The new owner of a near-empty £12 million residential scheme says it is confident of filling the site.

The developer behind the 16-storey Thames Tower complex, in Burleys Way, Leicester, went into administration a year ago after selling only 14 of the 112 flats.

Now, London buy-to-let firm Delph Property Group has bought the 190ft tower from administrators in a multi-million pound deal.

The company said it planned to spend a five-figure sum sprucing up the lobby and garden area on the third floor.

Richard Page, Delph business development director, said he expected interest from young professionals and students.

"We are confident of filling all the apartments," he said.

"We are sure the demand is there, particularly as the new academic year is coming up.

"People have been rattling around the building. We are hoping to change all that and get curtains and blinds up and get some life into it."

Mr Page, who said the building will be renamed The Horizon, said the investment was a vote of confidence in the economic health of the city.

"When we invest we look for places that give an indication they will outperform the rest of the market," he said. "We believe Leicester is one of those places."

As well as the 14 flats sold, 13 are being leased.

There are 57 one-bedroom flats, with the rest two-bedroom. Rents are between £400 and £640 per month.

Delph is also looking for occupiers for 40,000 sq ft of offices on the first three floors.

Contracts were signed for all the apartments in 2006, at the height of the property boom and before the £12 million project to redevelop the 1960s building was completed.

But after the flats, which had an average price of £125,000, plunged by more than a third in value, most of the would-be buyers pulled out, losing their 10 per cent deposits.

Joint administrator Chris Stirland, partner at FRP Advisory, in Oadby, yesterday said he had not ruled out using the law to try to secure some of the money which would have been paid for the flats.

Developer Brampton Asset Management (Leicester) went into administration in June, 2009. It is thought to have owed at least £10 million.

Mr Stirland would not say how much Delph had paid for the building, but said it was a multi-million pound figure.

"In the current economic climate you would expect it to be less than the amount it cost to develop," he said.

David Hughes, chief executive of economic development agency Prospect Leicestershire, said: "It's good to see there's investor confidence returning to an area of Leicester that's previously been affected by the recession."