Will London's property explosion reach Leicester?

The bigger the earthquake, the further away people feel its effect. 

The same could be said about London’s property explosion. By 2016, forecasters reckon this epic boom will see the average house price in Central London reach £2 million. That’s more than ten times the current price of the typical house in Leicestershire!

Here at Andrew Granger & Co, we speak to lots of homeowners and first time buyers in Leicester, and often hear the obvious question is: “Could it happen here?”

At the moment, Leicester seems to be just beyond the reach of the furthest ripples of the London property boom. There is surging demand in commuter towns to the south such as Market Harborough, Kettering and Wellingborough, but in Leicester we are expecting an unremarkable rise in house prices of around five per cent this year.

There are people who are quite happy to commute to London from Leicester but they are the exception, and certainly far too few in number to have a significant effect on house prices here. Fast-forward a few years, though, and things could change dramatically.

Firstly, if London prices carry on escalating year after year, commuters will be driven further afield as the ripple effect makes the commuter belt less affordable.

Secondly, Network Rail has announced the Midland Mainline will be operating high-speed electric trains by the end of 2019 with a journey time from Leicester to London of under an hour.

Suddenly, commuting from Leicester to London would take no longer than it does now from Kettering, almost 30 miles to the south.

Together, spiralling prices around London and faster trains to the capital would easily bring Leicester into the earthquake zone.