WHAT do Bury, Bacup and Wythenshawe have in common? There may be no obvious connection but according to those who make their living out of buying property these towns will be this year's housing hot spots.

The professionals will be sharing their knowledge and advice at the Property Investor Show at Manchester's G-Mex in June. But MEN Homes has got some advanced inside info on where and what to buy if you want your bricks and mortar investment to pay dividends.

As a property locator with Old Trafford-based Specialist Property Group, John Russell spends each day looking at houses and it is his job to know which areas are on the up.He does not hesitate on where's going to take off: "The Rossendale Valley. Drive to the end of the M66, pick any town round there and you will not go wrong. Rawtenstall, Haslingden, Crawshawbooth, all have a lot going for them. I have just bought a house in Stacksteads: a nice three-bed terrace off the main street with fantastic views and a position that cannot be bettered for £85,000. That's the sort of place you want to be.

"A big new Asda is going up in Rawtenstall and although prices there are already pretty expensive, development like that consolidates value. If they get a commuter service into Manchester on the train line it will help things even more.

"But the place that will see the real increase in value is Bacup. It is a bit of a pit at the moment with a lot of tired housing stock and a large council estate. But some of the buildings are very grand and if you buy right, a solid terrace with big rooms, then I think it will see big rises in value.

"There has already been a conversion of a bank into eight apartments so some developers are already spotting the potential.

"It is a case of supply and demand. The big demand is for sub £100k houses and it is in towns like this that you find them."

Bury is the tip of Barbara Goldsmith who runs Stratford Properties.

Sleeping giant

She said: "Bury is a sleeping giant but it is already being shaken awake. Before Christmas I was looking at two-bed terraces near the town centre for £55,000 but they are now more like £65,000 - that's in just two months.

"But even so I think there is a lot more room in the market. I fully anticipate these properties to triple in value in the next five to seven years."

So why Bury? Barbara said: "It already has the basic infrastructure in place: good public transport with the Metrolink, close to the motorway network, good schools and a good town centre and it is close to bigger centres like Bolton and Manchester.

"What I like about these places is that the local people often have a negative social attitude towards them and only an outsider who looks at it quite clinically can see the potential.

"The council is the most improved in the country, they have just won money to improve the parks, they are creating a cultural quarter with a new museum and have spent a lot on improving shabby private housing stock.

"But you have to pick your streets and the individual property very carefully. That is the skill! It is not a random process."

Other areas she sees with a negative image include many to the east of Manchester like Ashton and Denton. She said: "Chorlton was regarded as the pits when I was growing up there but now look at it. You need to get in before perceptions change."

Image makeover

Her other tip for the top could also do with an image makeover. Wythenshawe was the overspill council estate for Manchester, suffered years of neglect and bad press and even now the main shopping centre is bleak.

But, according to Barbara, invest here and you will not lose.

She said: "It is a gold mine, the jewel in the investing crown! It is just off the motorway, is going to get a couple of Metrolink stops and the airport and the hospital provide a huge tenant base.

"The shopping centre is disgusting but that will change and there will come a time when people will not even remember it was a council estate.

"Local authority stock was usually well-built and at the moment you can get a three-bed semi for around £100,000. If you see one on the market, buy it!"

So much for hot spots but where is the market colder?

"I would be wary of places like Gorton, Longsight and Moston which I think have got a bit too far to go yet to be a safe bet," says Barbara.So now you know where, you simply show up and buy the cheapest thing on the market, right? Wrong.

The professionals follow strict criteria when they are buying and the rules apply just as much if you are looking for a house for yourself as if you are buying for a rental investment. Frank O'Rourke, from Specialist Property Group, said: "Just because it is cheap does not mean it is right and we have stopped looking at stuff much under £40,000.

"And gut feeling should not come into it. There is much more to it that that."

Like what? "We never buy next door to a shop or other commercial property, or overlooking unsightly areas of land. If the second or third bedrooms are below a certain size we walk away and don't buy anything with double yellow lines outside or close to a busy junction.

"We're looking for houses that can be sold on quickly if the investor wants to liquidate their money."

O'Rourke added: "Finding the right property to buy in the first place is the hardest bit.

"We invest around £500,000 a year just on people searching and of the thousands we look at we bid on around 30 per cent and perhaps 18 per cent of those bids will be successful. So it's not an easy process!"