House Prices in Oxford rise by more than 18% in the last 18 months

Over the last six weeks, property values in the Oxford City Council area rose by 6.2%, to leave annual price growth also at 6.2%. These rises compare well to the national figures where property prices across the UK saw an uplift of 0.42%, meaning the annual property values across the Country are 8.3% higher.

Looking at the figures for the last 18 months shows Oxford house prices are 18.1% higher, compared to the national average figure of 13.6% higher.  Over the last 18 months, in the Oxford City Council area, the best performing type of property was the semi, which outperformed the area average by 0.78% whilst the worst performing type was the apartment, which under-performed the area average by 1.42%.

That difference doesn’t sound that much, but remember two things, this is only over eighteen months and the ‘spread’ of 2.2% (the difference between the semi at +0.78% and apartments at -1.42%) converts into a few thousand pounds disparity, when you consider the average price paid for a semi-detached property in Oxford itself over the last 12 months was £480,000 and the average price paid for an Oxford apartment was £310,000 over the same time frame.

So how has each property types performed? Over the last 18 months in Oxford:

·       Overall Average:          +18.1%

·       Detached:                      +18.1%

·       Semi Detached:            +19.0%

·       Terraced:                       +18.6%

·       Apartments:                  +16.4%

When I looked at the month-by-month figures for the area, you can quite clearly see there is a slight tempering of the Oxford property market over these last few months. I have mentioned in previous articles that the number of properties on the market in Oxford has increased this summer, something that hasn’t happened since 2008. Greater choice for buyers usually means that top prices won’t be achieved on every Oxford property. You see, some of that growth in Oxford property values throughout early 2016 may have come about because of a surge in house purchase activity, an indirect result of the increase in stamp duty on second homes from April, thus providing a temporary boost to prices.

Overall, I believe that sellers need to pull out the stops to ‘dress’ their house for sale, to ensure that it is presented as strongly as possible in a more competitive market.  To help I recently published an eBook ‘The Ultimate Guide To Sell Your Home – How to sell quicker for more in Oxford.