Reading house prices

Reading house prices are built from 184,725 sales lodged with HM Land Registry, the oldest in 1995 and the most recent on 24 Jun 2026. The median price paid across the whole record is £220,000. Across the 10 years from 2016 to 2026 the median moved +19.7% in cash — but once inflation is taken out, the change in 2026 money is -14.3%.

HM Land Registry184,725 sales18,118 with floor areaLatest sale 24 Jun 2026

The chart tracks the median Reading house price for every year with a recorded sale, from 1995 to 2026. The dashed line restates each year in 2026 money, so the two lines separate exactly as much as inflation has eroded the cash figure.

The highest yearly median on record for Reading is £417,000 in 2023; the lowest is £70,000 in 1995. Across the full 32-year record the cash median has moved from £70,000 to £395,000.

In 2026 money that first median is worth £155,433, so the real change over the whole record is +154.1% — about +3.05% a year after inflation. Cash growth and real growth are not the same story, and the gap is the part most price reports leave out.

Over the last decade alone the difference is stark: +19.7% in cash against -14.3% once inflation is removed. A buyer who sold at the end of that decade would have needed the real figure, not the headline one, to know whether they had actually gained.

Every row is a completed sale as lodged with HM Land Registry. The right-hand column restates the price in 2026 money, which is the only fair way to compare a sale from the 1990s with one from last year.

These addresses appear in the register more than once, so the same bricks are being priced twice. That makes them the strongest evidence of what actually happened to Reading values — no mix of property types can flatter the number.

The mix of property types explains a large part of any area's median. Reading is dominated by the type at the top of this table, so its overall median leans that way.

Energy Performance Certificates record a floor area for every home that has been surveyed, sold or let — far more homes than have changed hands. 42,546 certificates cover Reading, and their median floor area is 76 m².

The median across the whole register is 76 m², so homes here are about the same size than average — 0.0%. Size explains a large part of why one area's median price sits above another's, which is why the price per square metre further up this page is the fairer comparison.

38,626 of the sales on record are leasehold and 146,099 freehold — 20.9% of the market. Tenure is not a detail: a leasehold flat and a freehold house are different assets, and mixing them into one median hides the difference.

The median leasehold sale is £163,000 and the median freehold sale £246,000 — a gap of +50.9%. Most of that gap is property type rather than tenure itself: leasehold here is largely flats, freehold largely houses.

New builds sold for more than the median existing home — +15.2%. A new-build premium is normal: the buyer gets a warranty and nothing to fix, and the price is set by a developer rather than negotiated between two households.

A further 9,006 transfers for this area are on the register but are left out of every figure above. HM Land Registry marks them as additional price paid entries: repossessions, buy-to-let portfolio moves, transfers between companies or family, and sales at a discount such as right to buy. They are real records but they are not open-market prices, and including them would drag the median somewhere no buyer ever paid.

Every certificate carries an energy efficiency band as well as a floor area. Across Reading, 48.1% of 91,244 certificates sit in bands A to C, and 3.4% in F or G — the bands that cost the most to heat and are hardest to mortgage.

The Office for National Statistics puts the mean private rent in Reading at £1,573 a month as of Jun 2026 — £1,115 for a one-bedroom home and £1,669 for three bedrooms.

Against the median sale of £220,000 here, that rent is a gross yield of 8.58% a year. It is a measured figure rather than an assumption: a real local rent over a real local price, before any cost of ownership.

Police forces publish every recorded street-level crime. Within a mile of the centre of RG1, 853 crimes were recorded in Jun 2026: 264 violent, 17 burglary, 36 vehicle-related and 94 anti-social behaviour. The median postcode district in this archive recorded 167 in the same month, so this one is 5.1 times busier.

Against the 174,224 residents the 2021 census counted in Reading, that is 4.90 recorded crimes per thousand people in the month. The count covers a mile around the district centre while the population covers the whole council, so read the rate as an order of magnitude rather than a precise figure.

A count is not a rate. A district with shops and a station records more crime than a residential one of the same size, because more people pass through it. Read this next to the median, not on its own.

The 2021 census counted 174,224 residents in Reading across 67,683 households. 51.7% of those households own their home and 48.1% rent — a split the sold record cannot show, because only owners appear in it.

16 state and independent schools have a RG1 postcode: 11 primary, 5 secondary. Catchment areas do not follow postcodes, so treat this as what is nearby rather than what a child would be offered.

The median across the whole archive is £157,500. Reading sits above that national figure — +39.7%.

Where an EPC floor area could be matched to the sale, the median works out at £2,682 per square metre, across 18,118 of the 184,725 sales on record. Price per square metre is the only figure that compares a two-bed flat with a four-bed house honestly.

The full range on record runs from £400 to £18,000,000. Extremes usually mean something unusual — a plot sold without a house on it, a transfer between family members, or a very large property — so the median is the number to trust.

Reading sits in Reading, in the South East.

The Office for National Statistics puts the median home in Reading at 7.1 times median local earnings of £49,062 a year, measured to Sep 2025. Across England and Wales the same ratio is 7.6. That number, not the price alone, is what decides whether a place is within reach of the people who work in it.

Streets in Reading

• Bath Road1,262 sales
• Kings Road1,033 sales
• Basingstoke Road987 sales
• Oxford Road951 sales
• London Road814 sales
• Reading Road772 sales
• Southcote Road696 sales
• High Street587 sales
• Wokingham Road578 sales
• Queens Road542 sales
• Gosbrook Road538 sales
• Peppard Road499 sales
• Thirlmere Avenue495 sales
• Hemdean Road467 sales
• The Street465 sales
• Broad Hinton449 sales
• Fleetham Gardens436 sales
• Maiden Place434 sales
• Rodway Road408 sales
• Tilehurst Road408 sales
• Victoria Road407 sales
• Drake Way405 sales
• Elgar Road404 sales
• Elm Park386 sales
• Meadow Way379 sales
• Belmont Road378 sales
• Connaught Road378 sales
• Liverpool Road364 sales
• Kidmore Road361 sales
• Church Road358 sales
• Whitley Wood Road358 sales
• Chilcombe Way351 sales
• Shinfield Road346 sales
• Rowe Court345 sales
• East Park Farm Drive340 sales
• Norton Road329 sales
• Beecham Road328 sales
• Castle Hill323 sales
• Grovelands Road320 sales
• Napier Road318 sales
• Henley Road315 sales
• Norcot Road311 sales
• Southcote Lane305 sales
• Northumberland Avenue303 sales
• Wykeham Road300 sales
• Hilmanton299 sales
• Westcote Road296 sales
• Station Road295 sales
• Fullbrook Avenue294 sales
• South Street294 sales
• Cranbury Road292 sales
• Overdown Road291 sales
• Waverley Road291 sales
• Elm Park Road290 sales
• Amity Road287 sales
• Alpine Street284 sales
• Kendrick Road282 sales
• Valon Road281 sales
• Sherwood Street280 sales
• Blenheim Road279 sales

Postcode districts covering Reading

• RG1£173,500 median
• RG30£170,500 median
• RG4£255,000 median
• RG6£210,000 median
• RG2£228,000 median
• RG7£290,000 median
• RG31£214,000 median
• RG5£230,000 median
• RG10£299,950 median
• RG8£345,000 median

What is the average house price in Reading?

The median price paid in Reading across every sale on the register is £220,000. The median is used rather than the mean because a handful of very large sales would otherwise drag the average away from what a typical buyer paid.

How many homes have sold in Reading?

184,725 sales are on record for Reading, the most recent completing on 24 Jun 2026. Every one is a completed transfer lodged with HM Land Registry, not an asking price or an estimate.

Have Reading house prices actually risen?

In cash, the median rose +19.7% between 2016 and 2026. In 2026 money — that is, after inflation — the change is -14.3%. Both numbers are true; only the second one tells you whether buying here preserved value.

When were Reading house prices at their highest?

The highest yearly median on record is £417,000, set in 2023. That is the cash figure; measured in 2026 money the peak may fall in a different year, because inflation reshapes the series.

What is the price per square metre in Reading?

£2,682 per square metre, from the 18,118 sales where an EPC floor area could be matched to the address. Price per square metre strips out size, so a flat and a house can be compared on the same basis.

How current is this data?

The latest sale shown here completed on 24 Jun 2026. HM Land Registry publishes Price Paid Data monthly and a sale can take a month or two to appear after completion, so the most recent weeks are always incomplete.

Cite this page: Sold Price History, “Reading house prices”, 2026. Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data © Crown copyright and database right, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Inflation adjustment: ONS CPIH.