A typical house in Paddock Wood costs about £415,000. Semis sit bang on that figure. Detached houses cost most of six hundred grand. Flats hardly come up for sale at all. It's a family-house market priced like one, with no bargain basement for anyone to hide in.
The Land Registry recorded 92 sales in the year to the end of May 2026, with a typical price of about £415,000. Semis were the busiest type, with 31 sales at a typical £407,000. There were 28 terraces at about £340,000 and 28 detached houses at about £590,000. Flats managed five sales at a typical £182,000, which is too few to price anything with confidence. So in practice the cheapest way in is a terrace, and a terrace here still costs the thick end of three hundred and fifty thousand. Estate agents will call it a starter home. Almost nobody's first salary starts there.
The house price index for the area showed no change at all over the twelve months to May 2026. Zero, to the decimal place. Flats in the same index were about 3% down on the year. That isn't a crash, and nobody should dress it up as one. It's a market that took a year off. That's good news for buyers who hate being gazumped and poor news for anyone who bought expecting a quick profit.
The most common council-tax band is D, and only about 11% of homes sit in the cheap A and B bands. A band D bill comes to about £2,446 a year, which is the number to set against whatever you pay now. The valuation list assumes a family house and bills you like it.
Renters should use the typical private rent across the Tunbridge Wells area, about £1,510 a month as of April 2026 and about 5% up on the year before. That is a borough-wide average taken from the Office for National Statistics' rent index, not a figure for Paddock Wood alone and not a median of advertised listings. By bedrooms, that index puts a one-bed at about £1,040 a month, a two-bed around £1,380, a three-bed around £1,670 and four bedrooms or more about £2,430. There are no figures for studios or single rooms, so there are none here either.
Against local incomes, the price is a stretch but not a fantasy. The Office for National Statistics models typical gross household income, before tax, at about £64,000 for the financial year to March 2023. That figure is a few years old and pre-tax, so what reaches the bank account is smaller. A two-income household buying a semi here will manage it. A single buyer on the same pay will spend a long time on mortgage calculators and come away quieter.
Of the sales that could be matched to an energy certificate's floor area, about 87% of the total, the typical price came to about £4,520 per square metre, and the typical home behind that figure measured about 93 square metres. That's a decent-sized family house, not a converted broom cupboard sold as "compact living". The per-metre price only covers the sales that could be measured, so treat it as a guide to value, not a quote for any particular house.
The 2021 Census shows the bedroom split plainly. About 46% of homes have three bedrooms, 26% have four or more, 19% have two and only 9% have one. The town was built for families with a spare room and a car on the drive. Anyone hunting for a one-bed is shopping in a very short aisle.
Paddock Wood sits in the middle on price, neither a steal nor a stretch. A three-bed with a garden costs what a three-bed with a garden costs, and the town has never pretended otherwise.