6:30am Friday 19th October 2007
By Giles Sheldrick
If you want to buy an average-priced house in Oxford, you need to earn at least £78,000 a year to get a typical mortgage.
The stark reality of the booming housing market has been laid bare in a report published today showing property prices in the city are running at almost 12 times average annual salaries in Oxfordshire.
According to the research by the National Housing Federation, an average home in Oxford costs £287,781 - £40,000 more than the average for the South East.
Based on a mortgage of 95 per cent of the purchase price, at three-and-a-half times annual earnings, individuals need to earn £78,112 a year to buy a house in the city.
Across Oxfordshire, the average price of a home is £269,993 - requiring an income of £73,284 to get a 95 per cent mortgage.
According to the Oxfordshire Data Observatory, the average income in the county last year was £25,086.
The situation is now so bad that thousands of people are joining housing association waiting lists in the hope of part-owning a property.
One housing group which offers shared ownership schemes has waiting lists of more than 1,000 people in every council district in the county - but said they would have to wait "years, rather than months" for a home.
Last night, experts agreed that shared ownership was the best way to get on the property ladder for those on typical salaries.
Part-buy, part-rent schemes involve the purchase of a percentage of property, with the rest rented.
Graham MacDonald, co-director of Oxford estate agents Kemp and Kemp, said: "If you haven't got a great deal of money, I don't think there's anything wrong with shared equity.
"You have got to be prepared to go for key worker housing or shared ownership - and I don't think there's any disgrace in that, because it gets you on the ladder.
"People want to live here - and the demand for housing has made the market what it is."
Oxford City Council has placed such importance on social housing that 50 per cent of all new developments of 10 or more homes now has to be "affordable".
Chief planning officer Michael Crofton-Briggs said: "Yes, we need more houses and, yes, the city would argue we need to be building more than the county council or regional assembly thinks is the right number.
"What we need is more afford- able housing and a variety of types, from the traditional social rented to shared equity, not all our eggs in one basket."
Stewart Lilly, from Harwell, the president of the National Association of Estate Agents, said: "The main culprit (of increasing house prices) is a lack of supply.
"But sharing equity means you have to be 100 per cent confident with the person you're sharing it with, because the day could come when it could all go wrong."
County council leader Keith Mitchell said: "The need to enlarge the shared ownership element of publicly-subsidised housing is important, as more and more people want to own their own home."
National Housing Federation spokesman Simon Graham added: "We have got to a situation where demand outstrips supply - and there's no doubt that part of the solution is building more homes."
When Stephanie Roberts, 42, got divorced, it seemed unlikely she and her eight-year-old daughter Hanna would be able to find somewhere to buy in Kingston Bagpuize, where they lived.
However, their new two-bedroom home, in Oxford Close, is one of three sold through a part-buy, part-rent package.
Ms Roberts managed to buy a 40 per cent share in the £172,500 house and rents the remainder at a reduced rate from Sovereign Housing Group.
She said: "Having been a homeowner before, I didn't really want to rent privately, but buying another house outright would have been a big stretch. This is ideal for women who find themselves making a go of it on their own."
Meanwhile, the Bateman family have swapped a cramped two-bedroom home for a new four-bedroom detached house in Marcham, their home village.
Laboratory technician Alan, 34, wife Kathryn, 31, and children Christopher, 13, Jack, nine, Nathan, eight, Josh, five, Jake, four and Samuelall corr, two, took advantage of a shared ownership development in the village near Abingdon.
Mr Bateman said: "We've been able to give our eldest his own room for the first time and the youngest two are in another.
"We've lived in the village all our lives. Although this is a new development, it's not made any difference to the character of the village."
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