix, not a valuation of any particular house.

Energy performance of the local stock. The register holds 8,157 certificates for RH4. Band D is the most common and 42% are rated C or better.

EPC band	Certificates
A	12
B	657
C	2,740
D	2,974
E	1,360
F	324
G	90

A large E, F and G tail matters if you are buying to let: the MEES rules and what they mean for rental stock start from the certificate, not the survey.

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Flood Risk

Dimension	Within 2 km of Dorking centre	Source
Land in Flood Zone 3	3.0%	EA Flood Map for Planning, Jul 2026
Land in Flood Zone 2	1.9%	EA Flood Map for Planning, Jul 2026
Land at high surface-water risk	0.89%	EA NaFRA2 RoFSW, Jan 2025
Land at medium surface-water risk	0.50%	EA NaFRA2 RoFSW, Jan 2025

The River Mole runs east of the town and the Pipp Brook through it, so zone-3 land follows those two corridors rather than spreading across Dorking. At 4.9% of land within 2 km in Zone 2 or 3, the town sits mid-range for Surrey.

Surface water is the separate question, and the one that catches buyers out: 0.89% of land within 2 km falls in the Environment Agency’s high band — a greater than 3.3% annual chance of flooding to at least 200 mm. It follows slope and drainage, not rivers, so it can land on a street with no watercourse near it. How surface-water flooding works in Surrey covers the bands.

These percentages are land area, not properties. The only figure that settles a purchase is the zone for the specific address.

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At the viewing stage

• Which primary school serves the admissions area for this address, and when was it last inspected?
• Is this postcode’s crime rate above or below the Mole Valley average for the categories that affect residents?
• What speed tier does this address actually reach — 100 Mbit/s or faster, or is it among the 2.9% of premises that cannot reach 30 Mbit/s?
• What band is it, and what is the 2026/27 charge for that band?
• What have comparable properties on this and adjacent streets sold for in the past 12 months?
• Is it in Flood Zone 2 or 3, and what is its surface-water band?

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Further reading

• Dorking area data — the same figures, kept current, on our Mole Valley pages
• RH4 outcode data — schools, EPC and market aggregates for the whole outcode
• Mole Valley area data — the district view, including the other towns in it
• Buying in Epsom: the data-sheet — a neighbouring Surrey town on the same template
• How we calculate flood risk — zones, surface water, and what the bands mean

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Researching a specific property while you’re still viewing? A Property Report scopes the checks to that address: EPC and flood risk at the building, council tax band, broadband, the nearest schools, crime, air quality and environmental context, for £29.99. An Area Report covers the postcode for £24.99.

This article is general information only. It is not financial, legal, or property investment advice. Always obtain independent advice before committing to a property purchase.

Sources. Property market: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, Crown copyright, OGL v3.0, sales registered 1 Aug 2025 – 31 Jul 2026, re-queried 28 Sep 2026 after the 18 Sep 2026 Land Registry reload (HMLR 2026-08-28 restatement). Schools: DfE GIAS and Ofsted inspection records, queried 17 Sep 2026. Crime: Home Office police recorded crime with ONS mid-year population estimates, year to March 2026. Broadband: Ofcom Connected Nations 2025, published 19 November 2025, reporting coverage as at July 2025; loaded to the Home-Checker ofcom_broadband table on 18 September 2026. Each figure is the percentage of premises with that service available, averaged across the 584 RH4 postcodes present in that release. Ofcom does not publish full-fibre coverage at postcode level, so the 100 Mbit/s tier is a speed band, not a technology. Postcodes Ofcom retired between the 2024 and 2025 releases still sit in the table carrying their older values and are excluded from every figure here. Council tax: GOV.UK council tax levels set by local authorities in England, 2026 to 2027 (published 25 March 2026), Table 9. Energy: MHCLG Energy Performance of Buildings Register, outcode aggregate snapshot 21 May 2026. Flood: Environment Agency Flood Map for Planning (artefact vintage 15 July 2026) and NaFRA2 Risk of Flooding from Surface Water (published 28 January 2025). Station distances: OpenStreetMap, straight-line from the town centroid.