Words such as slowdown' and credit crunch' are becoming synonymous with the housing market. But there is at least one area of the property market where house prices remain as buoyant as ever and demand even outstrips supply - luxury homes.

Those who are lucky enough to own a house that comes in at a couple of million pounds or more have not been suffering the effects of the slow down seen elsewhere in the market.

Michael Riley, head of residential sales for the New Forest and prime coastal locations for Savills, said: "Properties above the £2m mark have been resilient to the credit crunch thus far."

He said that while there is beginning to be an increase in supply of houses between £2m and £2.5m, above this bracket there are still more people looking to buy than there are houses available.

"I've got several purchasers looking to spend between £3m and £8m in the New Forest and there aren't enough properties available," he said.

He added that there is a growing trend among sellers at the top of the market to let agents know that they would be interested in selling their house if the right buyer came along rather than officially putting their house on the market.

As well as buyers working their way up the property ladder, Mr Riley said that a lot of purchasers at the top of the market are looking to make a sideways move, such as trading the size of their home for location such as waterfront.

Matthew Hallett, of Dreweatt Neate in Winchester, agrees that the top of the property market is still doing well, thanks to high demand.

"An acute shortage of supply means the top end of the market remains good," he said.

"There is good demand for quality period country houses and this is likely to remain."

Phil Spencer, chief executive of Garrington Home Finders and co-star of property hunt programme Location, Location, Location, said that there are a number of factors which help protect a home against recession.

He said: "It must have complete peace away from road or air noise yet be accessible to a market town or motorway.

"It must be private, so ideally come with land, and it must have protected views and some water, such as a lake or stream."

It may sound like a tall order but a skim through any property website of £2m-plus properties shows that there are a number to choose from in Hampshire.

Take Moundsmere Manor near Basingstoke. Set in almost 85 acres of land, including paddocks, parkland and woodland, this Grade II listed 15-bedroom, nine-bathroom home with five reception rooms and its own swimming pool and tennis court, can be yours - if you have £14m to spare.

Or if your pockets aren't quite that deep, maybe £13m, 11-bedroom Marsh Court in Stockbrodge could be for you.

Those with a significantly smaller budget can still snap up a Grade II listed property such as an 11-bedroom manor house in Boldre, which comes with a separate two-bedroom cottage.

House prices at the top end of the spectrum are remaining buoyant despite a general downturn in the market.

Earlier this week the Nationwide Building Society reported the first annual decline in property prices in more than ten years.

It was the first year-on-year fall in house prices since March 1996.

However, Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, the residential sales arm of the National Federation of Property Professionals, said: "This needs to be put into context. We have been experiencing huge price leaps of double percentage points in the housing market in recent years, so overall a one per cent drop is a tiny proportion of the rise and certainly not enough to throw many people into negative equity the way we saw it in the early 90s.

"The picture is mixed across the country, so people need to look to their local markets to get a true picture."