Wokingham vs Earley vs other Reading suburbs

[goldenyearsmum]

Hi fellow mums ,
We are looking to move to Reading suburbs area with our 5 year old (currently in year 1) by mid 2022.
What is a good area to buy a house ?
Our priority list is as follows-

1. Excellent primary & secondary schools
2. Safe locality, great neighbourhood & community
3. New home> fairly new home> previously owned but recently built nice home
4. Connectivity to central London by train etc

Areas we have considered exploring-

1. Wokingham
2. Earley
3. Shinfield
4. Green park

How are these areas overall.. and which one would be better?
Please suggest some other good areas to explore

I’d go for Wokingham over Earley. Have you considered Twyford?

Thank you for the suggestions. We haven’t really explored Twyford yet

How about Shinfield ?

Wokingham isn't a suburb of Reading, it's a town in it's own right, and quite a decent sized town. If you want even more shops than Wokingham has, it's very near Bracknell which has a newly developed shopping centre and is easier to drive into & Park than Reading. The trains into London are about every half hour and take just over an hour into Waterloo - though you have the option to take the train into Reading and then out to Paddington which is quicker, but more expensive, it depends whereabouts in London you want to be.

Oh okay. That's very helpful. Thank you !!

Lots of new builds have sprung up o the western edges of Wokingham and on the eastern edges of Bracknell (Jennet's Park). MIxed reports on the overall quality oif the builds though.

Wokingham is a gem of a town - farmers market, lots of places to eat and often voted the best place to live in England. Bracknell is more "blue collar" imho but the new centre (at last) has given the town a lift.

What’s your budget? We live in the area, used to be in woodley, now in Twyford. Schools here are excellent and it’s a lovely place to live. Twyford has better train links than Wokingham as it’s on the Paddington line, not the Waterloo one. Earley is fine but a bit soulless, it’s just lots of housing estates and an Asda

Wow these insights will really help us, thank you ! We were looking for around 450 K new build houses

A word of warning re: local new builds. Be very careful with the whole service charge thing, selling our new build earlier this year was a NIGHTMARE because of all the extra paperwork regarding the roads not having been adopted and the service charge/management company despite it being freehold. I wouldn’t touch a new build with a bargepole if it had any such restrictions on it, so be careful and ask lots of questions!

Aah.. noted.. thank you.
Its not going to be an easy decision after all

Not Earley. Soul-less place. Apart from the massive Asda, all it has to recommend it is that it was once the largest housing estate in Europe.

Green Park? Isn't that a business park in Reading? Handy for Costco and softplay, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Shinfield is nice, but relatively small, so you'll be driving everywhere.

Wokingham is a good-sized town, with most resources available in the town, and easy access to more in Reading and Bracknell. Excellent range of schools. The town is growing fast because of the new estates, but none of the estates are massive, and infrastructure is being built along with the estates (though that bit often runs late). Plenty of choice in 'lived-in' new builds. Lower crime rate than Reading or Bracknell. To get to C London by train, either change at Reading for Paddington, or there is a direct service to Waterloo. They take about the same time in total. Travelling from Twyford is faster. I'd say Twyford is between Shinfield and Wokingham in terms of size and convenience.

@SwimmingDonuts

Not Earley. Soul-less place. Apart from the massive Asda, all it has to recommend it is that it was once the largest housing estate in Europe.

Green Park? Isn't that a business park in Reading? Handy for Costco and softplay, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Shinfield is nice, but relatively small, so you'll be driving everywhere.

Wokingham is a good-sized town, with most resources available in the town, and easy access to more in Reading and Bracknell. Excellent range of schools. The town is growing fast because of the new estates, but none of the estates are massive, and infrastructure is being built along with the estates (though that bit often runs late). Plenty of choice in 'lived-in' new builds. Lower crime rate than Reading or Bracknell. To get to C London by train, either change at Reading for Paddington, or there is a direct service to Waterloo. They take about the same time in total. Travelling from Twyford is faster. I'd say Twyford is between Shinfield and Wokingham in terms of size and convenience.

Takes about 40 mins longer from Wokie to Waterloo than Wokie to Paddington. Martins Heron/Ascot are the break-even points Twyford is definitely quicker, but it depends entirely upon where you want to end up in London. And Reading/Twyford/Paddington will be on Crossrail next year, which throws another option in. But if you just want the theatre occasionally rather than the City or Canary Wharf regularly it's not a major decision consideration.

I don't think you'll find new build in Woodley or Twyford for £450, but here's a nearly new one in Woodley,. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/114845024#/?channel=RES_BUY
The buses into Reading are good, or drive to Twyford and park for the Paddington train, or walk to Earley station. You have Woodley shopping precinct with quite a reasonable selection including a Waitrose, Iceland, Lidl, with M&S food and Aldi a short drive, Sainsburys and Asda a 15 min drive away. All schools in Woodley are pretty good, but you may have to go where there is a space.
Twyford is v ery popular for familes, very little new build but good schools. I'd go for an older Twyford property and main line to Paddington over Woodley - if you can up the budget www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/110776034#/?channel=RES_BUY this is a short level walk to the shops (Waitrose, Tescos, excellent pie shop, flower shop, newsagents, cafes and charity shops and estate agents, restaurants and take aways mostly) . You can walk to the station in 10 minutes, there's Polehampton infant and junior school nearby and the excellent secondary is abut 15-20 mins walk.

If you're set on a new build, there's masses in Wokingham, mostly on the edges of town so not so convenient for the station etc.

I live in Wokingham and grew up in Woodley.

My ds is 5 and in year one. On the whole schools in Wokingham borough are very good, some will be better than others.

In terms of stations and new builds. There's new houses being built in Winnersh, Hatch Farm development and Winnersh Station with trains to Waterloo and London about a mile walk. However I'm not sure what you'd get for £450000.

Not much else in Winnersh but a big Sainsbury's and close enough to wokingham but train, bus or car. Three primaries, Winnersh, Bearwood and Wheatfield.

There are lots of new houses being built within Wokingham borough but like a pp said they are on the edge of town.

Shinfield is fine, lots of new houses too but no where near a station.

Earley is much nearer Reading and some very nice areas around the university and there is a station but Lower Earley is purely residential and no station, just bus to Reading.

Woodley, where I grew up as good amenities but no station at all. Twyford is lovely and great for train to London but you'll pay a huge premium because of Crossrail. Don't know about new houses.

Have a look at Old Earley, not Lower Earley. Very convenient to get to Twyford for the train in to Paddington. Commuting in to London on the Waterloo line is soul destroying.

Earley as opposed to Lower Earley doesn’t have housing estates, it’s all individual roads, there’s an M&S and an Aldi. You can walk to the river from where we live really easily, and in to Reading too. Good bus routes in to Reading. There aren’t many new builds but good quality individually built houses.

Thank you for all the real world insights !

Traffic in Wokingham in a PITA particularly out of Wokingham towards Winnersh. Wokingham is also expensive.

Bracknell - there are nice bits and less "blue collar" than it used to be - if you are interested in Jennetts Park, Redrow is generally seen as the best builder from what I understand.

Bracknell has tons to do for all ages and everything is local. Shinfield - there is not much there neither Earley other than the Uni. Lower Earley is a big 80s/90s housing estate - I prefer Bracknell to Lower Earley.

Green Park - no train nearby really would have to get into Reading and you are dependant on the A33 being clear - often it gets congested - M4 at one end and town centre at the other it is just a dual carriageway with places like B&Q, Costco and Morrisons off it - I would not live in Green Park.

I am in Bracknell near the Coppid Beech great location - town centre in 5 mins - I go to the Showcase Cinema at Winnersh 10 mins away and free parking.

Bracknell station is 5 mins away or take the back roads to Twyford about 12 minutes - no idea re schools as I do not have children.

I live alone - I find it safe and will walk my dog at night in the dark without worrying.

TBH I haven't been to London by train since before the pandemic, so could well have misremembered the timing. Also, it takes longer to get from Paddington to my ILs' house than from Waterloo, which probably makes the travel time equal for me.

Twyford all the way. Train into London from Wokingham is awful. Green Park is more commercial and Earley isn’t very nice.

Loads of new building going on in North Bracknell too (or there was last time I went there) towards Binfield and a lot of it is a half hour or so walk to the station.

@SwimmingDonuts Yes, depends where you're going when you get to London! A friend lived in Sunningdale & always went via Reading into Paddington as they were generally going to St Mary's Hospital even though it was just a bit quicker into Waterloo

I personally love Lower Earley- loads of green in-between residential. Lovely schools and conveniently located to town.

I live in Wokingham and love it here.Definitely prefer it to Woodley or Earley.

Where will you be working? Commute times can vary massively - Wokingham to Waterloo is way slower than Reading to Paddington. Driving times can also vary hugely, depending on where you need to go. That would all feed into my thoughts on which area will be better.

Wokingham houses are SO expensive. We live here and love it, but we can't afford to move from our starter home because anything family oriented is 550K plus.

Thank you all !
Does anyone know about new or upcoming homes in Twyford ?

Will now be focussing at-
Twyford
Wokingham
Woodley
+- Earley
? Maidenhead
Probably no to Shinfield & Greenpark.

London- Paddington seems to have best direct connectivity with Twyford/Maidenhead