Cambridge is the home of the world renowned University of Cambridge. In 1209, Cambridge University, is said to have been founded by students escaping hostile townspeople in Oxford.
One of the busiest tourist spots in the country with over three million visitors a year, Cambridge is also famously home to one of the world’s most prestigious universities, which is itself a source of much of that tourism. With some colleges, such as Peterhouse, dating back to the eleventh century.
Thirteenth century monks chose the then peaceful rural city as a more peaceful environment in which to study than the busier (and often hostile) Oxford. This was the start of Cambridge University.
Over the centuries the University has seen some of science’s greatest minds study within its walls, luminaries such as – Sir Isaac Newton, Darwin, Crick and Watson and Stephen Hawking. Cambridge University has more Nobel Prize laureates than any other university on the planet.
Cambridge has become an internationally recognised centre for technological innovation, with many of the world’s cutting-edge hi-tech companies – Microsoft, Philips and ARM to name a few – represented at the Science Park on the edge of town. Many of the microchips we use in such everyday items as mobile phones and MP3 players are designed in Cambridge.
Cambridge is a magnet to anyone with an interest in British history. This, coupled with the traditional sights of punts, May Balls and cyclists, helps to create a romantic image of Cambridge that is known the world over.
The Cambridge property market has seen a boom in the last year with the house prices in some of the areas in the city doubling in the last year – houses in the Barrow Road area sold in the summer for £1.7 million when just a year earlier similar properties were going for £900,000; large detached family homes which were selling for £1 million a year ago are now selling for £2 million.
What is causing this extraordinary trend when the rest of the Country is in recession? Much of the rise is put down to factors such as the Cambridge private schools, such as the Perse, The Leys, Kings, St Faiths and St Johns at a time when there is so much uncertainty in the state system. This is especially so when Cambridge’s close proximity to London (44 miles, less than an hour’s travel) is taken into account. Whilst house buyers flee to Cambridge to escape the soaring house prices in London, they cause price of property in Cambridge to increase by an average of 26% in the last year. This ‘ripple effect’ makes buying a house in Cambridge, one of the safest property investments you can make in the current economic market.