Thinking of moving to Oxford? Whether you’re starting a family, planning an investment or beginning higher education, here is what the city has to offer.
House Prices 🏠
- Most expensive property: £8,500,000
- Average house price in city: £467,748
- Cheapest property: leasehold flat £99,000 for a house boat
Property Investment 🏠 🏠
- The spread between the most expensive and the cheapest properties illustrates why Oxford has been described as the least affordable city in which to live in the UK – prices are more than 10 times the average salary
- Yet the city’s population of more than 32,000 accounts for a quarter of the whole population – and students have to live somewhere, and not all of them are by any means well off
- Although many live in purpose built student accommodation, almost as many live in communal establishments or accommodation shared with other students.
Economy ££
- According to the city council, Oxford has some 4,600 businesses, providing jobs for around 114,000 people
- Many of those jobs are connected with the universities and the public sector, but the availability of a highly educated and skilled workforce has stimulated growth in high-tech industries
- Hospitality and tourism are also major employers, catering to the city’s estimated 7 million visitors each year.
Location and Transport 🚌
- The city is only 69 miles from the centre of London and can be reached by road, rail and bus
- By road it is little over an hour’s drive along the M40 motorway
- The railway station is about half a mile from the city centre and connects to London Paddington, Manchester and Edinburgh.
Education 🎓
- Think of Oxford and you immediately think of its university colleges
- But there is also a further education college, the City of Oxford College and
- There are also 8 secondary schools within two miles of the city centre.
Environment 🌷
- The city has many large open spaces, many of which are open meadows and the best known of which are probably the 70 acres or so of University Park along the banks of the River Cherwell
- Also beside the River Cherwell and between the High Street in the city centre are the Botanic Gardens, first tended in 1621.
Trivia) 🎬
Finally, did you know …
- Oxford was spared bombing during the Second World War – because Hitler intended to make it his capital
- Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in under 4 minutes did so at the Iffley Road track in Oxford
- There’s a quiet spot by the River Cherwell called Parson’s Pleasure, where the college dons took to bathing naked – the nearby Dame’s Delight was, of course, the equivalent for women.
