Oxford is the most expensive place for first-time buyers outside London, Nationwide finds

According to Nationwide Building Society, the city is the second least affordable local authority area for first-time buyers after London, with the average house price-to-earnings ratio being 10.1.

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The report used official house price and earnings data from 2021.

First-time buyers face spending at least six times their annual wages to get on the property ladder in nearly half (45 per cent) of Britain’s local authority areas as affordability becomes more stretched.

In Oxford, properties had an overall average price of £572,702 over the last year, according to property site Rightmove.

Nicola Horner, head of residential development sales for Savills in Oxford, said: "Oxford is a hugely desirable place to live and as a result house prices here have historically sat above the national average.

"Over the last couple of years however, a combination of lifestyle drivers prompted by Covid and the Government’s stamp duty holiday, ignited record levels of demand, pushing up prices beyond the usual levels"

Oxford estate agents say despite the expensive house prices, Government schemes such as shared ownership and Help to Buy have particularly helped first-time buyers get onto the property ladder this past year.

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Sanaz Saisaee, property consultant at Taylors Estate and Letting Agents in St Clement's, said: "The market has been great recently. We have a lot of first-time buyers looking but more for flats rather than houses.

"Last year we were dealing with a lot of shared ownership properties as well and those are the kind of properties that obviously people can afford to buy in Oxford. It’s a very expensive market in Oxford, but a lot of shared ownership properties are available that first-time buyers can buy."

Pic by Ed Nix (Image: Ed Nix)

Richard Evans of Chamberlain Evans Estate Agents has noticed first-time buyers are older than people might think due to the high house prices in Oxford.

He said: "The key point is that first-time buyers are now a lot older. We rarely see buyers in their late 20s anymore. They’re usually in their 30s and 40s.

"People stay home a lot longer with their parents to save up a bigger deposit. Other first-time buyers look at towns and village outside the city and that does work quite well.

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"The difficulty with these things is that if you give too much help then prices go up as we saw with the stamp duty reduction last year.

"The problem with Oxford is that there is hardly any new development because there’s hardly any land available. It’s difficult but we’ll see where the market goes."

Oxford City Council's housing company Oxford City Housing Ltd (OCHL), aims to build more than 2,000 new homes for rent and sale in and around Oxford in the next 10 years.

Around 300 of these will be in affordable tenures, like shared ownership.

A council spokesperson added: “Hundreds of OCHL homes for market sale will also help reduce affordability pressures caused by scarce availability.

“More widely, our Local Plan 2036 means that developments of more than 10 homes now include 40 per cent council homes and another 10 per cent in shared ownership or other affordable tenures.

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"We are also working closely with housing associations to deliver more affordable housing – for example, Catalyst’s 270 home development in Newman Place.

"The first homes were handed over to Catalyst earlier this month, and when complete in 2023 Newman Close will include 162 shared ownership homes, with priority purchase options given to NHS key workers.”

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