Is Slough a good place to buy right now ?

Silvertabby

horsewithnoname said:

read the poem by John Betjemam called “Slough”. He nailed it. 

Beat me to it !

ReadingTim

I was in your shoes woohooteehee in 2006: I'd been working in Slough for 2 years (so knew the place) and was looking to buy - my budget was for a 2 bed Victorian place within walking distance of the station and I'd seen a few.  Perspectives changed and I ended up looking in Reading instead, and had a very happy 16 years there - I don't regret my decision one bit, and don't think I would have as good an experience in Slough over the same time period - might I suggest you give Reading a look?  As I did, you'll find you get a lot more for your money, and it's a place within it's own right, rather than some of the satellite and dormitory towns around Slough...

RHemmings

A RightMove survey found Slough to be the most miserable place to live in the whole UK. 

https://news.sky.com/story/money-latest-live-13040934?postid=8730496#liveblog-body?dcmp=whatsapp

Reading didn't make the top lists of happiest or most miserable places. 

It seems to me that there are a lot of places where the house prices are determined by how close they are to London, rather than how good they are as a place to live. 

Murphybear

RHemmings said:

A RightMove survey found Slough to be the most miserable place to live in the whole UK. 

https://news.sky.com/story/money-latest-live-13040934?postid=8730496#liveblog-body?dcmp=whatsapp

Reading didn't make the top lists of happiest or most miserable places. 

It seems to me that there are a lot of places where the house prices are determined by how close they are to London, rather than how good they are as a place to live. 

This brought back memories.  My first husband and I met at work in South West London.  When we got married we struggled to find somewhere affordable that wasn’t a complete dump.  Our solicitor suggested we move to Reading 

RHemmings

Murphybear said:

RHemmings said:

A RightMove survey found Slough to be the most miserable place to live in the whole UK. 

https://news.sky.com/story/money-latest-live-13040934?postid=8730496#liveblog-body?dcmp=whatsapp

Reading didn't make the top lists of happiest or most miserable places. 

It seems to me that there are a lot of places where the house prices are determined by how close they are to London, rather than how good they are as a place to live. 

This brought back memories.  My first husband and I met at work in South West London.  When we got married we struggled to find somewhere affordable that wasn’t a complete dump.  Our solicitor suggested we move to Reading 

While I've lived in the UK for 35 years now, I wasn't born here originally. And, my knowledge of the UK has never caught up. Both Reading and Slough are places that I haven't even really visited. Hence, this thread piqued my curiosity. My previous impression of Reading from what I have heard made me think it was a fancier and more expensive place than it appears to be. And, I was surprised that the houses in Slough are more expensive. Hence my comment about proximity to London. 

Looking at house prices in Slough, they are higher than I expected. And rents have gone up by an eye-watering 16.8% in the year to December 2024. Average house-price £334k. Average rent £1483 pcm. 

https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/housingpriceslocal/E06000039/

However, looking at averages, Reading is very slightly more expensive according to the averages. With houses being an average of £337k and rents being an average of £1512. Rents rose by 11.7% over the last year. That's different from the impression I got when looking on Rightmove, and I'm wondering if there are more very expensive houses in Reading pulling the average up. I wonder how the medians compare. But, I'll go with the actual figures until I have hard evidence of how to interpret them. First-time buyer prices are almost identical at £303k (Slough) and £302k (Reading). And, I would guess that those are probably like-for-like-ish properties. 

Looking at the crime rates, there are 32.6 crimes per 1000 people in Slough, compared to 29.7 in Reading. Both compare to 35.1 for England and Wales. 

https://www.plumplot.co.uk/Slough-violent-crime-statistics.html

Slough has 36.9% of crimes being violent crimes. For Reading, 36.1%. Both compared to 34.1% for England and Wales. 

I'm concerned about wandering into 'general discussion about house prices and the economy'. I was looking into this as an exercise based on the OP's question about buying in Slough.

Looking at the above, if I was to live in London again and needed to commute, then I would still consider Slough. But, I would definitely spend some time living there first. Before visiting either place, the statistics suggest to me that Reading is better than Slough, but there's not a huge difference and Slough is closer to London. But, this is in no way advice for the OP as actually visiting the places may completely override impressions from statistics. 

I like running through other people's situations as a thought exercise. I thought I'd have a look on YouTube, and with a very leading search on YouTube, I found the following. 

MattMattMattUK

Albermarle said:

Avoid Slough!
Maidenhead, Eton Wick, Datchet, Stoke Poges, or a bit further out Bracknell. 

The trouble is that some of the alternative places mentioned, are not really alternatives. Much smaller and more posh. Burnham Beeches ( mentioned by another poster) is 4/5 bed detached houses in a nice country like setting.

Maidenhead is a more realistic alternative. Nicer than Slough, although the Town centre is surprisingly drab and lifeless.
Bracknell is also a possible alternative. However away from the newish shopping mall, Bracknell is a sixties new town and it shows. Lots of concrete underpasses, terrible traffic in the rush hours and a dire shortage of decent pubs.

There is a reason that I did not suggest Burnham Beeches, Beaconsfield, GX, Bray, Eton or Windsor, even the cheapest places there are going to be out of budget.  Bracknell seems ok, at least from a few people I know who live there, as does Wokingham although that is a bit further again. I am not sure the shortage of pubs will be an issue as the OP lives in Slough as there are no decent pubs in Slough. 

Considering the wider area Slough it an oddity, somewhere that has not just resisted gentrification but got significantly worse over the last twenty years, other smaller towns have held up pretty well, but in also relatively nearby High Wycombe and Aylesbury have also declined somewhat, although not as badly as Slough. Parts of Wycombe have gentrified, other parts have got much worse and Aylesbury seems to have a similar resistance to being cleaned up as Slough has. 

Albermarle

. And, I was surprised that the houses in Slough are more expensive. Hence my comment about proximity to London. 
The other more important factor is that there are a lot of offices/factories in Slough, so historically unemployment was never a factor, and people moved to Slough from the 1930's onwards for work.
The Slough trading estate was the biggest in Europe, and maybe still is. 
Later Slough also became an immigrant destination, due to the availability of jobs. 

martindow

Where the OP needs to go to work is pertinent here.  If commuting to London, some of the alternatives such as Wokingham and Bracknell have much longer journey times and trains that stop lots of times on the way.  Slough has Crossrail, but also faster trains to Paddington.  Reading has lots of fast trains (25 minutes to Paddington) but it is much further out so fares will be around double travelling from Slough.

Albermarle

My previous impression of Reading from what I have heard made me think it was a fancier and more expensive place than it appears to be.

Reading to some extent has the feel of being more like a small Northern city, despite its location.
It also had a reputation for being a bit dull and down at heel, and was sometimes jokingly referred to as ' The Leicester of the South' as Leicester was famously the butt of Terry Wogan jokes about it being boring. 

Although with the posh shopping centre and new office blocks, it now looks more prosperous, which more befits its location in the Thames Valley corridor. However certainly not 'fancy' .

Elliott.T123

woohooteehee said:

Thank you for your replies everyone! 

I actually live in slough with my parents and I struggle to defend it against those who don't, so i get the slough hate lol. I have a love hate relationship with it

I am able to buy a house in slough (doesn't have to be central) and thought it would be a good idea to live in it for a bit and then when i'm ready to move out of slough, i can rent it out and then finally sell when the area has developed. I have heard that Slough has a good rental market and that there are development plans so i was thinking it might be worth having a property here if it's going to develop + its close to london, heathrow etc - i just don't know if its smart or dumb haha. 

Im sorry to hear.

Only joking, but in all seriousness I would say if you already live in Slough you are probably better placed than anyone else here to answer your own questions.

No one can predict where is going to increase in price the most (unless they have access to sensitive information such as government projects or new infrastructure). But realistically Slough doesn't appear to be undergoing any major transformation anytime soon.