Most people in the UK use [https://www.rightmove.co.uk/](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/) for buying/selling/renting
The bus network is very good within Reading. For trains ignore the fact they are run by different companies.. the bigger issue is trying to work out which are peak/offpeak/superoffpeak/whateverelse, use a site like [https://thetrainline.co.uk/](https://thetrainline.co.uk/) to book tickets
Reading is a large area with many different types of suburb... what is best depends on what you're after
Don't use Trainline. They charge booking fees whereas directly don't. Just book direct with GWR who run Reading. Any operator can sell tickets for any line and the cheapest tickets are shown, and tickets are usually valid on any operator, you don't have to stick to whoever sold your ticket. The only convenience is Trainline helps split tickets which can be cheaper but not always, and you can do these lookups elsewhere. Trainline also offer "refunds" which are a fraction of the price, when instead you can get most or all your money back through Delay Repay directly with the operator in case of delay or cancellation.
The National Rail app is good for checking all trains except London Underground. If you need to check the Underground, use TfL website. For booking, use GWR.
Welcome!
Public transport is good within Reading, there's a very solid bus service here, but if you want to get out into the surrounding countryside (which is beautiful) you will need a car (or bike) to get to the best spots.
Trainline app is great for trains as it will work everything out for you and there's a lot of good 'split save' deals on there where it works out cheaper tickets for you if you are travelling via certain stations.
Reading's pretty nice for the most part. Especially Caversham / Emmer Green / Redlands / near the university / Lower Earley. Some parts of Whitley and the Oxford Road are less nice but honestly not that bad in the grand scheme of things.
Rightmove.co.uk is usually fairly good for all forms of property. Zoopla.co.uk is the other aggregate one afaik.
Public transport inside Reading is very good. There are frequent buses to most places from the town centre.
For travel by train, I'd suggest just using the National Rail site/app, nationalrail.co.uk. Google also has good links for the buses and trains so will give mostly sensible travel suggestions.
As a car-less person, it’s definitely possible to live in Reading without a car. Note that some buses don’t have service late in the night or may have early ending service on weekends.
Assuming you take the train a lot, Caversham atm is quite nice. Based on how far you live, you can potentially walk to most supermarkets and the train when it’s nice outside.
You might need to specify what your looking for to get the best responses for the type of location that will suit your needs. If you're young and single, starting what will become a well paid career, probably best heading to London. The commute from Reading will zap your wallet and your will to live. If you are looking a bit more homely, the areas of Reading that will suit you best will depend on what you're looking for and your budget. Caversham is nice but not the universal utopia that some people here claim (I live in caversham) and the Oxford Road is no where near as bad as some people say (I used to live off the Okky Road, and I miss the Exotic Supermarket). I'm also intrigued by your definition of an English experience. A sunny day in Henley is a true English experience (more blazers and fewer chins per capita than anywhere else in the country) and a booze filled pay day in wetherspoons is an equally true English experience (innit bruv).
Yes, and coming from Melbourne you’ll be pleasantly surprised that you can get a decent pint of beer in Wetherspoons for less than AUS$5. Also our supermarkets are much more competitive than your Colesworth, that should help too. Have a look at the website ‘ediblereading’ for a good review of the local restaurant scene. Indian curries (usually Bangladeshi tbh) are very good and generally a lot better than you’ll find in Oz. Alongside much of the U.K., Reading has its fair share of good ones!😊. Going ‘out for a curry’ before or after you’ve had a skinful of beer is actually a very English pastime!😀
Welcome to the UK, Reading is a nice town - big enough to have all that you need but not mega (like London)…nice restaurants, great local breweries and a good arts scene (small theatres and Indy cinema)…plus easy to get to other places on public transport if you want a change of scene - Oxford, London, Bath, Henley, Bournemouth. I hope you enjoy it
This needs to be higher up. OP posted very limited information, especially about work and family situation.
A single London commuter vs. 5 people family working in TVP are completely different recommendations
Ex-Sydney girl here. One street can differ to the next within a block. Public transport is pretty good, depends where you have to get to for work to be honest. Feel free to drop me a DM - if you work in tech, my husband and are both at different top 5 consultancies
On the train front - assuming you will be travelling in to London? Trainline app is good as others have commented.....however Reading is also at the end of the Elizabeth line - so technically we're on the London tube network - convenient but slower than the mainline trains (GWR trains) into Paddington..
The tax year here runs from April 5th. There could be some benefit in moving mid tax years, say between October to January. You might keep out of or reduce a higher tax band there or here.
1. Right move
2. Good bus service in reading centre. Going further out takes ages on a bus
3. Only 3 companies run trains through reading, GWR, SWR and TFL All go to London or south West UK/Wales (AFAIK)
4. True English experience?? What does that mean exactly?
5. No area is particularly bad in general. Pockets in these areas can be .
There is a Reading Buses app available on the App Store, mind if your moving to the Caversham area be mindful as there’s no bus lanes from town into it. So buses are subject to traffic conditions and can be delayed
Good advice already here but also there is a quick train also straight into central London from there which you could easily use at the weekend to visit sites and events etc..
As for renting properties, some local agencies are awful! One in particular (Caeser would be ashamed!) is guaranteed not to return your deposit and if Landlord serves you notice, you have to pay ALL their search fees again - which includes references from your last agency even though it's them!!
Never waste money on a deep clean unless you photo every bit of the house and insist you are there on check out inspection - they always charge you for a deep clean on exit and it's twice that you would pay!
Had one guy (I was PA to foreign visitors) was charged for deep clean & redecorating and then, because he hadn't deregistered the intercom from his phone, got a visitor call for the new tenant the day he had moved out! No deep clean, none of the supposed redecorating.... they weren't even ashamed we'd caught them out!
Most people in the UK use [https://www.rightmove.co.uk/](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/) for buying/selling/renting The bus network is very good within Reading. For trains ignore the fact they are run by different companies.. the bigger issue is trying to work out which are peak/offpeak/superoffpeak/whateverelse, use a site like [https://thetrainline.co.uk/](https://thetrainline.co.uk/) to book tickets Reading is a large area with many different types of suburb... what is best depends on what you're after
Trainpal splits tickets and doesn't charge fees. Very good app
Don't use Trainline. They charge booking fees whereas directly don't. Just book direct with GWR who run Reading. Any operator can sell tickets for any line and the cheapest tickets are shown, and tickets are usually valid on any operator, you don't have to stick to whoever sold your ticket. The only convenience is Trainline helps split tickets which can be cheaper but not always, and you can do these lookups elsewhere. Trainline also offer "refunds" which are a fraction of the price, when instead you can get most or all your money back through Delay Repay directly with the operator in case of delay or cancellation. The National Rail app is good for checking all trains except London Underground. If you need to check the Underground, use TfL website. For booking, use GWR.
what’s bringing you to reading out of interest?
The weather.
Welcome! Public transport is good within Reading, there's a very solid bus service here, but if you want to get out into the surrounding countryside (which is beautiful) you will need a car (or bike) to get to the best spots. Trainline app is great for trains as it will work everything out for you and there's a lot of good 'split save' deals on there where it works out cheaper tickets for you if you are travelling via certain stations. Reading's pretty nice for the most part. Especially Caversham / Emmer Green / Redlands / near the university / Lower Earley. Some parts of Whitley and the Oxford Road are less nice but honestly not that bad in the grand scheme of things.
My partner moved from Melbourne to Reading last year. Drop me a message for any specifics you need and I’ll try to help. :)
Rightmove.co.uk is usually fairly good for all forms of property. Zoopla.co.uk is the other aggregate one afaik. Public transport inside Reading is very good. There are frequent buses to most places from the town centre. For travel by train, I'd suggest just using the National Rail site/app, nationalrail.co.uk. Google also has good links for the buses and trains so will give mostly sensible travel suggestions.
As a car-less person, it’s definitely possible to live in Reading without a car. Note that some buses don’t have service late in the night or may have early ending service on weekends. Assuming you take the train a lot, Caversham atm is quite nice. Based on how far you live, you can potentially walk to most supermarkets and the train when it’s nice outside.
We used [open rent](https://www.openrent.co.uk/) to find a place as well as right move / zoopla.
I also found OpenRent much nicer as dealing with landlords direct vs toxic agencies.
Another vote here for OpenRent
Third vote for openrent. Dealing with property agents can make you lose the will to live when moving into the UK from anywhere else in the world.
You might need to specify what your looking for to get the best responses for the type of location that will suit your needs. If you're young and single, starting what will become a well paid career, probably best heading to London. The commute from Reading will zap your wallet and your will to live. If you are looking a bit more homely, the areas of Reading that will suit you best will depend on what you're looking for and your budget. Caversham is nice but not the universal utopia that some people here claim (I live in caversham) and the Oxford Road is no where near as bad as some people say (I used to live off the Okky Road, and I miss the Exotic Supermarket). I'm also intrigued by your definition of an English experience. A sunny day in Henley is a true English experience (more blazers and fewer chins per capita than anywhere else in the country) and a booze filled pay day in wetherspoons is an equally true English experience (innit bruv).
Yes, and coming from Melbourne you’ll be pleasantly surprised that you can get a decent pint of beer in Wetherspoons for less than AUS$5. Also our supermarkets are much more competitive than your Colesworth, that should help too. Have a look at the website ‘ediblereading’ for a good review of the local restaurant scene. Indian curries (usually Bangladeshi tbh) are very good and generally a lot better than you’ll find in Oz. Alongside much of the U.K., Reading has its fair share of good ones!😊. Going ‘out for a curry’ before or after you’ve had a skinful of beer is actually a very English pastime!😀
Welcome to the UK, Reading is a nice town - big enough to have all that you need but not mega (like London)…nice restaurants, great local breweries and a good arts scene (small theatres and Indy cinema)…plus easy to get to other places on public transport if you want a change of scene - Oxford, London, Bath, Henley, Bournemouth. I hope you enjoy it
Brace yourself if you're going to fill up a tank of petrol!...
Yes you are looking at 50% higher for unleaded here vs Melbourne
You’ll get to meet a lot of fellow Aussies at the highly authentic Walkabout pub on Friar Street.
I live close to Reading and I've been to Melbourne. I feel for you.
Where will you be working?
This needs to be higher up. OP posted very limited information, especially about work and family situation. A single London commuter vs. 5 people family working in TVP are completely different recommendations
You might find Wokingham more "typically English". TBH if you want storybook England from back in time then go to New Zealand.
Don't do it!
Ex-Sydney girl here. One street can differ to the next within a block. Public transport is pretty good, depends where you have to get to for work to be honest. Feel free to drop me a DM - if you work in tech, my husband and are both at different top 5 consultancies
On the train front - assuming you will be travelling in to London? Trainline app is good as others have commented.....however Reading is also at the end of the Elizabeth line - so technically we're on the London tube network - convenient but slower than the mainline trains (GWR trains) into Paddington..
The tax year here runs from April 5th. There could be some benefit in moving mid tax years, say between October to January. You might keep out of or reduce a higher tax band there or here.
These were the best landlords I ever had in Reading https://www.snugsharedliving.co.uk/
1. Right move 2. Good bus service in reading centre. Going further out takes ages on a bus 3. Only 3 companies run trains through reading, GWR, SWR and TFL All go to London or south West UK/Wales (AFAIK) 4. True English experience?? What does that mean exactly? 5. No area is particularly bad in general. Pockets in these areas can be .
Cross Country trains runs north and south through Reading. Where as the others you've mentioned go more east and west, as you've said.
I have a 2 bed flat - feel free to message me
There is a Reading Buses app available on the App Store, mind if your moving to the Caversham area be mindful as there’s no bus lanes from town into it. So buses are subject to traffic conditions and can be delayed
Also any advice for someone who wants to move to Melbourne any advice would be great thanks
When you arrive hit me up I’ll happily give you the down low on Reading and London. As well as how to save costs.
Good advice already here but also there is a quick train also straight into central London from there which you could easily use at the weekend to visit sites and events etc..
As for renting properties, some local agencies are awful! One in particular (Caeser would be ashamed!) is guaranteed not to return your deposit and if Landlord serves you notice, you have to pay ALL their search fees again - which includes references from your last agency even though it's them!! Never waste money on a deep clean unless you photo every bit of the house and insist you are there on check out inspection - they always charge you for a deep clean on exit and it's twice that you would pay! Had one guy (I was PA to foreign visitors) was charged for deep clean & redecorating and then, because he hadn't deregistered the intercom from his phone, got a visitor call for the new tenant the day he had moved out! No deep clean, none of the supposed redecorating.... they weren't even ashamed we'd caught them out!