Hooley, CR5: house prices, village guide and local information

Hooley sits where the London Borough of Croydon meets the Borough of Reigate and Banstead, and the boundary runs through the village's story as much as its map. An Ordnance Survey sheet from the late 1800s even letters a "Parly. Co. Div. & Union Bdy." about 490 m from the centre, marking a parliamentary division and a poor-law union boundary. Today the centre of the village, around the church and Brighton Road, is in Reigate and Banstead, in the Hooley, Merstham and Netherne ward and the East Surrey constituency.

Close to the centre stands the Church of St Margaret, the Grade I listed parish church of Chipstead, and eight designated heritage assets lie within about 600 m of the centre. The nearest include the Walpole Monument, the Banks Tomb and the Little Family Tomb in the churchyard, all Grade II, plus Court Lodge, 440 m from the centre, and a coal tax post beside Starbridge. Church Lane, Church Green, Church Shaw and the Star Inn, all lettered on maps between 1888 and 1914, still describe the same cluster.

The Ordnance Survey maps of 1888 to 1914 are a quick way to see Hooley as it was. They show Star Lane, Star Cottages, Star Shaw and the Star Inn on one side of the village, Church Lane, St Margaret's Church and Church Green on the other, with Hooley Cottage, Petershole and Netherne Farm nearby. Petershole echoes in Peters Hole Shaw, the nearest woodland to the centre. A name on an old map does not prove that a building or feature survives, but several of these do.

Hooley is ringed by small woods known as shaws: Peters Hole Shaw (550 m), Three Cornered Shaw (750 m), Fourteen Acre Shaw (790 m) and Coldroast Shaw (0.6 miles), with Boxers Wood and Millstock a little further out. Twelve named green spaces and around 84 mapped paths lie within a short walk, and six named routes pass nearby, including Wood Pigeon Way, the Downlands Circular Walk, the Happy Valley and Farthing Downs Nature Trail, the Chipstead walk and the Banstead Countryside Walk.

OpenStreetMap maps 40 amenities within 800 m: a village shop (Netherne Village Store), Simply Java Coffee Lounge, two community centres, four playgrounds and 31 sports and recreation facilities. The wider range of shops and services is in Coulsdon, roughly two miles away along Brighton Road.

Within roughly 1.3 km of the centre we hold 384 addresses and 178 sales since 2019, with a median of £425,000 and £485,000 for houses. That is below Chipstead's £615,000 and below the £490,000 around Coulsdon town centre.

Hooley has no railway station. The nearest are Coulsdon South (1.7 miles), Woodmansterne (1.8 miles) and Coulsdon Town (2.2 miles), so most people drive or take a bus along Brighton Road. There is no primary or secondary school within about 1.5 miles of Hooley; the only school in that distance is Serenity School, a special school 1.5 km away, so families usually travel to neighbouring areas.

Hooley ranks 4th of the 5 CR5 areas we cover for median sale price, at £425,000 since 2019 (178 sales). That is £65,000 below Coulsdon's £490,000. Houses alone sold for a median of £485,000.

In the 2021 Census 73% of households here owned their home, compared with 46% in Old Coulsdon and 90% in Chipstead. Within about 1.5 miles there are 0 primary or secondary schools and 16 mapped public charging sites within 6 km. Each area's own page covers the detail.

The average Band D council tax in Reigate and Banstead is £2,567 for 2026 to 2027, £175 above the England average of £2,392. That ranks Reigate and Banstead 54th highest of 296 billing authorities, and the charge rose from £2,459 last year. Next door in Croydon, Band D is £2,600, £33 more than in Reigate and Banstead, so which side of a council boundary a home sits on changes the bill by about £33 a year at Band D.

Your own bill depends on your property's band. In England bands are set from the home's estimated value on 1 April 1991, so a Band C home pays eight ninths of the Band D charge and a Band F home thirteen ninths. The figures below are the charge for each band in Reigate and Banstead, before any discount or reduction, and they include the county or borough, police, fire and any parish or GLA precepts averaged across the authority.