The coal town that's becoming a gold mine

The coal town that's becoming a gold mine

Lying at the foothills of the Brecon Beacons, the former coal-mining and steel-making town of Ebbw Vale might not immediately conjure up images of untold wealth and smug property magnates. But it seems local residents could be sitting on a gold mine. Halifax figures show that last year the town experienced some of the strongest house price rises in the country - up 23 per cent from 2005, bringing the average property price to £117,695.

The latest house price report from the Land Registry backs the Halifax's findings, showing that in February Blaenau Gwent - which includes Ebbw Vale - witnessed the highest annual price change in the country. Prices rose 14.1 per cent, compared with an average annual rise of 8.5 per cent.

But the Welsh town is not the only unconventional property hotspot. Last year property in Bradford increased almost 12 per cent, the highest increase of any metropolitan district in the country, according to the Land Registry.

Rightmove.co.uk's latest figures, meanwhile, show it was the Surrey market town of Guildford that saw the biggest rise in the year to March. The average house price there is now just over £400,000 - a 40 per cent rise from last year, when the average property price was just under £287,000, according to the website.

But what of the hotspots for the year ahead? Forget Kensington and Chelsea: Colchester, Ramsgate, Luton and Slough are the best places to watch your investment grow, says.....continued below

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Findaproperty.com.

And rightmove.co.uk broadly concurs: last month, Stevenage and Slough witnessed higher price rises than any other area in the country, it says.

'Places like Luton, Slough and the Medway towns of Rochester and Chatham in the south east have good infrastructure and are earmarked for substantial regeneration, while being close to London and still relatively undervalued for the area,' says Mike O'Flynn of findaproperty.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006