Oxfordshire is one of the most popular counties in southern England. It is far enough from London to have its own identity; it has excellent communications and Oxford is one of the very few cities in England, outside the metropolis, which offers beauty, culture and quality of life.

Oxfordshire falls into four main parts from a residential point of view. The first is the Chilterns and M40 corridor, the second is Oxford itself, the third is the Thames Valley and fourth is the Cotswolds. Each attracts a different sort of buyer who is looking for different things.

The Chilterns and the M40 corridor, which runs up to Banbury, is very commutable, both by rail into Marylebone and Paddington, and by the M40, which gives it the best road link into the West End of London. The Chilterns are probably the first real countryside you come to outside London and the valleys and villages are both very pretty, with brick and flint houses and expensive properties. Though much of the countryside is flat from the edge of the Chilterns up to Oxford, it is much in demand as the road system means that it is possible to access more of southern England from here than almost anywhere else. It is also good commuting country.

Oxford itself is probably the only city in England, other than London, where properties regularly sell for in excess of £1m. The university is an obvious draw bringing in wealthy foreign academics, older students remembering their university days, and families looking to be near some of the best schools in the country. Houses within a 15-minute radius of Oxford with an easy school-run command a premium. Residential Oxford is predominantly Victorian with few of the Georgian terraces similar to Cambridge and Bath. What a lot of people forget is that the outskirts are now home to a thriving business, science and medical community. The Cowley car-works and its housing cover much of south-eastern Oxford.

The Thames Valley and the Vale of the White Horse take up most of South Oxfordshire, much of which is flat until it rises into the Ridgeway and the Berkshire Downs. Didcot is the focus for commuting with fast trains running into Paddington in 45 minutes. Unfortunately, most of the surrounding area is visually dominated by the cooling towers of Didcot Power Station. However, this ease of commuting keeps prices higher than the natural beauty of the landscape would warrant, though many of the villages are pretty and unspoiled.

The prettiest part of the county is the Cotswolds, centred on Chipping Norton. This is outside comfortable commuting range but has all the cachet of the Cotswolds with their pretty stone villages, rolling landscapes and pretty market towns like Burford and Woodstock. This is classic English countryside with stone-walls and large manor houses but suffers like many beauty spots from an excess of tourists and antique shops.

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