Property Hot Spot: Reading, Berkshire A past with a future

This old market town on the Thames has blossomed into a shopping, business and transport hub, with two-way commuters.

The cranes have been sprouting. Reading has a massive new shopping centre, the football club has a new stadium, the local museum is being spruced up, a four-star hotel is coming, and thanks to these and similar projects, thousands of new work opportunities are in the offing in this already job-rich area. Estate agents and property developers are not complaining.

"I've been based here for more than 20 years," says Sara Batting, an estate agent. "I've grown up with Reading since it was a small market town. Then in the 1970s, Foster Wheeler, the structural engineers, and Metal Box came, and it was the start of Reading suddenly becoming a focus for south-east England. Businesses in London noticed, then Digital, Prudential, Microsoft and many other big companies moved in.

"In 20 years, Reading became a force to be reckoned with. Now, with the Oracle shopping centre and the inner District Road, the infrastructure has been greatly improved. Oracle has brought the Holybrook and Kennet rivers together, and become the core of the area."

In the Oracle leisure and retail complex are nearly 100 shops and a 10- screen cinema, along with several riverside restaurants.

Like Basingstoke, Reading is a two-way-commuter town. "The standard of company is so high people commute into Reading to work, even from London, and many inward commuters end up buying here,'"says Ms Batting.

"Some of the relatively young first-time buyers who work in infor- mation technology have no problem paying pounds 400,000 and more."

One perennially appealing area encompasses Reading University and the Royal Berkshire Hospital. "They are within a half mile of each other," says Ms Batting. "This area has quiet tree-lined roads which attract professionals."

As well as owner-occupiers, such locales also lure investors eager to tap into the student market or medical professionals requiring long-term temporary accommodation.

Haslam's estate agents are selling a wide range of properties in urban Reading and in the surrounding villages. City Gate is a Luxmore Properties development of 18 one- and two-bed luxury loft-style flats south of the city centre near the Oracle shopping centre. Luxmore has also transformed a classic Georgian house into 10 two-bed flats on King's Road in east Reading.

The second-hand property in Reading seems to be dominated by period properties and modern flats out of Central Casting, but the exceptions are worth hunting.

For example, Haslam's is selling a three-bed flat with a dual-aspect sitting room which has bay windows and a bedroom overlooking the Kennet. Other flats in this complex have rooms with double-height windows or triple-aspect oriel windows. All residents have river fishing rights.

In Reading and the nearby towns and villages, riverside properties are in abundance. Some of these towns include Caversham, just across the Thames from Reading, Pangbourne, Goring, Moulsford, and Purley, which are all on the Thames.

The Low-Down

Transport

READING HAS rail-air service to Heathrow from the station, and direct train service to Gatwick. Heathrow is 28 miles. Service is direct and fast into Paddington, or local and slow into Waterloo.

Prices

"A decent one-bed flat starts at pounds 100,000," says Ms Batting, which means an indecent one should be available for half that amount. City Gate flats cost between pounds 140,000 and pounds 155,000, but modern flats in new blocks in Caversham are available for half that amount. Two- and three-bed period houses near the university and ideal for student let cost pounds 100,000 to pounds 130,000, but larger houses in this same area destined as family homes can sell for as much as pounds 300,000. Ms Batting is offering a Tudor-style detached family house in Pangbourne for pounds 700,000.

Rental income

Whether in the university area, a village or on one of the area's many rivers (Kennet, Loddon and Holy Brook in addition to the Thames) rents for two- and three-bed units seem to invariably fall between pounds 750 per month for the smaller properties and pounds 1,000 for the larger.

Block that euphemism

The "Age Exclusive" Old Silk Mill by Taywood Homes is a secure retirement community containing 43 one- and two- bedroom flats and one penthouse in Twyford, six miles from Reading. One house is available at Mill Fields (Persimmon) in Earley Rise, at pounds 120,500, and one in Squires Gate (Redrow) for pounds 329,950.

Mixing it up

Gleeson Homes' City Living division, with Reading Borough Council and Ealing Family Housing Association, have selected a River Kennet location for a mix of private houses for sale, and Housing Association managed units to rent.

The 88 one- and two-bed flats will be sold on the open market, and 46 three-storey family homes will be available for people on the council's housing register. Prices from approximately pounds 70,000.

Oh yes it is

Reading events include a monthly farmers' market, pancake race, half- marathon, real ale festival, amateur regatta, folk festival, real ale and jazz festival, waterfest, canoeing marathon, WOMAD (World of Music, Art and Dance), and rock festival. Peter Pan is this year's panto at the Hexagon, which also hosts opera, ballet, concerts, plays and other staged events.

Second and last are the same

"The county town of Royal Berkshire is second favourite (behind Guildford) to win Millennium City Status from the Queen, says bookmaker William Hill. Odds of 12 to 1 put Reading second just behind the favourite Guildford. A total of 39 towns and boroughs have applied for City Status" - council statement.

Shopping

With its 700,000sq ft, the new Oracle shopping centre by itself is adding 32 per cent more capacity to the town centre's 2.1msq ft. Out-of-town retail schemes will add 500,000sq ft to the current 888,000sq ft.

Council tax

For Reading, Bands A, D and H are pounds 579, pounds 868 and pounds 1,736. The MP is Jane Griffiths, Labour.

Contacts

Sara Batting, 0118 950 2341 Gleeson City, 0800 830830 Haslam's, 0118 960 1000 Redrow, 0118 973 5833. Taywood Old Silk Mill: 0118 934 9347