Millionaire city bankers and high-flying executives are snubbing the rolling hills of Surrey in favour of a new rich kids’ playground dubbed the ‘Reading Riviera’.
City playboys are following in the footsteps of Hollywood A-listers and music legends by snapping up stunning mansions in villages dotting the River Thames, in Berkshire.
The county has always had a reputation for attracting the rich and powerful. But the new £18.9billion Elizabeth Line – which stretches into Reading – has opening a new ‘gravy train’ of wealth into the county, allowing commuters to reach it in an hour.
Now interest in picturesque villages like Sonning – home to George Clooney and his lawyer wife Amal – has seen prices soar. In the past year properties have ballooned 44 per cent in value, according to RightMove, with the average home now fetching £1.21million.
One palatial nine bedroom mansion, close to Mr Clooney’s £12million country pile, is on sale for £7.5million. The luxurious manor features its own tennis court, swimming pool, cinema and is on the bank of the Thames.
While property experts have tipped the quaint village of Wargrave, four miles away, as the next up-and-coming hotspot the rich and powerful will flock to snap up stunning multi-million pound homes on the bank of the River Thames.
Nigel Bishop, founder and managing director of Recoco Property Search, specialises in selling the homes of some of Britain’s most wealthy people.
He claimed finance tsars from Canary Wharf and the City were eagerly eyeing up the quaint rural community of Wargrave – home to about 4,000 people – as they sought to carve their own slice of rural paradise.
He told MailOnline: ‘Wargrave is near the Thames and a lovely area. It’s had a distinct impact on the property prices there. You get the London banking fraternity thinking they can live in rural London.
‘What it has done is opened up an area that will inevitably increase. But it’s going to add 10 to 20 per cent on property values there.
‘You talk about the finance world and the bankers in east London, some of them earn millions. They have got a different attitude to the money. They don’t think anything of spending big. It’s a money train.’
Among those to have called the village their home include legendary magician Paul Daniels, who died in 2016, aged 77, and his widow Debbi McGee.
According to RightMove, homes sold in Wargrave had an overall average price of £951,699 during the last year.
The majority of sales in the village over the last 12 months, however, were detached properties, selling for an average price of £1,194,462.
Mr Bishop added traditional hot spots like Winchester, in Hampshire, and the rolling hills of Surrey were starting to see property prices dip as popularity around places like Henley-on-Thames and the villages around Reading increased.
‘In the last 18 months people were becoming somewhat ambitious in the marketing of their prices. Those places where there has always been a strong market are starting to change now,’ he added.
‘If you go down the Surrey Hills and Winchester line, that’s always been a hotspot where the affluent houses are.
‘We’re seeing a lot of things where prices are being reduced or because the market has moved a bit. We’re going 10 per cent down there.’
Tim Feaviour, director of Ballards estate agents in Twyford, about six miles east of Reading, agreed that the Elizabeth Line was ‘undoubtedly’ attracting city bankers.
‘For those going to Canary Wharf it is just so much easier and so much quicker,’ he said.
‘We’re seeing loads of clients coming out from south-east London and west London too because they want to be more rural. Heathrow is nearby too for international jetsetters. It’s perfect.’
As well as the rural beauty on offer, Mr Feaviour added the area was littered with impressive state and private schools.
Among them is the distinguished Lambrook School – which counts Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte among its pupils.
Set in 52 acres of idyllic Berkshire countryside, the prestigious institution can charge up to £7,489 a term for pupils. It’s just a short drive from Wargrave.
It boasts of ‘first-class teaching and superb facilities’ which include a 25-metre swimming pool, a nine-hole golf course, an astroturf, hard courts, a squash court, cricket and other sports pitches.
Mr Feaviour added the River Thames was also a huge selling point, with wealthy homeowners relishing in using it to ‘row in at weekends’.
‘The Thames is just the best thing in the world,’ he added. ‘There are great tennis clubs. But it’s the beautiful countryside and excellent schools that really do it.
‘This area was a little off the radar previously because people used to say it was too much of a faff to get from here to Canary Wharf or in the city. But that’s changing now.’
A few miles south of Wargrave is the picture-postcard village of Sonning – which is the home of Hollywood star George Clooney and his lawyer wife.
The quaint village is situated right on the edge of the River Thames and is known for its picturesque scenery and tight-knit community.
The Monuments Men star and his wife Amal moved into their £12million country pile back in 2016.
But they aren’t the only famous faces to call the area home – guitarist Jimmy Page who founded the rock band Led Zeppelin also lives there and former Prime Minister Theresa May is a well-known face in the community, too.
Trefor Fisher has lived in the village for more than 40 years and is chairman of Sonning Parish Council.
He said Sonning’s reputation as a ‘premium’ village had undoubtedly benefited from the new Elizabeth Line, which arrives only a few miles away at Twyford.
‘Anything with Sonning in its name seems to go at a premium. It’s a popular spot, certainly,’ he told MailOnline. ‘If they build something here it will sell for more than other parts of borough.’
He added he wasn’t surprised by the claims more of the rich and powerful were seeking to choose the ‘Reading Riviera’ as their home instead of the more traditional villages the rolling hills of Surrey.
‘I always assumed the stockbroker belt of Surrey was popular. But we certainly get quite a few people that work in London living here.
‘Sonning’s handy because it’s got the M4, the high-speed line from Reading and now the Elizabeth Line.’
About half an hour away is the picturesque rural village of Sunningdale where Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker and singer Cliff Richard have all called home.
And nearby Henley-on-Thames remains a destination for the wealthy, with Great British Bake Off legend Mary Berry among the town’s residents.
Property expert Moreas Madani, founder of Tyburn, said price reduction of homes being sold by the super rich were at ‘record levels’ – which is driving millionaires to flog their homes ‘off market’.
