A recent study, by Lloyds Bank, found that Oxford is now Britain’s most expensive city to buy a home in, when house prices are compared to local wages. The average home in Oxford now costs over 11 times the average local wage, compared to 5.8 times in the country as a whole. To add to this, house prices in Oxford have grown by over 5% in the last year alone.
It may then come as a surprise to students living in rented accommodation in Oxford that they inhabit the highest valued property in the country, when local incomes are taken into account. Indeed, the establishment of the Oxford Tenants’ Union in February, organised by students, demonstrates that many continue to be dissatisfied with their landlords. High property values, in the city, do not seem to have translated into well-maintained houses, despite students paying more.
Thankfully, the cost of renting a house in Oxford is not rising as quickly as the cost of buying a home. However, Oxford is still becoming an increasingly expensive city for students to live in. It goes without saying that spending more money on rent means students have less money to spend elsewhere. Furthermore, for many Oxford students their year outside of college-owned accommodation proves to be the most expensive one of their course.
Rising rents in Oxford could also lead to potential access problems, if rent costs increase beyond what some students can reasonably afford. But, in truth, this is problem potential students are unlikely to know of, when they apply.
There are number of reasons why housing costs in Oxford are increasing so rapidly. It has be acknowledged a large number of disproportionately wealthy students looking for expensive properties to is a factor in this. But as causes go this is a fairly constant one, with Oxford students on average less wealthy, now, than in the past.
What seems to be driving the current increase in housing costs is a burgeoning commuter class. This group lives in Oxford, but works in London where salaries are far higher. Those who have been on the Oxford Tube in the early morning or the late evening will have realised quite how big this group is. Consequently, growing house prices in Oxford can be seen as a manifestation of a shortage of affordable homes in the capital.
The effect of rising housing costs has been an ongoing process of ‘gentrification’, particularly in traditionally poorer areas of Oxford, such as Cowley. This has already happened in certain parts of Oxford, like Jericho, and is now set to occur in the city as a whole. Even before recent rises in housing prices Oxford was not a cheap place to live, with a lot of the lower paid already forced to live outside of the city and commuting in to work. Now, growing housing costs are increasingly pricing out even local middle class families.
The obvious answer to this problem may seem to be to build more affordable homes within the city, but in Oxford this is not easily done. The city already has well-defined limits. Oxford is surrounded by green belt land, with an extensive part of that land being part of a flood plain which could not be built on – even if the desire to do so existed. Furthermore, the ring road surrounding Oxford acts as an additional barrier to expansion.
The choice that exists in Oxford then is whether to build more homes in the city’s existing area, potentially turning ‘the city of dreaming spires’ into the ‘city of dreaming apartment blocks’.
It is easy to perceive Oxford as a ‘student’ city, given the importance of the University to its identity. However, as a group, students are comparatively well-protected from rising housing costs. It is typical for many students to spend only a year of their course living outside of college-owned accommodation, which offers some measure of protection against rising housing costs. Local people have none of these protections, and as a result are increasingly being priced out of the city. The solution to this problem, however, does not lie in Oxford but in alleviating housing pressures from London. Until good quality and affordable homes are built in London, people will continue to search outward for them in Oxford and elsewhere.
