Sorry to use the forum for such a personal and not-at-all-related-to-Welsh post. My partner is starting a new job in Oxford so we’ll need to move up in July (August at the latest). We’ve already been looking for a place to rent for over a month and have either not found anything suitable or had our applications rejected - the first because we didn’t have sufficient joint income (I won’t post numbers, but suffice to say we’re not concerned about being able to pay the rent and if we were earning what they were asking then we’d be applying for a mortgage!) and aren’t willing to pay months of rent upfront from savings (the agent justifying bulk up-front payment with “but you could spend all your savings tomorrow” - my response “But I could equally spend all my income at the beginning of each month” wasn’t appreciated), and a second application rejected today because we were up against an application for a couple with a young child, which the landlord decided they’d rather go with.
Anyway, we currently live in Paignton so can only make it up for viewings on Saturdays, since it’s a 4 hour drive each way and can’t get time off work, and sometimes we’re finding new houses are being advertised but then occasionally going before we can even get up to look at them (on one occasion we were only told after making the journey!)
Can you see where this is going yet?
If anyone in Oxford knows of any landlords looking to let out any ~2 bed houses/apartments could you please message me? We’re starting to get a little concerned with the time we have left and haven’t had the best success with estate agents.
We’ve been looking around the Headington/Botley areas, but could go further afield.
Thanks, and sorry once again for the off-topic post!
Sorry to use the forum for such a personal and not-at-all-related-to-Welsh post.
Don’t be silly, you’re more than welcome - this is a community, not just an ‘ask questions about Welsh’ group, and one of its loveliest aspects is how many different ways community members find to help each other…
I hope someone will be able to lend a hand with this - it must be a very trying time for you.
Oxford’s certainly not an easy place to find reasonably priced accommodation from a distance. I think
Oxford’s Daily Info Sheet would be a good place for you to look (also it’s not just agents who advertise places to let) - the web site is: http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/homes-to-let
Oxford is horribly expensive I’m afraid.
(Everywhere around here is, but Oxford is at the extreme end, for possibly obvious reasons.
Depending on what part of Oxford the job was, you might consider places slightly outside Oxford if you/he can stand the commute, e.g. Abingdon to the south, or Kidlington to the north.
Kennington is also to the south, and quite close to Oxford, but not sure what there is on the rental market.
In addition to Dailyinfo, you might just try Gumtree.
Aran: this is a community, not just an ‘ask questions about Welsh’ group, and one of its loveliest aspects is how many different ways community members find to help each other
Thanks Aran, I knew it would be ok really, I just went into panic mode earlier after finding out that our latest application was rejected. Particularly because the estate agent said our application was strong, it was just that the landlord decided to let to the family
John: Oxford’s certainly not an easy place to find reasonably priced accommodation from a distance.
It certainly isn’t. Thankfully my parents live in Milton Keynes so they’ve been looking at places on our behalf. Thanks for the link, I’ll have a good look at it tomorrow
Mike: Oxford is horribly expensive I’m afraid
Yes, so we’ve been finding (on top of the additional amount we’d already allocated for the increase). We’re currently renting a lovely large flat by the sea, we were hoping to keep something the same size and naively added 50% to our rent pcm knowing oxford is more expensive. We’ve now nearly doubled it and seem to be about in the right region! We started looking outside Oxford, we did have a couple of viewings in Kidlington, but when accounting for commuting costs, park & ride etc, we found we’d pretty much break even by just adding to our budget and living closer in. Unfortunately I can’t drive due to medical reasons so the villages aren’t ideal The buses seem very good though. It’s just difficult for non-locals to get on top of all this on a relatively short timescale. Thanks for the gumtree suggestion, I’ve not considered using it for houses before
FWIW, Abingdon seems to have a particularly good service to Oxford.
You’d want to be towards the north of the town though, to miss town centre traffic, and ideally not too far from Oxford road (route of the fast buses that take the A34), or not too far from Radley Road (slightly slower and less good service, although not terrible).
(I’m not saying other places don’t also have a good service of course: I just don’t know them as well).
Worth noting perhaps that the village of Radley (north of Ab. south of Kennington) has a railway station (so does Culham, but not as many trains stop there).
Kidlington ought to have one, but it lost it to Butcher Beeching and never got it back! (the line still goes through it, of course). (Ditto Steventon).
Back in “plug Abingdon” mode: we don’t have any seaside to offer you, but there are some nice stretches of the Thames to keep you amused.
I’m Oxford born and bred, pretty much, with a few crazy expeditions around the world. I see it was recently declared the most expensive city in the UK, which doesn’t surprise me. Headington, particularly Old Headington, is lovely, but very expensive. I cannot believe what I paid to rent a one bedroom flat there and that was ten years ago.
My advice is, despite the above, do try and get somewhere inside the ring road if you can. I promise you the commute into Oxford from the west in particular, from places like Witney or Swindon, was actually Dante’s 10th Circle of Hell but was cut by his editor to speed up the story. Also, the council have worked hard to channel people into the P&R by covering the whole city in double-yellow lines, so parking is extremely difficult. So rent inside the ring-road if you can because this means you can walk to work or take a bus. Commuting into Oxford without parking at the end of the journey will make your day very stressful. My point is however expensive properties in Headington etc., are, they are expensive for a reason. Oxford is not commuter-friendly unless the P&R is compatible with your day.
As everyone says, it’s expensive. Bad news for those of us who grew up here.
Beware dodgy landlords, the prices have attracted get-rich-quick investors like flies. I can recommend my landlord: http://www.lucyproperties.co.uk/ as they’re an ironworks company who ended up in the property business and in many years of dealing with them they have always been straight up and honest.
