OXFORD PULSE
quality of the architecture, but it is a small geographic area and available properties are always limited. Relocating Londoners in particular find this hard to understand; they think a £2 million budget will buy them anything they want, but the best properties will take more than this.” Jessica Ashley, Allen & Harris says,
“There are definitely more buyers that there are properties to buy. More properties are needed to keep up with the demand from buyers.”
BUSINESS IS BOOMING IN OXFORD
Almost all the agents said that prices are up on 12 months ago, but that doesn’t necessarily mean business is booming. Most report a severe shortage of property, for sale and to let. Apart from small blocks of flats there is little room for development, with investors snapping up any bargains and families staying put for years, the market is tight, to say the least. For property search specialists this is
good. Their services are in great demand for a variety of reasons Tim Hammond is also Chief Executive of the APFBA, the industry association for Property Finders and Buyers Agents in the UK. He says, “Business is expanding as the awareness of the benefits of using property search agents has increased. In the current market
Above: Knight Frank, splendour in Old Boars Hill with room for the children and nanny. Right: Knight Frank, city centre townhouse.
you need to get to view properties first.” Tessa Carnegie, says, “Across all sectors
there has been a significant decrease in properties coming on to the market in the past couple of months. There will always be the forced sales due to the 3 ‘d’s (divorce, debt and death) but the number of sellers who move because they would like a change declined. ‘Best of breed homes’ tend to come to the market in an organised manner rather than through requirement.” Bob Urwin, MD, Martin & Co. says that
the letting market in Oxford is strong. “However, we are concerned that the government has announced that it intends to give local authorities the power to introduce compulsory schemes to licence private landlords. Oxford has announced it fully intends to bring in such a scheme. This is a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
‘The city has plenty of students, great transport links
and the hospital, which all make for a thriving rental
market.’ JESSICA HARDWICK
AREA SALES DIRECTOR, CONNELLS
£550,000
Left: Allen & Harris, Headington,
Below: To let through Martin & Co.
£1.45 MILLION
£875,000
They’d be better advised to concentrate on licensing all letting agents.” Jessica Hardwick, Area Sales Director,
Connells also says the buy-to-let market in Oxford is still going strong. “The city has plenty of students, great transport links for commuters and the large John Radcliffe hospital which all make for a thriving rental market.” But it’s not quite so rosy on the sales front: “One thing we haven’t seen is a return to upsizing, but with increasing development and the sale of land for new homes, we should see increasing numbers of properties in the middle market which I believe will get snapped up as confidence continues to grow.”
THE LAST WORD
Giles Lawton and Karen Mole from Savills on the market in 2010: “There are now very clear signs that the pent-up buyer demand for the best properties, seen in the second half of 2009, has carried over into 2010. Registrations are up, and budgets do not appear to have suffered as a result of the downturn. Savills Research forecasts a flattening of values for prime property this year and then a steady increase to 2015. After an extraordinarily quiet year on the
new homes front, developers have started 2010 on a positive note and we have several new schemes to bring to the market in the early part of 2010.”
£1,400 pcM
28 MARCH 2010 PROPERTYdrum
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