Leicestershire is located in the heart of England, in the East Midlands. By the latest estimate (2015), Leicestershire has a population of just over one million. Its largest population centre is the city of Leicester, followed by other large towns including Loughborough, Lutterworth, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Hinckley and Market Harborough.
Leicestershire was a county traditionally known for its textile and engineering industries, both of which are still an important part of the economy today. Steeped in history, Leicester was known as an important Roman settlement, and there are many castles across the county that are popular tourist attractions.
With one city and a handful of major towns, Leicestershire is mainly rural and semi-rural in character. The variety of destinations means that first-time buyers, families or those looking for a retirement home all have a great range of development locations to choose their new home from.
Transport links
Leicester has excellent road, rail and air links, making it easy to reach from all parts of the country. It is around two hours from London by road, with the M1 passing through the county. The M69 and the M6 also provide easy access from Wales, Birmingham and the south west.
Train links to and from Leicester are also very good. Leicester is on the East Midlands train line to London St Pancras, and that journey can be done in just 1hr 2mins. The train line also runs to Sheffield (54mins) and Nottingham (26mins), and Birmingham takes just 51mins on the CrossCountry route to Stansted Airport. Market Harborough, Loughborough, Hinkley and Melton Mowbray all have railway stations. National Express serves Leicester, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Coalville, Kegworth, Market Harborough, Loughborough and East Midlands Airport.
There’s also a direct Skylink bus taking passengers from Leicester to East Midlands Airport, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
New build homes market
A Housing & Economic Developments Needs Assessment (HEDNA) for Leicestershire published in January 2017 show a county-wide need for nearly 4,000 new homes per annum to meet the needs of the growing population from now to 2036. Schemes such as the Lubbesthorpe development, which will total 4,250 homes are already included in these numbers, incorporating all property types from apartments to starter and executive homes.
Gladman Developments Ltd wants to create a new ‘garden village’ comprising homes – up to 3,000, including affordable homes - shops, schools and offices on the site of the Six Hills Golf Club, a rural site between Loughborough and Melton.
Buy-to-let
Leicestershire is home to three universities – Leicester University, DeMontfort University and Loughborough University, which is currently ranked tenth in the 2018 University League Tables. With record numbers of students now being accepted into university, this is sure to attract buy-to-let investors to the areas.
Hometrack shows that the city of Leicester is performing very well in the UK property market, with a high growth rate of property prices (as of April 2017), healthy capital growth which is likely to influence property investors otherwise discouraged by changes to stamp duty and mortgage relief on annual buy-to-let returns.