When the Prince and Princess of Wales announced they were moving their family to the Royal County of Berkshire this summer, estate agents reported a ‘flurry’ of enquiries about properties around Windsor and the village of Bucklebury, 50 minutes west on the M4.
The Middleton family had already been increasing their interests in and around Bucklebury, where they have lived since Kate was young. James Middleton and his French wife, Alizée, own a farmhouse there, and Pippa Middleton’s husband, James Matthews, has acquired Bucklebury Farm Park. Pippa and her husband also bought a £15 million mansion nearby this year.
And where royals and their relatives lead, it seems others follow. In 2019, 12,610 Londoners moved to Berkshire, according to the Office for National Statistics – the highest rate for nine years. According to estate agent Savills, buyers from London have remained at a ‘very steady’ 30 per cent of purchasers in Berkshire.
‘The typical buyer moves from south-west London and spends £1-2 million on a family home. Eastbury and East Garston are popular villages’
Yet the home county famed for its affluent pockets has not been one of the major beneficiaries of the pandemic-induced race for space. In fact house prices have gone up a modest 12.4 per cent in the past three years to date – less than in Kent, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire – with the average Berkshire sale now at £534,630, according to Hamptons using Land Registry data.
So with mortgage rates increasing and recession looming, is royal stardust enough to keep buyers heading for Berkshire? ‘Dollar-based purchasers are circling, whilst euro-buyers are battening down the hatches,’ says buying agent Jess Simpson, referring to the exchange rate ‘discount’ of around 20 per cent that Americans and others are taking advantage of in the UK. Yet she draws a clear distinction between the ‘glitzier’ markets around Ascot and Sunningdale and the traditional villages around Hungerford and Lambourn further west that are more likely to attract the racing fraternity and the red trouser brigade than footballers after gated mini-mansions.
Simpson says that the chocolate-box villages of Yattendon and Hampstead Norreys, close to the chalkland of the North Wessex Downs AONB, are usually top of the list for buyers commuting into London via Didcot Parkway or Newbury stations. The average train journey from Newbury to Paddington is 51 minutes and then the 11-minute trip via the Elizabeth line to Liverpool Street is a ‘game-changer’.
This is keeping the area popular with London families, says Liz McLean of Savills Newbury. ‘The typical buyer moves from south-west London and spends £1-2 million on a family home. Eastbury and East Garston are popular villages in the Lambourn Valley, close to the M4.’
In nearby South Fawley, a handsome ten-bedroom Jacobean manor house – said to have inspired a visiting Thomas Hardy to write Jude the Obscure – is for sale at £4.75 million through Strutt & Parker. A four-bedroom thatched cottage in the pretty village of Westbrook south of the M4 is on the market for a more modest £1 million, through Savills.
Towards Bucklebury, Cheam School – on the Hampshire/Berkshire borders – and Elstree School are popular independents that help draw families, and Bradfield is a sought-after village, says McLean.
Closer to London, things change again in the Thames Valley. Areas around the employment hub of Reading are the ‘hottest sellers’ markets’ of late, according to PropCast, the analyst that looks at the proportion of for-sale properties that are under offer in each UK postcode. During September, RG5 (Woodley), RG30 and RG31 (both including Tilehurst) all had more than 70 per of such homes under offer. The average sale price in Tilehurst – three miles from Reading centre – in the past 12 months was £370,786, according to Rightmove.
This area has both the Thames and the Kennet and Avon Canal for strolls or pedals along the waterside, with pretty villages around Cookham, Sonning and Bray in demand, and proximity to Heathrow (although plane noise is not as much of an issue as it is in Windsor). The ‘commuter conversation’ with buyers that had disappeared during the pandemic restarted in May/June this year, says Laura Collins of Hamptons Maidenhead. ‘People want village living within about 20 minutes of Maidenhead or Twyford stations, with access to country walks, but a bit of life on their doorstep.’
Popular villages are Waltham St Lawrence, White Waltham and Shurlock Row. In White Waltham, a five-bedroom house with a swimming pool is on the market for £1.35 million with Hamptons. Collins says that Holyport, south of Maidenhead – from which the fastest trains into London take only 18 minutes – has also become popular, with Holyport College benefitting from a partnership with Eton College. There’s a mix of housing options, with four-bedroom homes costing from around £700,000 to £800,000.
Prices are higher in Cookham, where the high street is full of independent shops and good eateries – expect to pay £900,000 to £1 million for a four/five-bedroom house. At rather more than this, a seven-bedroom detached house on seven acres is for sale at £7 million through Fine & Country – maybe the ideal country estate for a dollar-wielding buyer with a child at school in the South East who’s seeking a trophy asset in Royal Berkshire.
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