UK Edition
House price growth in Cambridge outpaces rival Oxford
House prices in the UK’s biggest cities have jumped due to the buy-to-let surge, with Cambridge outpacing its rival Oxford, according to Hometrack.
Average price growth in April was 10.4pc, compared to the same time last year, during the uncertainty in the lead-up to the general election, when the rate of growth was 6.6pc.
Cambridge and London lead the top 20 cities of the UK in house price growth. Homes in Cambridge have increased in value by 15.8pc year-on-year, compared to 8.6pc 12 months ago, while Oxford, which last year recorded 11.8pc growth, has now fallen down the leaderboard with price rises of 7.1pc.
Richard Donnell, head of research at Hometrack, said this was because "Oxford doesn't have a lot of new builds compared to Cambridge.” Figures from Savills show that only 100 new homes were completed in Oxford in 2015, compared to 730 in Cambridge.
Mr Donnell added that Oxford’s property market had also cooled down due to “affordability pressures, lower levels of employment growth compared to Cambridge, and the fact that it's slightly further away in terms of connections to London".
Companies such as Spotify, Microsoft and Apple have helped boost Cambridge’s hi-tech economy, sometimes nicknamed ‘Silicon Fen’, which brings in high salaries and allows the city to retain its graduates, maintaining a buoyant property market.
Oxford was recently appointed the least affordable place to live in the country by Lloyds Bank. It said that house prices were nearly 11 times the gross average earnings in the city.
House prices in Oxford have historically been higher than its university rival, but were eclipsed by Cambridge in December 2015. The average home in Cambridge is now £411,900, compared to Oxford’s £393,100.
Aberdeen is the only city monitored by Hometrack in the UK where house prices have fallen, by 6.1pc.