Reading

What is it like to live in Reading?

Homes sold for a typical £356,000 in the 12 months to September 2026. At 3,712 of the 3,991 postcodes Ofcom reports on, every home and business can get gigabit broadband. The Environment Agency counts 965 homes and businesses at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, at 306 of its 4,333 postcodes. It has 49 primary schools, 15 secondary schools and 4 all-through schools at its postcodes within 12 km of its centre. At least 5 GP practices are at its postcodes. The nearest railway station is Reading West, 1.1 km from the middle of its postcodes in a straight line.

We don't rate places; here are the figures so you can judge.

Sources: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data; Ofcom Connected Nations; Environment Agency flood risk; Get Information about Schools; NHS GP practices; NaPTAN. Each figure is from a section of this page, which gives its date.

What do homes cost in Reading?

Homes in Reading sold for a typical £356,000 in the 12 months to September 2026, across 1,805 sales, HM Land Registry's figures show. The 12 months before gave £357,000 from 2,298 sales: not a change larger than chance would explain, given which homes happened to sell.

• Detached £575,000 271 sales
• Semi-detached £420,000 509 sales
• Terraced £335,000 602 sales
• Flat or maisonette £215,000 423 sales

Each bar is that kind's typical price, against the most expensive kind here.

Across the whole RG1 district, Reading's main postcode district: a typical £292,500.

Sales at the postcodes ONS places in Reading: standard sales of homes at market value. A typical price is the median, the middle sale. Sales take weeks to be registered, so the last month or two are incomplete. Each postcode page gives the figure for its own postcode sector.

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, files dated 28 October 2026.

Are new homes being built in Reading?

212 of the 4,333 postcodes now in use in Reading came into use in January 2020 or later, ONS says. In the 12 months to September 2025, 23 of the 2,298 homes sold in Reading were newly built (1%), HM Land Registry's records show; across the RG1 district, Under 1%.

The newest postcodes

A new postcode is often a new street or estate, but Royal Mail also makes new postcodes when it reorganises old ones, so not every one means new homes. Only postcodes still in use are counted.

New homes among the homes sold

Standard sales of homes at market value that HM Land Registry marks as newly built. New homes take longer to be registered than other sales, so the latest 12 months count fewer of them than were sold. A share is given from 5 sales or more.

Sources: ONS Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026; HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, files dated 28 October 2026.

What broadband can you get in Reading?

Ofcom reports on 3,991 of the 4,333 postcodes in Reading. At 3,712 of them every home and business can get gigabit broadband.

Ofcom gives each postcode's share of homes and businesses, not how many there are, so these count postcodes. Each postcode page has its own figures. A provider's checker answers for one address.

Source: Ofcom Connected Nations, Connected Nations, Spring 2026, data for January 2026.

Is Reading at risk of flooding?

306 of the 4,333 postcodes in Reading have a home or business in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, the Environment Agency says. At those, it puts 965 homes and businesses in an area at high or medium risk.

High: 3.3% or more a year (1 in 30). Medium: 1% to 3.3% a year. Low: 0.1% to 1% a year. Very low: under 0.1% a year (1 in 1,000). Each band is the chance of flooding in any one year.

Homes and businesses in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, as the Environment Agency counts them, added up over the postcodes. It is for the land, not each building, and leaves out surface water, groundwater and sewers. Each postcode page has its own figures and its flood warning areas.

Source: Environment Agency flood risk, published 6 July 2026.

Which schools are in Reading?

The open schools at the postcodes in Reading (the first 8 primaries by distance from its middle). A school for ages 4 to 18 is listed under both. Distances are straight lines from the middle of its postcodes. Distance is not a catchment: each council sets its own admission rules. Special schools and alternative provision, which children join by referral, are not listed.

An orange bar: the school has as many pupils as places, or more (Department for Education's figures).

Source: Get Information about Schools, read 17 October 2026. Each school opens its own record there.

How far is the station from Reading?

The nearest railway station to the centre point of the postcodes in Reading is Reading West Rail Station, 1.1 km away in a straight line.

• Reading West Rail Station Railway station 1.1 kmWalk
• Reading Rail Station Railway station 1.5 kmCycle
• Reading Rail Station Railway station 1.5 kmCycle

Straight-line distances from the centre point, not routes. Walk: under 1.2 km. Cycle: 1.2 to 5 km. Drive: further.

Straight-line distances from the middle of the postcodes, not routes. Each postcode page lists its own nearest stations and bus stops. The Department for Transport's register does not say how often services run.

Source: NaPTAN, read 17 October 2026.

Which GP surgeries are in Reading?

The GP practices at the postcodes in Reading, the first 5 by distance from its middle. Each practice sets the area it takes patients from, so check with it before registering.

• Coley Park Surgery Phone 0118 907 9976 300 mWalk
• Chatham Street Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report August 2021, over 3 years old · Phone 0118 950 5121 950 mWalk
• Abbey Medical Centre Phone 0118 957 3752 1.0 kmWalk
• Broad Street Health Centre Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report August 2025 · Phone 0118 902 8300 1.0 kmWalk
• Milman & Kennet Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report July 2017, over 3 years old · Phone 0118 986 2286 1.1 kmWalk

Sources: NHS GP practices, read 17 October 2026; Care Quality Commission, ratings of 1 October 2026.

Is Reading safe? Crime recorded around it

Police.uk records 8,182 crimes and reports of anti-social behaviour within a mile of the middle of the postcodes in Reading over the 12 months from September 2025 to August 2026. August 2026 is the latest month it has published. These are counts, not a rate: we hold no count of the people who live, work or pass through, so we do not say whether a place is safe.

Each month, September 2025 to August 2026

By kind, over the 12 months

Also: bicycle theft 192, drugs 185, theft from the person 151, other crime 143, robbery 138, possession of weapons 57.

Police.uk says its locations "always represent the approximate location of a crime". Each crime is moved to the nearest of a fixed list of map points, each over a street centre, a public place or a commercial premises, chosen so that every point covers at least eight addresses or none. A mile is a wide circle: in a town it takes in the centre and its shops, where much crime is recorded.

Source: police.uk, data to August 2026, from its download of 30 September 2026.

Who runs Reading?

Councils

Reading (3,053), Wokingham (729) and West Berkshire (551)

Parliamentary constituencies

Reading Central (1,813), Earley and Woodley (1,347), Reading West and Mid Berkshire (1,172) and 1 other

Police force area

Thames Valley

Region

South East

Country

England

Where the place crosses a boundary, a row lists each side with its number of postcodes. Check a postcode for its own. What council am I in?

Source: ONS Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026.