Reading

Known as the UK's

Silicon Valley

Despite only having town status, Reading is comfortably the size of most cities in the UK with the amenities, transport links and well-paid jobs to match.

Reading was historically a modest centre for light manufacturing but has taken on a more prominent role in the UK economy in the last couple of decades. It has transformed into a centre for IT, telecommunications and digital businesses. With a huge number of technology start-ups arising each year, Reading is known as the Silicon Valley of the UK and boasts many multinational corporations. With a strong employment market and very well-paid jobs, Readings rental growth has been very impressive, providing investor landlords with an attractive option when choosing their next buy to let property.

Commute to the Capital Easily

Reading is certainly not the cheapest property market in the UK with an average purchase price of £360,000. Although there are many more affordable places to invest in the UK, Reading offers something many northern cities do not: an easy commute to London. This alone will ensure property prices will continually grow, especially as large companies continue to relocate there. In the last 25 years, property prices in Reading have increased by an astonishing five times. A trend set only to continue.

With a lucrative economy and some of the largest companies in the world located there, Reading attracts the best talent in not only the UK but across Europe. Because of the high calibre of workers in the area, Reading is positioned nicely for achieving strong rents and low void periods. Because of this, rental yields are still reasonably attractive and typically lie in the region between 4% and 5%, not dissimilar to cities like Manchester and Birmingham.

As Reading continues its push for city status, its status as an investment hotspot is firmly established and increasing year on year. With the arrival of the new cross rail line, we expect house prices to increase further as the commute to London is shortened further.

UK's 3rd Largest

Digital Tech City

It is because of Readings fantastic location, excellent transport links and more affordable office space that it is seen as such a good destination for businesses. The UK 2019 Digital Technology Census placed Reading as the UK’s third-largest digital technology city, with only London and Manchester being larger. In fact, Reading has seven times the technology company density compared to the national average. The large town boasts approximately 12,000 tech companies, covering AI and data, e-commerce, cyber, digital, gaming, medtech and fintech. In 2019, Reading’s tech economy turned over £14 billion.

Across the town and in its many business parks, many major global companies can be found In Reading. These include, amongst others, HP, Microsoft, Oracle, Sanofi, Huawei, 3M and PwC. Other significant employers include Royal Berkshire Hospital and the University of Reading, which ranks in the top 100 universities in the world.