North West Leicestershire shares a border, a former coalfield and a National Forest regeneration story with South Derbyshire — but Land Registry and EPC data show it is not simply South Derbyshire's twin. The district around Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Coalville is more expensive than its neighbour, has a smaller share of new-build homes, and lands roughly halfway between South Derbyshire and Bolsover on energy-efficiency ratings — a genuinely different profile, not just a smaller version of the same story.
The headline number
The 2025 median sale price across North West Leicestershire was £274,950 (1,874 category-A Land Registry transactions, mean £300,373) — higher than South Derbyshire's £260,000 and well above Bolsover's £185,000, though still 7% below the England & Wales median of £295,650. On energy efficiency, 50.7% of the district's 24,177 latest EPC certificates are rated C or above, against South Derbyshire's 58.7% and Bolsover's 46.3%. New-build share of sales between 2015 and 2024 (a window chosen to avoid the registration lag that under-counts 2025 new-build figures) was 24.5%, again sitting between South Derbyshire's 28.9% and Bolsover's 18.0%.
That EPC figure, 50.7%, exactly matches Rugby's share in Homecost's ranking of England's greenest shire districts, which put Rugby 15th nationally among shire districts with at least 100 EPC certificates on record. North West Leicestershire would sit at that same threshold — comfortably ahead of the England-wide pattern, but well short of South Derbyshire's district-topping figure.
New-build and EPC ratings move together; price doesn't follow
Across the three districts, new-build share and EPC C+ share rank in the same order: Bolsover lowest on both, South Derbyshire highest on both, North West Leicestershire in between on both. That is consistent with the standard mechanism — homes built after the 2002 tightening of Building Regulations Part L score sharply better for energy efficiency than older stock, so the district that built the most new homes since 2015 also has the newest EPC register.
Price does not follow the same order. South Derbyshire has the highest new-build share of the three but the middle price; North West Leicestershire has the middle new-build share but the highest price. A district building fewer new homes than its neighbour, on a smaller EPC-C+ share, is nonetheless the most expensive place to buy of the three — a reminder that new-build volume explains a district's energy-efficiency ranking far more reliably than it explains its price ranking, which responds to commuting distance, school catchments and existing housing stock as much as anything being newly built.
| District | 2025 median price | EPC C+ share | New-build share, 2015–24 | Council tax Band D, 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Derbyshire | £260,000 | 58.7% | 28.9% | £2,339.61 |
| North West Leicestershire | £274,950 | 50.7% | 24.5% | £2,418.20 |
| Bolsover | £185,000 | 46.3% | 18.0% | £2,559.41 |
| England & Wales / England | £295,650 | — | — | £2,410.97 (296-LA mean) |
2025 medians are category-A Land Registry sales (detached, semi-detached, terraced and flats); EPC shares use the latest certificate per address. National council tax figure is the mean Band D across all 296 English billing authorities for 2026-27. Fetched 2026-09-23.
North West Leicestershire's council tax Band D, £2,418.20, sits almost exactly on the national mean of £2,410.97 — a 0.3% difference — while South Derbyshire (£2,339.61) is below it and Bolsover (£2,559.41) is well above it. As with the price ranking, there is no consistent relationship between a district's council tax and its position on the price or EPC tables.
What the stock looks like
North West Leicestershire's 2025 sales were detached-led: 927 of 1,874 category-A sales (49.5%) were detached houses, averaging £378,676, against 591 semis (31.5%, averaging £240,443), 316 terraces (16.9%, averaging £201,040) and 40 flats (2.1%, averaging £155,871). That mix is close to South Derbyshire's own detached-led profile (45% of sales), which suggests the difference in EPC ratings between the two districts is less about the type of home being sold and more about how recently it was built — a point the new-build-share gap between the two districts (24.5% against 28.9%) already points to.
A worked example at the district median
A buyer purchasing a home at North West Leicestershire's £274,950 2025 median, in a postcode such as LE65 (Ashby-de-la-Zouch), would face, using the £275,000 rounded figure:
- Stamp Duty: £3,750 for a standard home-mover; £0 for a first-time buyer, since the district's median sits under the £300,000 first-time buyer nil-rate threshold; £17,500 if buying an additional property, at the current 5% surcharge.
- Mortgage: on a 75% loan-to-value basis (a 25% deposit of roughly £68,738), a 25-year repayment mortgage at the Bank of England's most recently quoted 5-year fixed rate of 4.32% (as of 1 April 2026) works out to roughly £1,125 a month on the £206,213 borrowed.
- Council tax: Band D in North West Leicestershire is £2,418.20 for 2026-27, close to the England-wide average of £2,410.97 across all 296 billing authorities.
None of these figures reflects any individual property's condition, lender terms or personal circumstances; try the mortgage calculator or the Stamp Duty calculator with your own numbers.
The wider coalfield-and-commuter picture
North West Leicestershire's position — pricier than South Derbyshire despite a smaller new-build share — fits a district that sells itself on more than post-mining regeneration: the A42/M42 corridor toward East Midlands Airport and Tamworth, and easier commuting reach into both Derby and Leicester, sit alongside the same coalfield-legacy terraces found in Coalville and Swadlincote. For the district that started this comparison, see South Derbyshire's new-build green belt. For the county town six miles down the A50, see the average house price in Leicester, and for how all three of the region's main cities compare on buying and running costs, see Nottingham, Derby and Leicester: buy and run costs in 2026. For a fuller cost breakdown at a comparable price point, see the true cost of buying a £300,000 home in the UK.
Figures are based on 1,874 Land Registry transactions and 24,177 EPC certificates for North West Leicestershire alone, plus 2026-27 council tax data for all 296 English billing authorities — see more UK property cost analysis on Homecost.
Speak to a qualified adviser before acting on any mortgage, tax or property decision.