Land by postcode · OX area · Oxford

Land in Oxford

Oxford covers six postcode districts, OX1, OX2, OX3, OX4, OX33 and OX44, in Oxfordshire. Planning applications here are decided mostly by the Oxford planning authority, with South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse and Cherwell covering the rest. Below: what homes sold for, which planning controls apply, and what that means before you sell or develop a plot in Oxford.

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What homes sold for in Oxford

Residential sales recorded by HM Land Registry between 2024-08 and 2026-07 across all six of Oxford's postcode districts. This is market context for the town, not a land valuation: what a plot is worth depends on what can be built on it, which these figures do not show.

Sales in 24 months

3,326

Median sale price

£455,250

Median £ per m² of floor area

£5,500

Median, last 12m vs prior 12m

-0.4%

£457,000 → £455,000

Mix of sales: 18% detached, 31% semi-detached, 29% terraced, 21% flats.

New-build sales 2023–2024: 96 of 3,185 (3%). A rough proxy for recent building activity: these are homes sold by builders, not development sites.

By postcode district

DistrictSales, 24mMedianMainly decided by
OX1339£485,000Oxford
OX2936£600,000Oxford
OX3769£445,000Oxford
OX4936£405,000Oxford
OX33151£475,000South Oxfordshire
OX44195£435,000South Oxfordshire

Planning designations and controls in Oxford

For each designation on the planning.data.gov.uk register, the share of the 4,866 live postcodes in Oxford's six districts whose centroid falls inside it. This measures postcodes, not land area, and says nothing about any individual plot.

Green Belt

12%

597 of 4,866 postcodes

Mostly in OX44 and OX33: 180 of OX44's 346 postcodes and 179 of OX33's 281 postcodes.

Conservation Area

21%

1,002 of 4,866 postcodes

Central · North Oxford Victorian Suburb · St. Clement's And Iffley Road · Jericho · Headington Hill and 29 more

Article 4 Direction area

76%

3,697 of 4,866 postcodes

4 separate directions recorded, each removing particular permitted development rights within a defined area. The largest named one is the Houses in Multiple Occupation Article 4 Direction.

No postcodes in Oxford's six districts fall inside: National Landscape (AONB), National Park.

Flood zones, tree preservation orders, local plan allocations, settlement boundaries and non-designated heritage are not included here and are checked in a full assessment.

What the figures mean for land in Oxford

12% of postcodes in Oxford are inside the Green Belt, so Oxford has land both inside and outside it. The Green Belt postcodes sit mostly in OX44 and OX33. Which side of the boundary a plot sits on determines whether the Green Belt tests apply to it at all.

21% of postcodes fall within a conservation area. Inside one, demolition needs consent, some permitted development rights are reduced, and new work is assessed against the character and appearance of the area.

76% of postcodes are covered by an Article 4 direction, which removes specific permitted development rights in that area, so changes that are automatic elsewhere need a planning application there.

These are town-level facts. The free assessment checks your actual boundary against the same registers and the local plan and tells you plainly what they mean for your plot.

Who decides planning here

Oxford's six districts are split between planning authorities: Oxford (76% of sampled postcodes), South Oxfordshire (12%), Vale of White Horse (9%), Cherwell (1%).

Check your own plot in Oxford

Draw your boundary, tell us what you own, and an architect checks it against these registers and the local plan. Free, no obligation, and you get a straight written answer.

Questions landowners ask about Oxford

Can I build on land I own in Oxford?

It depends on where the plot sits, not on the town average. Across Oxford, 12% of postcodes are in the Green Belt and 21% in a conservation area. Green Belt land is concentrated in OX44 and OX33; on Green Belt or National Landscape plots a new home is the exception and needs a specific case, and a replacement dwelling, a conversion or a modest extension is usually the realistic route. Outside those designations the questions that decide it are whether the plot is inside or adjoining the settlement boundary in the local plan, whether it has its own road access, and what is next to it.

Do I need planning permission for an outbuilding, extension or change of use in Oxford?

Often, yes. 76% of postcodes in Oxford are under an Article 4 direction (4 separate directions), which withdraws particular permitted development rights, so an outbuilding, extension or change of use that is automatic elsewhere needs an application there. Outside those areas, permitted development applies to houses and their gardens but not to agricultural land or paddocks, where a new building or a new use normally needs permission or prior approval.

Will a developer be interested in a plot in Oxford?

Developers look at three things before they talk about price: whether the plot is outside the Green Belt and any National Landscape, whether it sits inside or beside the settlement boundary, and what finished homes sell for. In Oxford the median sale is £455,250, from £405,000 in OX4 to £600,000 in OX2, and only 3% of 2023–2024 sales were new-build homes, so builders have been quiet here. A single plot usually goes to a local builder or a self-builder; a site for five or more homes attracts regional housebuilders, normally through an option or a conditional contract rather than an outright purchase, so the price you see quoted is not the price you receive.

What is a plot of land worth in Oxford?

There is no town figure for land, because a plot's value comes from what can be built on it, not from where it is. As a guide, a serviced plot with consent for one house commonly sells for around a third of the finished house value, which in Oxford would be measured against a £455,250 median sale. The same plot without consent, or inside the Green Belt, is worth a small fraction of that, and a paddock with no realistic route to consent is worth agricultural or amenity value only. The free check tells you which of those your plot is before you talk to anyone about a price.

Worth reading before you decide

Nearby towns

Computed from open-data records; town-level, not plot-level measurements. Oxford here means the six postcode districts whose most common post town is Oxford. Sales: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (2024-08-01 to 2026-07-31), © Crown copyright, Open Government Licence. Designations: planning.data.gov.uk (OGL); conservation areas and Article 4 directions are made locally and published on that national register. Postcode centroids: OS Code-Point Open, contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Figures computed 2026-10-19.