Ipswich is the county town of Suffolk. It enjoys excellent communication links with London less than 1 hour away. The major trunk road network links the town with all of the Eastern Counties, London, cities in the Midlands and beyond. The county is primarily rural with the town itself surrounded by beautiful villages and the heritage coastline, both of which have immense charm and character.     Over recent months a new breed of professional is fleeing London and the South East escaping the rat race and heading to East Anglia. They can work a couple of days from home and if they need to get into their office, catch the train to London within an hour from Ipswich. The quality of life is fantastic; Ipswich has good schools and low house prices, all of which makes it an ideal investment destination.   New housing developments within the town centre have proved to be extremely successful. The town centre is being radically redeveloped with new shopping facilities together with a complete overhaul of the docks and marina. The Wet Dock in Ipswich continues to be a focus for imaginative and innovative developments. Neptune Quay was the first waterfront site within the marina complex to be developed into apartments.The standard of the housing stock is superb. There is wealth of quality period property in prime town centre locations together with good new developments on well-designed estates.   Cynics may talk of `sleepy Suffolk' and dismiss Ipswich as being uninteresting. These comments are born out of ignorance. It has recently been designated as one of the UK's property hotspots with its people hard working, loyal, faithful and very enterprising. It is not the Suffolk way to boast but Ipswich is a great place to live and work.   ©2003 Andrew Nickson