Buying a home has rarely felt like a straightforward decision, and the present market is no exception.

We often talk about the average price of a home in Shepperton, but that single figure can hide more than it reveals.

There is an interesting statistic in the Shepperton property market that, on the face of it, doesn't seem to make much sense. The average Shepperton home currently takes 64 days to sell, compared with a national average of 75 days.

Every few weeks, another headline appears warning that house prices are about to crash. The reason changes each time. One month it is mortgage rates. The next it is inflation. More recently, geopolitical tensions and uncertainty in the Middle East have been blamed for higher borrowing costs and weaker buyer confidence