Press Release: 00058

7 November 2007

The fleet's in at Plymouth

Source: http://www.ukpropertyshop.co.uk

October has been a fairly quiet month for property enquiries, what with the current turmoil in the financial markets, as well as local difficulties with Northern Rock, helping to damp down the extraordinary pace of house price inflation that has taken place over the last couple of years. Even so, the latest report from the Communities department for September still puts house prices up 10.8% on a year ago, based on completed mortgages.

Added to this we have also seen the impact of Home Information Packs on the property market, initially for four bedroom houses and now for three bedroom houses, which are reported to have had a significant detrimental effect on the number of properties coming onto the market. The National Association of Estate Agents has been in the forefront of the campaign to highlight the difficulties caused by this latest attempt by the government to impose more regulations on the estate agency business and in a recent survey discovered that almost half of the estate agents questioned said there had been a reduction of more than 30% in the number of houses being offered for sale.

The maritime city of Plymouth has shot up the league table this month to be the nation's most favoured location for those looking for a property to buy, either for their own occupation or to let as an investment. The city is not only home to one of the largest Naval bases in Europe, but is also a major shipyard providing significant local employment. In addition, Plymouth University, with around thirty thousand students, is the fourth largest in the United Kingdom. Located on the border of Devon and Cornwall, surrounded by some of the best scenery in the land, it is no surprise that Plymouth is seen as an attractive place to live or invest in property to rent.

Moving Location Index (Towns) - October 2007

Rank	Town	County	Points
1	Plymouth	Devon	155
2	Aberdeen	Aberdeenshire	126
3	Jersey	Channel Islands	112
4	Sheffield	Yorkshire	102
5	Lincoln	Lincolnshire	102
6	Eastbourne	Sussex	99
7	Canterbury	Kent	94
8	Dumfries	Dumfries & Galloway	91
9	Worcester	Worcestershire	87
10	Belfast	County Antrim	84
11	Durham	Durham	82
12	Inverness	Highland	80
13	Skegness	Lincolnshire	78
14	Shrewsbury	Shropshire	75
15	Scarborough	Yorkshire	75
16	Newquay	Cornwall	73
17	Bath	Somerset	69
18	Stafford	Staffordshire	66
19	Lancaster	Lancashire	63
20	Blackpool	Lancashire	61
21	St Austell	Cornwall	55
22	Stirling	Stirling	55
23	Leamington Spa	Warwickshire	55
24	Weymouth	Dorset	54
25	Chichester	Sussex	52
26	Evesham	Worcestershire	52
27	Newcastle-under-Lyme	Staffordshire	52
28	Kingston upon Thames	Greater London	51
29	Hastings	Sussex	51
30	Trowbridge	Wiltshire	51
31	Leyland	Lancashire	51
32	Chester	Cheshire	50
33	Looe	Cornwall	50
34	Keswick	Cumbria	50
35	Burnham-on-Sea	Somerset	50
36	Ely	Cambridgeshire	50
37	Stranraer	Dumfries & Galloway	50
38	Newcastle upon Tyne	Tyne & Wear	47
39	Elgin	Moray	46
40	Tavistock	Devon	42
41	Ormskirk	Lancashire	41
42	Loughton	Essex	41
43	Buxton	Derbyshire	41
44	West Bromwich	West Midlands	41
45	Guernsey	Channel Islands	41
46	Bournemouth	Dorset	40
47	Gravesend	Kent	40
48	Falmouth	Cornwall	40
49	Lutterworth	Leicestershire	40
50	Felixstowe	Suffolk	40

Note for Editors about the Moving Location Index and UK Property Shop

The UK Property Shop Moving Location Index is based on data from a sample of people looking to buy a property and using the website to register their property search requirements with estate agents in each town. From this data a score is calculated according to the number who are considering either moving within the town where they live, or away from their home town and into another town. The Moving Location Index is not a measure of quality, simply an indication of the relative proportion of home buyers wishing to move into or out of a town, which is influenced by many factors.

The UK Property Shop website www.ukpropertyshop.co.uk was launched in 1999 and is a popular source of information for people looking to buy, sell, rent or let residential property in the UK. It also publishes the National Directory of Estate Agents, the most complete and up to date register of all UK estate agents and letting agents.