"The future, for property investors, could be less than academic: despite the housing slowdown, Cambridge is bucking the national trend."

That's according to Residential Property Investor, the leading magazine for landlords in the UK. The publication goes on to say how "recent research from the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) paints a robust picture of the city. For a start, there is the enormous academic population. The University of Cambridge, a global top-five research university, has over 18,000 undergraduates and postgraduates who account for 16% of households in the city, compared with a regional average of just 3%."

 "...The student demand is underpinned by the Cambridge phenomenon of the growth of science parks and research centres… Cambridge also boasts over 1,500 hi-tech firms which include high-profile companies such as Microsoft and many pharmaceutical companies of the ilk of Pfizer, which has just announced expansion plans. Then there is the busy training hospital of Addenbrooke’s, which is also growing, largely via a new ‘Medipark’, and like the university, is a major local employer.” 

The suggestions are backed up by think-tank Centre for Cities, which published a recent report citing Cambridge as one of the country’s best-placed cities to bounce back from the recession in general. Dermot Finch, chief executive of Centre for Cities, told the BBC that Cambridge, alongside Edinburgh, Brighton, Reading and Milton Keynes, had “all the right ingredients to succeed”, adding: “They have strong private sectors, high levels of entrepreneurship, highly educated workforces and large shares of knowledge-intensive jobs."

You can read the article from Residential Property Investor, to which Chard Robinson Property Investment contributed content, in full by downloading it here.