Spotlight on Central Salford

WHERE: The old heart of Salford, stretching from the M602 across the A6 up to Lower Broughton.

WHY: Investment. Millions are being spent on the area through massive public regeneration schemes and private cash. Since property guru Tom Bloxham announced his company Urban Splash could reclaim the rows of dilapidated two-up, two-downs of Langworthy and turn them into desirable `upside down' homes, the housing tide seems to have turned. Southern investors want to buy up whole blocks but they will be lucky. Little seems for sale and prices have risen dramatically. A two-bed terrace next door to a boarded-up house with trees growing from the roof has a price tag of £27,950 and at the top of Lower Broughton Road a large detached four-bedroom is £250,000. In Higher Broughton, Countryside Properties is involved in a scheme to build 3,200 new homes, from one-bed flats to five-bed houses.

WHO: In the past, the people who lived in Salford were born there and couldn't get out or rented cheap property from out-of-town landlords. The transformation of Salford Quays with its swish houses and flats brought new buyers into Salford but the boom failed to spread. The escalation of house prices over the last two years has seen first-timers priced out of neighbouring areas like Eccles and Pendlebury and they are now making their first step on the property ladder with the Victorian semis here, which has stabilised the market. And with all the talk of public and private cash, investors are back.

TRANSPORT: Minutes from the M602 and good main roads into Manchester,with frequent bus services. The Metrolink stops in Langworthy en-route from Manchester to Eccles.

AGENT'S VIEW: Matthew Gregory, of Gemini Estates, said: "The well-publicised regeneration has brought a lot of attention from investors from out of the area which is not always welcome. It was absentee landlords who bought rafts of houses in the 80s then let them rot who created the problems of dereliction here in the first place. We do not want to see that happen again. Buyers should care about the good of the area and the community, not just profit, but I don't know how we can control that. Prices have increased across the area because of lack of supply. Owners who have suffered the bad times are holding on until the regeneration takes hold so they get a better price. And after years of negative equity you cannot blame them. But nobody really wins because the places they want to go to will have increased in value too."

RESIDENT'S VIEW: Hayley Richardson said: "I bought my first terrace house in Langworthy for £30,000 eight years ago and four years later it was worth £17,000; it was awful. We owed more than the house was worth and were stuck. But in the last year or so things have turned round again and I sold it last November for £44,000. I bought a semi a short distance away for £70,000 but that was cheap because it had been rented out and the woman wanted a quick sale. Prices seem to have gone mad and I probably would have been better selling mine earlier for less so I could have bought my next one cheaper. But it is near the Urban Splash scheme so I am hoping it will be a good investment. They wanted to shut the Langworthy Road primary school because there weren't enough kids but if all these houses are done in three years' time it will be full."