OPEN THE DOOR…. LOOK BEYOND THE OBVIOUS!!

Posted on 20th September 2026 by Adam Mackrell

After a few months away for the summer, it seems appropriate to start back at home.

This coming weekend is Oxford Open Doors, a wonderful opportunity to get into parts of the city which are rarely, well, open.

Oxford, for its size, is almost certainly the most interesting city in England. Yet so many of its joys and gems are hidden behind walls, through ancient doors or down little cobbled side streets.

Jan Morris captured this beautifully when she described Oxford as a city of distinct and separate parts, where one could escape the maelstrom of buses and visitors at Carfax simply by disappearing down a side street into “history and peace.”

And that, I think, is part of what makes Oxford such an exciting and intriguing place. Much of the best of it isn’t immediately obvious.

Oxford Open Doors gives us the chance to get behind some of those normally closed doors. There is an enormous amount to see, but one of my favourites is the Painted Room on Cornmarket.

To find it, you climb a lino covered staircase above Betfred, an establishment which, I understand, has something to do with gambling. It is difficult to imagine a less auspicious entrance to one of Oxford’s little treasures.

But at the top you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a glorious piece of 16th-century domestic Oxford. A room covered with extraordinary Elizabethan wall paintings and associated with a building in which Shakespeare is believed to have stayed on his journeys between Stratford and London.

A betting shop downstairs. Shakespeare upstairs.

Only in Oxford….

There is something else in that story which perhaps explains why we remain so stubbornly interested in this city as investors.

Oxford rewards people who look beyond the obvious.

The interesting thing is often not what is advertised in the window, but what sits quietly behind it. Property is much the same. We have never been terribly interested in shiny brochures, fashionable postcodes or whatever investment happens to be making the most noise this month.

We prefer scarcity, utility, income and things which are difficult to replicate…..Oxford has rather a lot of those!

OUR MARKET VIEW

Amy Winehouse said Back to…? Boring, was it?

No, wait.

Anyway, back to boring, thankfully.

The Bank of England has held Bank Rate at 3.75%, although perhaps more interestingly the vote was 6-3, with three members actually wanting to put rates up to 4%.

Inflation has moved back up to 3.1%, largely against a backdrop of higher and more volatile energy prices. So anyone waiting confidently for another procession of interest rate cuts may need to put the kettle on. It could be a while.

But underneath all of this, something rather interesting is happening in our own little corner of the world.

Across the UK, average private rents are now £1,400 per month, up 3.8% over the year, while average house prices have risen a much more modest 1.4%.

Here in Oxford the divergence is even more interesting.

Average rents are now £1,963 per month, up 3.5% over the year.

Average Oxford house prices, meanwhile, are around £472,000, down 2.3% over the same period.

Prices down. Income up.

For a residential investor, that deserves rather more attention than whichever headline happens to be shouting loudest this week.

We are not suggesting falling asset prices are something to celebrate. But there is a substantial difference between falling prices because nobody wants the underlying product and softer prices occurring while the income that product generates continues to increase.

Oxford appears, at present, to be giving us rather more of the latter.

Meanwhile, two crypto billionaires have apparently found £72 million to put into British politics in the space of 48 hours.

Each to their own.

We still rather like houses.

And that brings us back to where we started.

Behind the obvious Oxford there is another Oxford. Constrained, difficult to replicate and with an extraordinary number of people competing to live, study and work within a relatively small amount of space.

Interest rates will move. Governments will change. Crypto billionaires will presumably continue finding interesting things to do with their money.

People will still need homes.

For those of us interested in the long-term PRS, that remains the rather boring bit that matters.

OSG’s Vista

Income talks
Oxford rents +3.5%. Prices -2.3%.

Scarcity holds
You can change the price of money. You cannot easily create more Oxford.

Rates require patience
Good investments need to work without relying on tomorrow’s rate cut.

Look behind the door
The obvious price is not always where the value sits.

Boring compounds
Homes. Rent. Time. Repeat.

Warm regards,

Adam Mackrell
Oxford Spires Group

Data referenced from:

Bank of England, Monetary Policy Committee, September 2026
Office for National Statistics, Private Rent and House Prices UK, September 2026
Nationwide House Price Index
Rightmove
Zoopla House Price Index
Savills Research
HM Land Registry