Private rent in Oxford became more affordable last year than before despite the increase in cost of living. The recent report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) measures affordability by rent as a percentage of household income, so while those living on rising wages are better off, students who do not have increased income are not.
By measuring affordability as the proportion of household income being spent on rent, the ONS data shows that rents became more affordable last year: In 2023, households were spending 38.9% of their income on rent, as opposed to 42.5% in 2022.
The average monthly rent in Oxford rose from £1,500 in 2021 to £1,612 in 2023, in line with rent increases across the country. Meanwhile, average salaries have risen too. Nationwide, there was a 6.2% increase in weekly earnings from 2022 to 2023.
This comes in the midst of a cost of living crisis, which saw an increase in day-to-day living costs, notably a spike in food prices in 2023 in contrast with the preceding years. Energy tariffs, another day-to-day necessity, rose sharply too.
Oxford students, however, have only experienced just the rise in rent and not the rise in wages. A student who rents privately told Cherwell that he did not find Oxford rents to be affordable. He continued to outline the problems he faced: “The house wasn’t cleaned at all upon moving in. The agency charged the previous student tenants £500 from their deposit to get the place cleaned, but it didn’t happen.”
Nonetheless, he said that he preferred privately renting to staying in college accommodation as it worked out to the same price due to “the additional costs that college accommodation has such as meal deposits and Vacation Residence,” especially considering “the lack of a proper kitchen”.
Despite this data, Oxford remains one of the most expensive places to live in the UK. The city faces a serious homelessness problem, regularly appearing as one of the top 5 areas in the UK for the proportion of the population rough-sleeping. The homelessness charity Oxford Gatehouse cites high rents as one of the reasons for this. The local council plans to build over 10,000 homes in the next 15 years to deal with the problem.
