6,564,678 People use Oxford Train Station a year - How does that affect the Oxford Property Market?

It might surprise you that it isn’t always the nicest most picturesque villages around Oxford or the most desirable Oxford streets where properties sell or let the quickest. Quite often, it’s the ones that offer the best transport links. There is a reason why one of the most popular property programmes on television is called Location, Location, Location!

As an agent in Oxford, I am frequently confronted with queries about the Oxford property market, and most days I am asked, “What is the best part of Oxford to live in these days?”,.  Now, the answer can be different for each person – a lot depends on individual factors e.g. the age of their family, their age, schooling requirements and interests etc. Nonetheless, one of the principal necessities for most tenants and buyers is ease of access to transport links, including public transport – of which the railways are very important.

Official figures recently released show that, in total, 9,017 people jump on a train each and every day from Oxford Train station. Of those, 2,811 are season ticket holders. That’s a lot of money being spent when a season ticket, standard class, to London is £5,724 a year.

The bottom line is that property values in central Oxford would be much lower, by at least 3% to 4%, if it wasn’t for the proximity of the railway station and the people it allows access north and south of the City

Rail is becoming increasingly important, as the costs associated with car travel continue to rise and as the roads are becoming more and more congested. This has resulted in a huge surge in demand for rail travel.  

Overall usage of the station at Oxford has increased over the last 20 years. In 1997, a total of 3,064,352 people went through the barriers or connected with another train at the station in that 12-month period. However, in 2016, that figure had risen to 6,564,678 people using the station (that’s 18,035 people a day).  Hence the huge investment in capacity at Oxford parkway station where parallel investment in bus routes to/from Oxford has driven house prices in and around Kidlington, meaning that house price growth continues to track above the average for Oxford.

A property’s location relative to the train station has an important effect on its value and saleability in Oxford. It is also significant for tenants – allowing car-free living to be realistic in a City that wishes to limit car usage.

One of the first things house buyers and tenants do when surfing the web for somewhere to live is find out the proximity of a property to the train station. That is why Rightmove displays the distance to the railway station alongside each and every property on their website – they know it is in the top 5 criteria applied by buyers and tenants alike.  To illustrate this, recently a couple came to me looking for a property 5 minutes’ walk from Oxford station and 5 minutes’ walk to the central shops, restaurants and bars.  They wanted 2 bedrooms, one bathroom and wanted to keep the monthly rent to around £1,000.  In the event, they achieved their perfect location, but had to raise their budget by 20%, reflecting the premium that proximity to the stations carries.  They are now living just off St Thomas Street, just a few hundred yards from the Central station.