Property still as safe as houses
Property has proven to be the best financial investment of the decade, despite the recent slowdown in house prices, according to figures from Nationwide Building Society.
Since 2000, the price of the average UK home has risen by 111%, with many areas seeing considerably higher increases and The North generally faring better than The South.
The area with the largest house price growth in the whole of the UK was Sheffield, where the typical price of a home has risen from £52,486 in January 2000 to £118,447 according to the latest statistics.
Experts have been unable to explain precisely why the area has been the number one property hotspot of the decade.
However, this comes as no surprise to Heywoods in North Staffordshire - another former industrial heartland with a similar mix of housing stock and a region that has also seen an extraordinary increase in prices over the last ten years.
But what is more significant to every homeowner is that, while share prices have tumbled and returns on savings have been at an unprecedented low, property has remained a sound investment by defying expert predictions and coming through the economic downturn relatively unscathed.