The army of Londoners who decided they wanted to leave during the pandemic has turned Oxfordshire, especially the Cotswolds, into one of Britain’s hottest property hotspots in 2021 and 2022.
Smart market towns and gorgeous country villages were seen by many as the great antidote to life in lockdown London, and prices soared.
Things have certainly calmed down this year, but prices in the borough that gave us Inspector Morse, Soho Farmhouse, Oxford’s dreamy towers and retail hub Bicester Village are now 22 per cent higher than 2019, according to its research. real estate agent hamptons
If you’re planning to make 2024 your year of elopement to Oxfordshire, these are Homes & Property’s picks of the towns, cities and villages you need to know about.
Value for money: Wantage
In a county full of expensive city suburbs and ultra-affluent towns and villages, Wantage is a rare find.
This small but well-formed market town is set in the stunning countryside of the Vale of White Horse, and its 17th and 18th-century town center buildings are set on charming cobbled streets and alleys.
Despite its picture-postcard qualities, the average property price in Wantage stands at £402,000. You can buy the average house for £442,000 and the average flat for £208,000.
Prices remain in the black, with an average increase of two percent over the past year. However, values have increased by 15 percent since the beginning of the epidemic and 45 percent since 2013.
There’s one big compromise about Wantage: the lack of a station.
Passengers should drive to Didcot Parkway, which is 20 minutes away (buses are also available). From here you can be in Paddington in about 40 minutes.
If this works out, Wantage is an excellent choice for people who want easy access to the countryside along with the comforts of the city.
It has a surprisingly vibrant cultural life, with a month-long summer music and arts festival and a separate literary festival.
The twice-weekly market brings extra activity to the town centre, and all the town’s schools are rated either good or outstanding.
Nightlife basically means pubs, but there are some really good traditional pubs in the city (we especially love the fact that the restaurant at The Shoulder of Mutton is vegetarian) and there are more independent cafes than the chains, which makes a refreshing change.
Most similar to London: Jericho, Oxford
Whether you wander pastel-painted cottage-lined streets, admire the canal boats docked on the Oxford Canal, or pop into Jericho Café for brunch, this suburb less than a mile from the city center has a London village feel.
Unfortunately, Jericho has more in common with the capital than its artisanal cafés and gastropubs.
Average prices are among the highest in the city and even the county.
Despite a tough year for the property sector, average prices rose by 3.5 per cent last year, surpassing the £1 million mark for the first time. Houses sold for an average of £1.45 million and flats for £514,000.
One of Jericho’s traditional two-up two-down cottages will set you back around £600,000, and for a two-bedroom period conversion you can expect to pay around £450,000.
Local residents include Slumdog Millionaire screenwriter Simon Beaufoy and author Mark Haddon of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time fame, and – like Hampstead decades ago, before it became so expensive that only international millionaires would consider moving in – Jericho has an independent cinema has a charming arts vibe, with a community festival held in the summer and the channel’s regular mini weekend festivals.
For passengers, the station is a 15-minute walk and trains to Paddington take around 50 minutes.
When you want to get back to nature, you can take in the horses grazing at Port Meadow or Wytham Woods.
Least like London: Burford
This medieval town is the complete antithesis of London in many ways: it’s country quintessence, from its dreamy Cotswold stone cottages to the stupidly quaint high street that juts out to the River Windrush, full of old-school tea shops and independent shops selling antiques and homewares.
No wonder PR guru Matthew Freud chose Burford as the perfect place to get into hospitality.
The newly opened The Bull at Burford is a boutique hotel with a 24-hour snack bar, yoga sessions and four restaurants that aims to soothe the nerves of stressed-out Londoners with a dose of country flair.
Parents need not worry about school places in Burford as there is only one primary school and one secondary school in the town. Both were rated “good” by Ofsted.
With the Cotswolds on your doorstep, access to open space is no problem either.
As London hosts the Notting Hill Carnival and New Year’s fireworks, Burford offers a tender early summer commemoration of the murder of a group of anti-Cromwellian soldiers during the English Civil War, with music, parades and speeches.
When your shopping needs go beyond tea cakes and classic plates, Oxford is 19 miles west, and Charlbury Station is seven miles away. Trains to Paddington take around an hour and a half.
Burford’s prices have risen sharply during the pandemic as Londoners flock there to escape lockdown life in the capital. Partly as a result of this, average prices now stand at £856,000; This means a huge increase of 33 percent compared to 2019.
Best connection: Henley-on-Thames
If you’re still depending on daily London transport, traveling from Henley to the capital is a breeze by Oxfordshire standards.
Rush hour trains to Paddington take 43 minutes. You need to change at Twyford, but from there you can choose to stick to mainline services or use Crossrail to head into central London and beyond.
There are also local bus services to Maidenhead, High Wycombe, Reading or Wallingford and Henley Hopper, which operates midweek bus services around the city centre.
Henley is famous for its annual royal regatta, and if middle-aged men in striped club jackets aren’t your thing, the champagne-filled summer ritual represents a good opportunity to escape home for a few days with an Airbnb.
Henley has a huge part to play in this on a daily basis. While all of its primary schools were rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, its only secondary school, Gillotts School, received the highest marks from schools’ observers.
The Chiltern Hills rise to the north and west of the town, making for long dog walks in the country. The nearby village of Hambleden sits on the banks of the Thames, immortalized in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, and is ideal for swimming around Ferry Lane.
The city center is simply beautiful; The sight of its stone bridge over the Thames (where you’ll have to ignore the clogged traffic queues) or the impossibly beautiful cottages along Friday Street will impress not only the most hard-hearted.
Henley is full of picture-perfect pubs such as The Bell or The Little Angel just over the river; Here you can dine on a menu of upscale traditional pub fare or choose from the deli counter.
Although most of the major coffee chains are represented in the city centre, there are also independent venues such as Geo-Café.
For something a little different, Kenton Theater offers a program ranging from ballet to stand-up comedy.
Henley’s combination of ease of commuting and lifestyle means it is one of Oxfordshire’s more expensive towns. Average prices start at £866,000, up 5.5 per cent last year and 57 per cent over the last decade.
You’ll have to pay up to £5 million for one of the town’s riverside mansions, and up to £1 million for one of its impeccable Georgian townhouses.
But you could opt for a three-bedroom terraced house (around £500,000) instead. There isn’t a huge choice of flats in Henley and prices start from around £375,000 for a two-bedroom flat in a period building or purpose-built flat.
Family friend: Watlington
Situated right on the edge of the Chiltern Hills, this compact market town has everything an outdoorsy family could want; walks up the National Trust’s Watlington Hill to explore the stunning surrounding countryside, tennis and squash clubs, a skate park and playground, numerous cycling trails and visits to the (fortunately heated) outdoor pool at nearby Wallingford.
Back in town, Watlington Primary School is rated “outstanding” by Ofsted and Icknield Community College (seniors) receives a “good” report from the school’s watchdog.
The city center has lots of rural charm and a surprising amount of things to do.
In addition to traditional bars such as the Fat Fox Inn, there are also cafes such as Spire and Spoke; Young people will love the pizza menu and the tents in the garden.
There’s also Calnan Brothers, an award-winning butcher, The Orange Bakery, a bakery; While this bakery is sadly not a candlestick maker, it does run a weekly pop-up where you can stock up on sourdough and pastries.
Home buyers also get decent value for their money in Watlington.
Average prices have remained stable over the last few years at an average of £527,000, rising by 35 per cent below inflation over the last decade.
This lackluster performance is partly due to the lack of a railway station in Watlington.
Passengers need to travel 14 miles east to High Wycombe to catch trains to Marylebone in under 26 minutes, or take an Oxford Underground bus from Lewknor, a village three miles away, for an hour’s journey to central London.