Instant Access Properties

At the start of this year, the Independent published a list of places where it believed those wanting to buy investment property could find the best deals. With so much talk of the credit crunch and a market correction, it was seeking to answer a question many would have been asking.

The list gave some very different reasons for certain areas being good prospects, for example the unique situation of Liverpool as the 2008 European Capital of Culture. But it also suggested that a couple of locations in which transport infrastructure improvements were in the offing would benefit as a result, these being north Kent, which was getting faster rail connections to London, as well as the east of the capital, which on top of the Olympics itself is getting new infrastructure such as the extended East London line (this service is being transferred from London Underground to the new London Overground network).

When the Independent mentioned as well, it did so on the basis that second homes in areas like Monmouthshire would be popular as less expensive alternatives to the neighbouring Cotswolds. What it did not suggest was that investors would be gaining from public transport developments there.

Yet this is what has happened, the Western Mail has reported this week. The town of Newbridge in Ebbw Vale has seen a significant growth in its rental sector already in the two months since the rail service to Cardiff , 18 miles away, was restored.

Charlotte Burles, a local chartered surveyor, told the paper: "It has had an effect for the rentals market, in Newbridge in particular. Properties in and around Newbridge don't seem to be sticking as they were a year ago, when some properties were hard to find tenants for."

"Prices are rising, up to prices of similar properties around the Blackwood area, which was more favourable a year ago."

Ms Burles noted that the same was true of nearby Risca, which had also been reconnected, while predicting the village of Llanhilleth will follow suit when its station is reopened soon.

With the development of an area with a reputation for falling on hard time since the mines closed potentially being transformed into that of a popular commuter belt for those working in the Welsh capital, it could be that Ebbw Vale is a prime example of how even areas without an existing property hotspot status can offer buy-to-let investors good opportunities.

Of course, areas such as London and its hinterland will still offer plenty of opportunities as billions of pounds are poured into its economy, with the Times suggesting last month that as well as the East London Line, extension of the Docklands Light Railway and the forthcoming arrival of Crossrail will boost the areas served. But as the experience of south seems to show, it won't just be in one corner of the country where the enhancement of transport links can create new investment opportunities.