- First time buyers' guide
- Recession proof your home
- Check house prices in your area

As most of you will be well aware, Google have recently launched its new Street View map feature in the UK, sending their cars round the country with cameras strapped to the roof, and making street level imagery available in 25 UK cities, covering just under 10% of the 233k miles of road in the country. Crucially it covers a far greater proportion of UK population and therefore property.

Being able to access these images will have a huge impact on the ability to research property online. There has already been a massive increase in the amount of information that people can now access online to give them an advantage in the property market, from Land Registry sold house price records or local information on schools and crime rates. Our House Prices partner Zoopla.co.uk, are the UK leaders in this field, even going as far as to offer free instant home value estimates for any property in the country. They have also added Street View to its map section alongside standard street mapping and aerial photos. The combination of house price data and a sense of the look and feel of a particular area now make researching homes even easier.

A few examples of the benefits of Street View in context of property search:

- House-hunting is a time-consuming process and can be pretty stressful. Many people fall in love with a particular area or property within a few seconds so by getting a feel for the area first you can prevent the need to go on viewings that you’ll instantly know aren't going to be right.
- You may have a young family and want to see if the street looks safe for children
- If you're researching current home values in Oxford and wonder why a particular area is more valuable than another, Street View allows you to see if there are any visual reasons why that area is more desirable.
- If you're moving to a new area and are keen to research the local amenities you can browse the local high street to see how many shops, restaurants and services are there.

Why not see for yourself how Street View works? Search for your street using the tool below and on the results page click Map View. If Street View is available in your area you can select ‘Street View’ above the map. Streets must be lined with blue to have the Street Level images and a simple click will take you to the Street View feature.