Trading up: from Reading to Herts, three of the best commuter towns and villages to swap a London flat for a bigger family house

Do you dream of trading in your well-located but small London flat for a thatched cottage in a pretty village? Or perhaps you hanker after a solid period villa in a leafy suburb with price growth potential? Or a spacious family house with a big garden in a thriving market town? A new Hamptons International study finds all this and more for £500,000-£600,000 in the home counties, less than 60 minutes from London.

POSH SUBURBAN READING

A typical four-bedroom house costs just under £507,000 in leafy Earley, one of Reading’s poshest suburbs. There are half-hour Paddington trains and with Crossrail it will be possible next year to make a seven-minute hop to Reading to pick up fast services to the West End and City. An annual season ticket costs from £4,464.

Crossrail-related investment in Reading’s post-war town centre has brought better shops and restaurants. Two-and-a-half miles away, Earley offers good-quality homes from Victorian terraces to Thirties semis, good schools and parkland, plus handy access to the M4 and a couple of parades of shops. A three-bedroom bay-fronted semi in Earley would be about £500k, with a three-bedroom Victorian terrace about £350,000. A detached four-bedroom Seventies house would cost up to £600,000.

SCENIC GEM: LONG CRENDON

Countryside fans should head to the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire borders where Haddenham & Thame Parkway station serves a clutch of good villages led by pretty Long Crendon. The village square is lined with cafés, a butcher, a post office and a general store. There are several pubs plus the AA-recommended Angel Restaurant. For more facilities the market town of Thame and larger village of Haddenham are close and Oxford itself is only 15 miles away. Long Crendon boasts a semi-rural feel without being completely in the wilds and you are well connected.

The average train time to London is 50 minutes and an annual season ticket costs £4,092. The village school gets an “outstanding” Ofsted rating, while seniors are in the catchment area of Aylesbury’s grammar schools or the “outstanding” Lord Williams’s School in Thame.

Locals run a library in the village and there are regular football and cricket matches on the recreation ground, plus several kids clubs.

Property ranges from chocolate-box thatched cottages to Victorian semis, and the average price for homes served by Haddenham & Thame Parkway station is just over £588,196. That would buy you a three-bedroom cottage or a four-bedroom post-war house.

ANCIENT AND URBAN WARE

If you seek a slightly more urban feel, try Ware in Hertfordshire, an ancient town on the River Lea, with average 45-minute trains to London and an annual season ticket priced £3,720. This is a proper working town with good schools and quality houses.

Most of Ware’s primary schools have a “good” Ofsted report, though a couple “require improvement”. For seniors, Presdales School and The Chauncy School both get top marks from the education watchdog.

Ware is great for sporty types, with a swimming pool, lido, golf course, football and rugby clubs and a leisure centre. The high street has a good mix of independent and chain stores and pretty pubs — but it is an A road, slightly marring the provincial charm.

The average house price in Ware is £557,498, which would buy a four-bedroom Thirties semi or a three-bedroom Victorian semi. A two-bedroom Victorian cottage — some of which have lofts crying out for conversion into a third bedroom — would cost £350,000 to £375,000.