The typical Banbury home sold for £290,000 over the last year, £56,000 less than Bicester. Prices by ward and property type, from Land Registry sales.

Banbury is the older town, the bigger town and the one with the cross in it. It is also the cheaper town. Over the twelve months to 30 June 2026 the median home sold in Banbury went for £290,000. In Bicester, fifteen miles down the M40, the median was £346,000. That is a £56,000 gap between the district’s two centres, and it runs the opposite way to what most people assume.

Those figures come from HM Land Registry’s Price Paid record of completed sales, which we pulled for every postcode covering Cherwell district and then matched postcode by postcode to the right council area and ward. Anything outside Cherwell was dropped. What is left is 1,909 home sales across the district in that year.

Cherwell district, and what the official index says

The government’s headline number for the district is different, and it is worth knowing why. The UK House Price Index puts the average Cherwell home at £358,000 in May 2026, up 4.2% on the year, when it was £343,000. That is a mix-adjusted average built to track change over time. Our £345,000 district median is the middle sale of the actual year, which is the number that tells you what a normal purchase looks like.

Both point the same way. Cherwell’s 4.2% annual growth is well ahead of the South East’s 1.2% over the same period.

Cherwell district house prices, two measures
Property typeUK HPI average, May 2026Median sale, year to June 2026Sales
All types£358,000£345,0001,909
Detached£579,000£495,450584
Semi-detached£357,000£340,000585
Terraced£294,000£290,000545
Flats and maisonettes£173,000£179,500195

Sources: UK House Price Index, Cherwell, provisional May 2026; and HM Land Registry Price Paid data, sales completing 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026.

The index also splits by buyer. A first-time buyer in Cherwell paid an average £306,000 in May 2026; a home mover paid £421,000. Both rose 4.2% on the year. The £115,000 step between them is, in Banbury terms, close to the distance between the town’s median terrace at £252,500 and its median detached at £420,000.

Banbury against Bicester, ward by ward

Median sold price by ward in Cherwell district, year to June 2026 Horizontal bar chart of eleven wards. Deddington is highest at £497,500, then Fringford and Heyfords £460,000, Launton and Otmoor £442,500, Cropredy Sibfords and Wroxton £440,000, Adderbury Bloxham and Bodicote £438,375, Bicester South and Ambrosden £360,000, Bicester North and Caversfield £350,000, Banbury Calthorpe and Easington £348,750, Bicester East £305,000, Banbury Hardwick £293,000, Banbury Grimsbury and Hightown £250,000 and Banbury Cross and Neithrop lowest at £235,000. A dashed line marks the district median of £345,000. Every Banbury ward except Calthorpe and Easington sits below it. The cheapest ward in Cherwell is in the middle of Banbury Median sold price, homes only, 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid data. Dashed line: Cherwell district median, £345,000 (1,909 sales). district median Deddington 497,500 Fringford and Heyfords 460,000 Launton and Otmoor 442,500 Cropredy, Sibfords and Wroxton 440,000 Adderbury, Bloxham and Bodicote 438,375 Bicester South and Ambrosden 360,000 Bicester North and Caversfield 350,000 Banbury Calthorpe and Easington 348,750 Bicester East 305,000 Banbury Hardwick 293,000 Banbury Grimsbury and Hightown 250,000 Banbury Cross and Neithrop 235,000 Dark purple: rural wards. Mid purple: Bicester. Bright purple: Banbury. Banbury Ruscote (£280,000) and the two Kidlington wards are omitted for space.

The spread inside Banbury is wider than the gap between the two towns. Banbury Cross and Neithrop, the ward containing the town centre and the cross itself, has a median of £235,000. Banbury Calthorpe and Easington, the south side, is £348,750. That is £113,750 between two wards you can walk between in twenty minutes, and it is the single biggest thing to understand about buying here.

Ruscote, the fourth Banbury ward, sits at £280,000 on 74 sales. Grimsbury and Hightown, east of the Cherwell, is £250,000 on 131.

Why Bicester costs more

Bicester is dearer in every property type, not just on average.

Median sold price by type, Banbury town and Bicester, year to June 2026
TypeBanburyBicesterDifference
Detached£420,000£505,000+£85,000
Semi-detached£312,500£370,000+£57,500
Terraced£252,500£300,250+£47,750
Flats£160,000£230,000+£70,000
All homes£290,000£346,000+£56,000

Two things explain most of it. The first is the housing stock: Bicester’s recent growth means a large share of what sells there was built in the last fifteen years, while Banbury’s median sale is a Victorian or interwar terrace. The second is the commute. Bicester North is 50 minutes from London Marylebone at its fastest; Banbury is 1 hour 2 minutes, and the walk-up single from Bicester is £40.70 against Banbury’s £52.70. Twelve minutes and a cheaper fare are worth real money to a London commuter, and it shows up in the sold prices.

Bicester’s own flats figure, £230,000 against Banbury’s £160,000, is the clearest signal. Those are largely new-build apartments on the growth sites rather than converted town-centre flats.

The villages are a different market again

The rural wards of Cherwell have a combined median of £455,000, which is 57% above Banbury town. At parish level:

  • Hook Norton £497,500 (38 sales)
  • Deddington £480,000 (32)
  • Adderbury £470,000 (38)
  • Heyford Park £432,500 (34)
  • Bloxham £430,000 (53)
  • Bodicote £377,500 (33)
  • Kidlington £365,000 (134)
  • Bicester £346,000 (495)
  • Banbury £290,000 (666)

Heyford Park is the one to watch. It is the former RAF Upper Heyford, now a strategic growth site in the Local Plan, and its £432,500 median already sits with the established villages rather than with the towns.

Where these figures come from

  • UK House Price Index for Cherwell (district code E07000177), provisional figures for May 2026, the latest month published.
  • HM Land Registry Price Paid data, queried for every sale in the OX5, OX15, OX16, OX17, OX25, OX26 and OX27 postcode districts completing between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026. Each full postcode was then checked against postcodes.io so that sales in neighbouring districts, mainly West Northamptonshire and Stratford-on-Avon, could be excluded. Commercial and other non-residential transfers were dropped.

Medians are used rather than averages because a handful of large village sales would otherwise drag a small ward’s figure well above anything a buyer would recognise. Wards with fewer than 70 sales in the year are not charted.

Checked on 9 August 2026. What happens to these numbers next depends on what gets permission and where, and on how long the train to London takes.