HOUSE prices in Witney are set to soar as the affordability crisis in Oxford spreads west, a university professor has claimed.

Prof Danny Dorling said a “house price wave” has spread from London to Oxford and is now heading to West Oxfordshire.

The Oxford University geography professor published a book earlier this year on Oxford prices growing at a greater rate than London and has since estimated the problem is spreading to West Oxfordshire.

Prof Dorling fears the scale of unaffordability in Oxford – where property prices are 16.1 times the average wage of £26,500 – could soon be experienced west of the county.

He said: “Prices almost always rise first in London and then slowly move out to the outer boroughs and then to Oxford and further out.

“As London becomes more expensive, people move out to the boroughs and then into Oxford. Now that prices are so high in Oxford they are rippling out to the west.”

George Stevens, director of Oliver James estate agents, said prices had risen in Witney because of the lack of housing availability.

He said: “I think that In the last calendar year prices went up by a minimum of 10 per cent. It’s a rapid increase but I think it will level off. However, there has been a huge change in prices and first-time buyers cannot keep up with the rate to save up for a deposit.”

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Julie Blake, 39 and her husband David, 35, wanted to buy a house in Witney in October 2014, but were forced to look elsewhere because of the price.

Mrs Blake said they were renting a house for £1,300 a month and wanted to purchase a property in the area, but decided to buy in Banbury instead.

She added: “We both had properties and sold them and wanted to buy one with four bedrooms and office space for us to work in.

“People were bidding over the asking prices and we thought we just weren’t going to get value for our money. I know people paying £430,000 for a house on the market for £400,000.”

Prof Dorling added: “It is quite shocking what is happening out in West Oxfordshire. I found in January that, according to Zoopla, the price of an average house in Witney rose by £37,000 in 2014 to reach £348,000.

“We need to build more houses like they did when people starting moving to Oxford in the 1920s and 30s.

“Nowhere is going down in population and people want to be in these areas, so something has to be done.”

Property website Rightmove reported the average price in Witney was £258,306, while Zoopla claimed this week the average asking price in Witney was £430,183 but this figure was based on about 200 properties. Prof Dorling said that although the website has a small sample size of 203 properties, it still exemplified the dramatic increase in asking prices.

“Private investors cause house prices to rise and this is causing people who want to live in Witney and set up family homes to stretch themselves to the limit.

“The lack of housing developments also causes a rise, the current situation in Oxford is a picture for the rest of the country of what may come.”