Over the past 12 months good transport has been one of the key determining factors in the fortunes of any location as we outline here in our survey of how the UK’s different regions fared in 2007 and the prospects for the year ahead.
Another strong influence on the performance of any location was the number of new-build flats; a glut of city-centre apartments cast a blight on such cities as Nottingham and Leeds. The British remained unswerving in their conviction that a family home is a house not a flat — a view unlikely to be changed in 2008.
As this year dawned, it was forecast that prices would start to slow almost immediately. But the average UK price did not weaken until September, just one of the surprises of 2007 when house buyers learnt that America’s sub-prime scandal would be our problem too and when the largest rises were in central London, Northern Ireland and the Sloaney playgrounds of the South West. However, it’s not all doom and gloom in 2008.