oxford house buying - good areas?

wallofbeans

hi all,

we're looking into moving from London to Oxford and I hoped someone might be able to give me a head start on the good and bad areas - poshest to nastiest and all inbetween!

thanks!

maninthestreet

Avoid Blackbird Leys like the plague.
Summertown is nice.

00ec25

posh with character/conservation area - Iffley - likes to think it is still a village

posh / expensive : stuff along the river (or less so the canal) eg: around St Aldates/Friar's Wharf - new developments but expensive and so a bit self selecting on residents (eg. university professors)

poshish - Summertown (large houses but watch out for student HMOs though),

characterful/trendy (bit studenty and with parking problems) - Jericho

less posh : Iffley Road / Donnington bridge area, Headington

not posh: Cowley Road
definitely not posh : Blackbird Lees Estate :eek:

hard to define areas : stuff around the station (expensive for what you get, can be congested) and also stuff down or off the Abingdon Rd (terrraced, older properties, Landlady territory)

pinkshoes

It really depends what you're looking for in Oxford!

No. 1 priority on most people's shopping lists when house hunting in Oxford is a parking space. Make sure you visit around 6.30pm, as streets that seem to have spaces will fill up when people get back from work, often making parking an utter nightmare. Nothing more irritating coming back from work and having to park in another street! Look for streets that have a lot of houses with off-road parking, as they tend to be much better for parking.

As for areas, then if you read the local rag, most "incidents" and thus the "grotty" areas to avoid would be Blackbird Leys, Barton, and Rose Hill.

Summertown is lovely, but as above, beware student dominated streets!

I'd advise getting an A to Z, driving round, and marking the streets/areas you like! Some lovely areas in Temple Cowley, Florence Park and Headington (East Oxford, and your money goes much further), but then also some not so nice areas! I used to live in a street in Headington which I hated.

Personally I like Cowley Road area, but I wouldn't buy there, as the area attracts too many riff raff, and dodgy BTL landlords renting to unsavoury tenants!

I'd also look at areas served by the main bus routes.

twirlypinky

Do you really want Oxford itself or do you mean Oxfordshire? I used to live in Oxfordshire, in a village in the south, then a town in the east and then central Oxford. If i ever had to move back that way I would live in Thame, close enough to Oxford to commute to work there (i did) and far enough out to still be a lovely little town.

poppysarah

Generally any bits you've seen on police camera action are to be avoided

Johnannes_de_Silentio

Dear Wallofbeans,

I'm entering this late, so you may have chenged plans / resolved the issue by now. For what it's worth, anyway, here are some opinions.

Oxford is small, understocked in housing terms, constricted by planning regulations, very badly run by councils, and particularly interested in eductaion. Therefore housing availability and location are obsessions. Depending on need, cost and preferences, Oxford City is overall better than Oxfordshire, unless you wish to spend hours in traffic and thousands on carparking. North Oxford=Summertown=white yummy mummies buying extra tuition for Joshie and FiFi so they can get into the best state school leaving more to spend in Whistles. Forget the gated community estates built along the flood plain: ghastly. At the other end of the scale, parts of Florence Park are a smart buy, where the house is not in a constantly redefined flood plain: look for space, gardens and quiet neighbours on Hill Top Road and Westbury Crescent, plus real bargains in certain houses on Church Cowley Road. The sacrifice to be made involves the rough n' ready underachieving schools (and not being with the yummy mummies). Halfway between these extremes is 'Iffley Fields', ex. Warwick Street, with larger Victorian houses with character, 5 minutes from the river, gastropub Magdalen Arms, the Pegasus youth theatre, and the University gym/pool, 15 minutes walk from town, 12 minutes walk from London and airport coaches. Smart smart. Finally, thinking ahead, Oxford will become more congested, the non-state schools will become more oversubscribed by ex-Londoners, the university will recruit more foreign students to off-set the shortfall in national funding, and flood plains, HMOs, refuse, etc. will all get consistently redefined to create new taxes that cover the complete ineptitude of local government. Two categories and location of house will none the less do well: Iffley Fields for resident housing and Florence Park for a landlord purchase.

theGrinch

witney is ok