Reading

Reading is a large market town and borough in the county of Berkshire. Located on the M4 motorway 40 miles west of London and within easy reach of both Oxford and Bristol, it has been described as having some of the best transport connections in England. The impending addition of the Elizabeth Line will further boost its appeal with London escapees lured by the scenery of the Chiltern Hills and North Wessex Downs that surround the town.

4.59
Average Location Score

Excellent

70%

Very Good

23%

Average

4%

Disappointing

3%

Very Poor

0%

Best places to live in Reading

HomeViews Top Rated Development ranking takes into account the Star Rating and HomeViews Transparency Rating of every development in the area

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Dee Park RG30

Reading town centre

The centre of Reading itself may a little too heavy on bland office blocks and chain cafes for many tastes, but things are changing. Crossrail has brought with it a major overhaul for the town and its dowdy image.

Upmarket stores, hotels and housing developments have sprung up to meet the demand of London commuters who see Reading as the perfect balance of distance and proximity to the big smoke. Now also a leading tech hub in its own right, Reading is also home to a large student population jostling for space in the town’s more central areas.

Family neighbourhoods in Reading

As you’d imagine, Reading and its environs offer families plenty of property options. The suburb of Caversham north of the town is highly sought after for its country feel and beautiful period homes. Just to the east of Reading, Earley is another popular area for families looking for good-sized homes with great local amenities.

A little further east, Woodley offers a relaxed family neighbourhood at a lower price point. Around 4 miles to the southeast of Reading, the village of Winnersh is another popular option close to Reading but offering plenty of rural charm. Norcot and Tilehurst lie to the west of the centre of Reading, and offer good value terraced and semi-detached housing on the doorstep of the North Wessex Downs AONB.

Kennet and Avon Canal

North Wessex Downs

A large Area of Natural Beauty sitting to the west of Reading, the North Wessex Downs spans the counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. Visitors can explore historic villages and towns like Marlborough, with its beautiful market square and renowned school.
The Kennet and Avon canal runs though the Downs, offering miles of towpath walking trails and bike rides. Savernake Forest offers 4,500 acres of woodland that dates back over 1,000 years, while Highclere Castle will be instantly recognisable to fans as the location of the TV series Downton Abbey.

The Bronze-Age Uffington White Horse is another major visitor attraction. It is thought to be the oldest chalk hill figure in the UK, and is dated at over 3,000 years old. Dated to around 500 years later is the World heritage Site at Avebury – the remarkable stone circles that visitors can walk amongst, unlike those of nearby Stonehenge.

Transport in and around Reading

Reading station is one of the busiest rail interchanges in the UK. Services depart from reading for most parts of the country, including GWR services west to Bath, Bristol and the South West and eastwards into London Paddington. South West Trains run into London Waterloo and Basingstoke while Cross Country Trains run south towards Bournemouth and north up to the Midlands and beyond.

Once the Elizabeth Line is fully operational, services will run four times per hour directly into central London. Reading Buses operate extensive services around the town and out to many of the surrounding suburbs and villages. Newbury Buses, Arriva, First and Thames Travel also operate local bus services.

Reviews in Reading

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overall great place to stay, value for money, as long as you don’t mind a broken lift and some stairs !

Review Date Jul 2024

gravity co royal heights is located next to a beautiful canal and situated very near to the town centre. it is a 15 minute walk from tesco extra, and only a 7 minute walk from my favourite coffee shop ! i am on the side facing the main road, so it does get loud during the day, but usually quietens down during the night.

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i love the design of my studio apartment, it has all the facilities required for one person and is very cozy. we’ve had struggles with the communal facilities (the lift has been broken for several months), which has been a painpoint, but the gravity team is transparent in their communication and action taken to solve the issue.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

not really, gravity has a virtual tour on their website and also you can schedule bookings so i was able to have a good idea of what i was moving into.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

yes, they have always been very timely in their responses.

4
Facilities
5
Design
5
Location
4
Value
3
Management
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Very modern and well-managed service apartments.

Verified Resident
Verified Resident
Review Date May 2024

The development is right in the centre of town, so we’re walking distance from pretty much everything! There’s a huge car park in the basement, and the bin-shoots in the buildings seem to work really well.

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The development itself is amazing. A very modern design with a surprising attention to detail. I was very surprised when I first came to check out the apartment as I wasn’t used to seeing such new and sleek developments in the UK!

There’s also a 24/7 management/concierge service which makes the whole experience feel like you’re living in a hotel. They also have a dedicated technical repairs team within the building, so when we had an issue with our induction hob, within 25 minutes they came up and replaced then whole thing immediately! The technical repairs team are also very nice and helpful, we had Luca and Brendan come to replace our hob and they were very helpful in explaining various things to us and answering all the questions we had about various aspects of the apartment.

The apartment itself is very modern. Super fast WiFi (~300MB/s), WiFi controlled heating, WiFi controlled washing machine / tumble dryer, fully kitted out kitchen.

Also the social aspect of the development is great. Lots of events and socials are organised each week, so we get to meet lots of new people all the time. There are also group workout sessions in the gym, and yoga-sessions in the yoga studio and roof terraces.

The shared workspace on the ground floor is awesome. You can also book out their meeting rooms and private working rooms. The whole thing basically feels like a hotel.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

The community is quite good here. I imagine that lots of people move into this sort of development for the social aspect, and it doesn’t dissapoint.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

As stated in my main review, the response-time to any problems is very quick. There’s an app you can use to make a maintenance request (or report an issue) and they respond very quickly. We’ve only had one issue so far, and that got sorted out by Luca and Brendan within an hour.

5
Facilities
5
Design
5
Location
4
Value
5
Management
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Dishwasher issue request completed and resolved.

Verified Resident
Verified Resident
Review Date May 2024

My dishwasher wasn’t working and when the raised the service request, the maintenance team reacted promptly and replaced the machine. They were very kind and replaced the machine instead of asking me to wait to get the Beko maintenance team to rectify it. Thank you.

Please review your development:

Maintenance team reacted quickly to my service request and helped to resolve the issue fast. They replaced the machine, ensured everything is working fine and spent sometime explaining the issue and how well to prevent from issue re occuring. Thank you.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I should have started using the appliances from day 1 or week 1 so that I could flag the issue.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Maintenance team helped to resolve the dishwasher issue.

5
Facilities
5
Design
5
Location
5
Value
5
Management
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Reading’s best housing project

Verified Resident
Verified Resident
Review Date Apr 2024

Location is perfect, most served location in reading with all shops being around, only noises I heard were the ones when other buildings were being built, but now that the project is about to finish I stopped hearing any noises

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Design is decent, staff are all decent aswell, but amenities / facilities wise I believe it could be much better with stuff like cinema rooms, more common rooms, ping pong table or other similar stuff, most projects in reading offers these. Other than that it’s more than satisfying

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

Bills aren’t included, I believe I saw that on rightmove and only found out recently that they weren’t included

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

I would just suggest that renting the amenity rooms for 50 pounds and 5 days in advance is a bit too extreme, I believe that it should be a free service with a reasonable 6 hour booking slot for pre booking, other than that I would like to appreciate the amazing staff, Yusra especially for handling multiple issues I faced professionally, keeping in mind that she , with most staff members, are all always friendly and nice which makes the environment of the building amazing

2
Facilities
5
Design
5
Location
4
Value
5
Management
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