HOUSE prices across Oxfordshire have risen by more than 40 per cent in the last decade.

Experts have warned as a result young people are being priced out of their communities.

New figures released yesterday (Thurs) revealed that Oxford saw one of the highest rise in house prices in the country – 12 per cent – with the average cost of a property now at £414,301. 

In the list of regional towns and cities, excluding London, Reading was above Oxford with a rise of 13 per cent but the average house price there is £335,000.

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said it was becoming impossible for young people especially to buy a home in the city.

Across the county the average price for a home is £339,571 – 10 per cent higher than the same time last year – and 42 per cent more than the average price 10 years ago.

This is despite house prices across the UK increasing at their slowest pace for two years in June, according to Nationwide Building Society.

Mr Smith added: “I really feel for local young people looking for housing. It’s bad when people who have grown up in an area and have most of their family and friends here are driven away just by housing costs.

“We have to build a lot more housing closer to Oxford simply to slow the rate of price increase.”

First-timer buyer Ellie Cartwright, 28, from East Oxford spent a year looking for a one-bedroom flat within five miles of the city centre, but is now in the process of buying her first home in Bicester.

The film producer said: “I don’t think any young person can afford to buy in Oxford.

“I was expecting the price to be around £190,000 to £220,000, but I looked at some on Cumnor Hill being built that were advertised for £265,000.

“It’s aimed at buy-to-let rather than building a community and letting families settle down and stay to get that community feel.”

David Coleman, 69, and his late wife, Sarah, bought a house in North Oxford in 1982 for £115,000 and it is now thought to be worth in excess of £3m.

Mr Coleman, a retired academic, said: “Areas do change over time but the rate recently in this area is un- imaginable.

“Young people this days are having to look elsewhere and further out, and they have to put up with a smaller place and move out of the community they desire to live in.”

Oxford University professor Danny Dorling said house prices in the county these days equated to a buyer paying £100,000 per bedroom.

He added: “There is a problem with young people in their 30s who want to settle down and have children buying places. You used to see people in their mid-20s buying homes in the 1980s, but that’s not happening now.”

Prof Dorling said some of the reasons for the rise were people commuting to London buying in Oxfordshire and major transport links such as the new railway station at Oxford Parkway.

Oxford estate agent Robin Swailes said the increase was “remarkable” especially as between 2007 and 2012 there was a significant dip in the market.

He said he expected the increase to double in the next 10 years.