Anyone know about Bracknell?

chelseablue

Looking to buy a house soon and are considering moving out of our preferred area to somewhere where you can get a lot more house for the money.


We really like Ascot but it is very expensive, if you go just past Ascot your into Bracknell which is a lot better priced.


Anyone have experience of the Ascot side of Bracknell?

Munteoir

Hi Chelseablue,

We have just bought a house in Bracknell and are very happy with the decision.

I'm only familiar with 2 areas so far, but both are on what you would call the Ascot Side of Bracknell.

Forest Park is definitely a more affluent part of Bracknell, very quiet, with new-ish (90s/80s) houses and a beautiful (well, to me anyway) forest backdrop. The houses there, however, are quite expensive in comparison to other areas of Bracknell and tend to be on the smallish size.

Bullbrook (also on the 'Ascot side of town') is equally quiet and 'suburban' and though the houses, on average, are older (1950s) they are also on the more spacious side and are definitely cheaper than those in Forest Park.

Both are within walking distance of Martin's Heron Station, and most locations in Bullbrook are also within a 20-30 minutes' walk to Bracknell town centre and Bracknell Station.

The town centre is, at the moment, basically a building site but, as all agents will tell you (again and again and again), Bracknell is currently undergoing a major transformation/regeneration (supposed to finish by 2017) and should look much better soon.

If you have any specific questions, do ask

ReadingTim

Bracknell's a new town, so often feels like a series of interconnected housing developments of varying ages from 1950's to 2000's linked by ring roads, bypasses and roundabounts. Fine if you like that sort of suburban living, but there's little character around the town itself, although the surrounding areas are very nice (prices less so!). Like with anywhere, there are good and less good areas.

The town centre, such as it is, is currently a massive building site - the previous pedestrianised 1950's effort basically died on its @rse so the council knocked it down and are trying again. Various big name shops etc have pledged to open up in the new town centre when it opens, but whether they do remains to be seen - I can't imagine it was purely the buildings which kept them away in the past - rather that the town was designed with the car in mind, so everybody now gets in their car and drives off to out of town retain sheds, better shopping facilities (Reading for example) or simply prettier surroundings (Windsor, Guildford etc)

nubbins

chelseablue wrote: »

Looking to buy a house soon and are considering moving out of our preferred area to somewhere where you can get a lot more house for the money.

We really like Ascot but it is very expensive, if you go just past Ascot your into Bracknell which is a lot better priced.

Anyone have experience of the Ascot side of Bracknell?

If I had to live near Bracknell it would probably be near Martins Heron or Warfield although Warfield will have a 1000 or so new houses very soon which are currently being built.

As Munteoir says the town is currently going through major rennovation at the moment and could be a good place to buy althoughit looks like people have already cottoned on.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/house-prices/11574580/House-prices-in-suburbia-take-off.html

ReadingTim

nubbins wrote: »

and could be a good place to buy although it looks like people have already cottoned on.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/house-prices/11574580/House-prices-in-suburbia-take-off.html

I suspect most of the Thames Valley, Kent and Essex locations are due to Crossrail

Landofwood

Bracknell is a dump. It's a good place to work, horrible place to live.

New build estates popping up every month. It will be a ghetto within a few years.

Definitely avoid.

firebird082

Bracknell is cheaper for a reason! We looked at buying there (Forest Park side, which is a bit nicer), but ended up over near Reading in a lovely little village. The train line to London is *very* slow. Binfield isn't too bad, but it depends what sort of thing you are looking for. There's a lot of new estates going up in this area - round Wokingham and Crowthorne in particular.

Edited to add: I did live in Bracknell for a year (Easthamsptead) and the nice (or less nice, depending on your attitude) thing about it is that you get a total mix of types of people, which is not something I've ever come across in quite the same way anywhere else. I'd be less keen on that if I had a young family...

Landofwood

firebird082 wrote: »

Bracknell is cheaper for a reason! We looked at buying there (Forest Park side, which is a bit nicer), but ended up over near Reading in a lovely little village. The train line to London is *very* slow. Binfield isn't too bad, but it depends what sort of thing you are looking for. There's a lot of new estates going up in this area - round Wokingham and Crowthorne in particular.

Edited to add: I did live in Bracknell for a year (Easthamsptead) and the nice (or less nice, depending on your attitude) thing about it is that you get a total mix of types of people, which is not something I've ever come across in quite the same way anywhere else. I'd be less keen on that if I had a young family...

What village did you go for firebird?

Lunchbox

Landofwood wrote: »

Bracknell is a dump. It's a good place to work, horrible place to live.

New build estates popping up every month. It will be a ghetto within a few years.

Definitely avoid.

It may be a 'good' place to work, but not a nice one!

It's been a ghetto for the last 30 years, which is as long as I remember it.

Alarae

I work in Bracknell and at first I didn't realise why everyone called it a dump. It looks pleasant enough on the outside- then I travelled outside of work on my lunch break and went to the town centre. THEN I realised why people thought it was a dump.

It's hard to explain, but it just lacked any nice atmosphere and the individuals roaming around the place didn't look lovely. I know it is going through regeneration at the moment but they are not exactly buying new people to live in the area to replace the not so lovely characters. It feels run down and as if people are genuinely given up on the place (hence the need for regeneration).

It's one of those places you drive through to get somewhere else. You don't stop.

I'm glad I don't live there, and live nearby in Woodley which is considered a lovely area for families.

Plus they found 3 dead people and a lot of cocaine in a nearby Tesco in the past week. Good news for Bracknell!

makeyourdaddyproud

Awful place, a veritable concrete ghetto of cheaply built homes from the last 40 years. All with tiny floorplans and miniscule gardens backing onto a network of slumlike walkways and underpasses which are a haven for yoof underdealings and attacks on women.

White vans blight connecting roads between areas ; think 40 y/o window fitting dads with teenage sons each with two clapped out german cars sitting on those horrid BnQ brickette driveways, uggggh...

Going to Jeannette's Park? Oooohhh what a trendy name - all much the same except 33% less space, overhyped townhouses with a master bedroom not quite big enough for that coveted king size pine bed. Looks like the area desperately wants to aspire to the consumerist IT "consultant" and the fake tan beautician spouse.

Imagine all of them departing en masse onto the A329m to the oh-so lovely Twin Bridges roundabout? Nooooo, but knock yaself oot.