The 29 new growth points named last year by Yvette Cooper, the Housing Minister, could become the property hotspots of the future. Expansion of the chosen towns and cities, which are concentrated in the South and include Swindon, Basingstoke and Maidstone, will provide 100,000 extra homes in the next decade — and they will share £40 million to kickstart price-boosting regeneration work. With more government money to follow, investors are expected to snap up homes before rising prices reflect the new cultural facilities, shops and jobs that will make these the kinds of place in which people want to settle.

Jon Ladd, the chief executive of the British Urban Regeneration Association, says: “This is not huge money but it will help to overcome the stumbling blocks to regeneration. And because it has the support of local partners as well as the Department for the Environment, the Department for Transport and the Environment and Highways agencies, we applaud it as real joined-up government.”

In Reading, for instance, plans are under way for the redevelopment of the Southside quarter, an upgrade of the main station and construction of a new station at a mixed-use scheme at Green Park; the Dee Park estate will also be regenerated. In Torquay, cash is being spent on developing a centre for research and innovation at Torbay Hospital to boost jobs, a ferry service to Brixham, cultural facilities in the Barton area and the refurbishment of the station.

Basingstoke is promising a variety of housing, better transport and the economic revamp of the commercial area Basing View. Didcot, in South Oxfordshire, hopes to make access to opportunities in nearby business parks easier by improving transport links. A country park is to be established and the town centre graced with cafés, sports and recreational facilities. Town centre plans are well advanced in Taunton, with regeneration focusing on the River Tone and including a new cultural quarter. The carbon-neutral Firepool residential site, on the former market near the station, is the star of the scheme.

Gosport, part of the larger South Hampshire growth point, has witnessed Portsmouth’s redevelopment success just across the harbour and hopes that it can replicate it. The Rowner housing estate is to have a £100 million revamp, with help from English Partnerships, and Berkeley Homes (responsible for Portsmouth’s fêted Gunwharf Quays scheme) is redeveloping a naval site, Royal Clarence Yard. The town hopes to shake off poor transport links and attract aerospace and marine jobs.

Other areas not among the official growth points may also benefit from the rush to regenerate. A recent Knight Frank report, Surging South, tips Eastbourne as a property hotspot in the making. The number of commuters to London from the East Sussex town rose by 82 per cent in a decade and population growth has been boosted by the expansion of the marina and retail areas, and the improvement of road links. Land in Newhaven and Hastings is also being redeveloped.

Gloucester is setting the pace for change among inland cities. The docks redevelopment has already contributed to an increase in property prices, but the Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Company also has plans to develop 100 acres of brownfield land, convert 82 historic buildings, add 300,000 sq ft of retail space and build a new mainline railway station. Ursula Sadler, western region director of Hamptons, says that the Gloucester-Stroud-Dursley triangle is now thought of as an underpriced area of the Cotswolds with superior transport.

St Austell in Cornwall is spending £50 million on the five-acre revamp of its town centre, which will include residential development. It hopes to attract creative industries — an ambition shared by Redruth, which is tipped to benefit from large-scale regeneration, including the redevelopment of the South Crofty tin mine.

Crawley, a slightly jaded new town in West Sussex, has an ambitious masterplan for a town centre once described as somewhere between an “apology for Red Square and a moonscape with angles”. Nearby Horsham, suggested by Knight Frank as a hotspot, also has an urban redevelopment under way, which should help the two to compete with Reigate, a designated growth point.

Smaller towns are now a smart choice for those chasing price increases but buyers should beware and avoid mere overspill areas in favour of towns with real plans for change. As Knight Frank says in its Surging South report: “Greater disparities are likely to emerge between the towns with good transport links and the most isolated towns with less diverse economies.”

More details of the 29 new growth points are available at www.communities.gov.uk/housing

PRICE LIST

Average property prices in new growth points in the South: Gosport, £161,700; Plymouth, £162,300; Swindon, £167,300; Portsmouth, £170,400; Southampton, £172,300; Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, £192,100; Exeter, £198,200; Bristol, £204,300; Taunton, £208,900; Reading, £218,200; Eastleigh, £222,600; Fareham, £226,200; Maidstone, £228,400; Basingstoke, £250,700; Truro, £256,000; Poole, £271,100; Oxford, £298,100; Reigate and Banstead, £313,700; Didcot, £349,800.

How rival towns compare: Gloucester, £161,100; Eastbourne, £183,900; Redruth, £202,600; Crawley, £207,400; St Austell, £213,900; Horsham, £299,100.

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