Welcome to Nottingham

Currently the UK’s ninth largest city, Nottingham has a thriving jobs market as well as affordable property prices - making it a popular choice for property investors. Buy-to-let specialist Private Finance analysed buy-to-let yields available across major towns and cities in the UK and found that Nottingham is the joint top performing property investment location.

Nottingham was also recently voted the most affordable UK city to live in. UK job site City Calling based the analysis for their City Stretch Index on salary and cost of living (taking into account transport, average mortgage cost, council tax and utilities).

All of this, teamed with a fantastic quality of life, where there is something for everyone, makes Nottingham a great place to live, work and do business.

Nottingham's 2019 population is now estimated at 781,151 and is one of the youngest in the UK (28% aged 18 and 29, compared to 16% nationally) and offers a high-quality workforce of over 1.1 million people within its recruitment catchment area ensuring that businesses won’t be short of talent (27% educated to degree level versus 27% nationally).

One of the youngest UK cities with over 63,000 students

With two universities in the heart of the city offering world-class education to over 63,000 students, the ability to attract a diverse and flexible workforce is guaranteed. Nottingham Trent University was ranked the #1 University in 2017 by Times Higher Education.

The University of Nottingham has a broad and international pull with 30% of students come from the Greater South East – this includes London, East and South East. Interestingly, the second largest share of students, 23%, was of those from outside the UK.

Nottingham is the fastest growing city economy in the East Midlands region and is growing faster than Birmingham, Liverpool and Sheffield, and is also a major tourist destination, with the sixth highest tourism spending in all of England.

Fastest growing economy in the East Midlands, outperforming Birmingham, Liverpool and Sheffield

Economic growth has been made a priority in Nottingham in recent times - helped with a £172 million investment deal for six years from the government’s Local Growth Fund. This has resulted in a Nottingham Skills Hub for vocational training, improved public transport and the building of a new Bioscience innovation centre for start-ups focusing on the Life Sciences sector.

The Broadmarsh area and intu shopping centre have also benefited from £240 million of regeneration and refurbishment.

Nottingham is embarking on an intense period of economic regeneration

Nottingham is embarking on an intense period of economic regeneration, with a £250 million redevelopment of the so-called ‘Southern Gateway’ into the city centre underway; encompassing a remodelled shopping complex and new ‘City Hub’ college campus. These will revolutionise the entry into the city from the railway station, an iconic piece of Edwardian Baroque Revival.

This only adds to the £1 billion which has already been invested in Nottingham’s infrastructure, with a growing network of light rail trams which enable rapid access for commuters and congestion-free movement, and an award-winning bus network which is one of the greenest in the UK.

The city is also set to benefit as the HS2 network is constructed, with the East Midlands Hub base planned for Toton, on the outskirts of the city, further reducing journey times to London and bringing the rest of the country closer. Toton Innovation Campus will create around 10,000 new job.

Over 60% of the jobs in Nottingham are in knowledge intensive industries, well above the UK average. Over 86,000 people employed across banking, legal and accounting and a fast growing fintech sector.

60% of jobs are in knowledge intensive industries, well above the UK average

Nottingham has everything you need to enable your business to thrive: financial solutions to support your business needs, access to a vast and strong talent pool, competitively low operational costs and a variety of premises to cater for businesses of all sizes from SMEs through to multinationals.

Over 50 national and regional companies have chosen Nottingham as their headquarters. Today, we’re home to major brands like Boots, E.ON, Experian, Call Credit, Center Parcs, Speedo, Wilkos, Capital One and Paul Smith.

Over 50 national and regional company headquarters including major brand like Boots and E.ON

These businesses, along with the new generation of creative enterprises place Nottingham as a major centre for business growth.

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, England, 128 miles (206 km) north of London, 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Birmingham and 56 miles (90 km) southeast of Manchester, in the East Midlands.

Nottingham is a city in central England’s Midlands region. It has the ability to access almost 90% of the UK within four hours thanks to excellent motorway and rail connections ensures that businesses can operate at a national level from Nottingham.

Access 90% of the UK within 4 hours and over 70 trains a day direct into London in 1hr 40 mins

The significant investment into the local transport infrastructure over the past few years, including expanding it's award-winning tram network and investing in one of the UK’s best public transport networks, means that your staff can access their place of work with ease.

East Midlands Airport offers daily flights to European business hubs as well as connections to over 150 worldwide destinations. East Midlands Airport is also the UK’s busiest pure cargo airport and hub for DHL and UPS.

East Midlands Airport offers access to over 150 worldwide destinations

Nottingham provides excellent connectivity to both national and regional train stations. With over 70 trains a day direct to London St Pancras International, the capital is easy to reach with the fastest train taking 1hr 40mins. With Eurostar connections direct from St Pancras Nottingham is connected into the heart of Europe.

House prices have been growing steadily over the 5 years achieving 24% growth and 2% over the last 12 months to £157,000, despite a sluggish market

REalyse - 30/01/2019

Asking rent has been steadily growing in Nottingham with median asking rent growing 5% over the last 12 months to £635 and rent per square foot achieving £12, an increase of 3.4% over the last 12 months.

REalyse - 30/01/2019

Below is an overview by property type in the Nottingham NG area (12 month average)

REalyse - 30/01/2019

This report was written in January 2019 and is based on evidence and data available to Vesta Global Ltd at the time. It uses certain data available then and reflects views of market sentiment at that time. Any forecasts or projections of future performance are inherently uncertain and liable to different outcomes or changes caused by circumstances whether of a political, economic, social or property market nature.

Please contact Vesta for sources.