Where to buy house in Berkshire

[brop1]

Hi all I'm new to this site and have read several threads regarding this subject but felt I had to start a new thread to be specific to our needs. My hubby and I want to start a family this year and want to move from North Kent to Berkshire. I have searched but still not sure on which area. Our budget is 320K-390k and preferably a 4 bedroom but a 3 bedroom with scope to extend will also be good, a garden and garage. We would obviously like a nice safe area with good schools for when we have our little ones. The area needs to be within 40 mins train commute to London. We are also considering Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Buckinghamshire if anyone has info on those areas.
Thanks in advance for all your replies.

Hi brop1. My DH and I are just leaving central London to live in Earley, Berkshire. We had a similar budget to yours and we found that Berkshire had the best value for the houses and schools were of high calibre. We are getting a decent 3 double bedroom house. You can also get a 4 bed in the area. The train is over an hour into Waterloo but there is the fast train from Reading to Paddington which I believe is about 40 mins.

I also grew up in Herts/Middx and although these areas are lovely, with the price range that you are looking at you can get better value for money in Berkshire.

Hope this helps and any other questions give me a shout

Hi tess4. Thank you very much for your reply. I have had a brief look at Earley and it looks very promising. I love the character houses and I'm looking forward to the search. The train to Waterloo may not be a bad option as my office is near there. I'll let you know how we get on.

There are a lot of nice places to live along the Waterloo line. We live in Wokingham which is supposed to be the best place in the country according to one of those surveys about how contented people were with their home towns!

Beware that the train journey to Waterloo is looooong and the train stops everywhere! There's lots of nice places to live in Berkshire/ Surrey for that budget, you may even be able to try parts of Ascot :)

I live in a village InAscot and love it - but the train times into London are an hour - you may be better looking at somewhere like Burnham or Maidenhead as the trains go into Paddington and are a lot quicker.

Twyford trains go into Paddington too. But it depends where in London you work - an hour to get to Waterloo might be better than 40 minutes to Paddington depending on your onward journey.