Over the coming years, London’s Crossrail project will handle the flow of millions of commuters going in and out of the city. The project, which will cost around £15bn and due to begin full operation in 2019, provides an eighty-five mile, east-to-west route across Greater London starting outside the city in Reading and finishing in Shenfield and Abbey Wood.

Whatever gets you out of bed on a Monday morning, the project should make your commute to-and-from work easier. Crossrail, themselves, proposed that the rail line could help create a £5.5bn boost to property values in residential and commercial real estate along the route by 2021. While property analysts can’t agree on the extent house prices will raise - projections vary from around 25 per cent to as high as 60 per cent - it’s unanimously agreed that those fortunate enough to already own properties along the route can expect to see a significant rise.

Critics have blasted the project as one of the major reasons there is such a disparity between the average price of a UK home outside the capital - around £270k - to the price expected for one within city limits - around £510k. It’s estimated that London now makes up 35 per cent of Britain’s property wealth and that figure is expected to reach 40 per cent by 2017. In comparison to when the project was first announced in 2008, property prices along the central London Crossrail stations have risen by more than 30 per cent and are expected to continue to rise by 2020.

Growth is not limited to the capital, however. Talks about extending the line outside the capital to Reading have been on the table since 2009, but since it was formerly announced in 2014 the price for a flat in the area have risen by around 10 per cent. The ability to more easily commute to the capital is predicted to make Reading one of the UK’s most desirable locations over the next few years. Prices of larger properties, in particular, have risen by around 60 per cent for a semi-detached house and 40 per cent for a detached home.

London has now become the world’s most expensive city, overtaking Hong Kong, and as resources continue to flood into the capital, property buyers and renters alike may be pushed outside the city limits. Those who are now out priced of locations around the original Crossrail are looking at the locations surrounding the next proposal. If Crossrail 2, which would not be completed until at least 2030, was to be approved a route north-to-south through Greater London would also be established. Property investors are already taking risks on nearby locations. There is an increased demand for local realtors like Featherstone Leigh, as areas that would follow the route, such as Twickenham, Kingston-upon-Thames, and Clapham Junction are expected to rise between 30 to 40 percent over the next several years.