OX Place
OX Place - formerly Oxford City Housing Ltd - is our wholly-owned housing company, set up in 2016.
OX Place aims to build more than 2,000 new homes for rent and sale in and around Oxford over the coming decade. These will include more than 1,100 council homes providing the genuinely affordable housing that Oxford needs.
A century after the first council homes were built in Oxford in 1920, this programme represents the first significant development of council housing in our city since the 1970s. A new generation of council homes.
The new council homes will be let at social rent, which is calculated with reference to the size and value of a home and average regional incomes. In Oxford, social rent is typically around 40% of equivalent private rents.
Around 300 homes are expected to be shared ownership and other affordable tenures. Shared ownership gives people the opportunity to get a foot on the property ladder by buying a stake in their homes that they would not otherwise be able to afford.
Many of the sites OX Place aims to develop would not be considered viable by purely commercial developers. OX Place's commitment to affordable housing and using innovative construction methods means it will be able to unlock these sites to provide the homes that are so badly needed.
The remaining homes will be for market sale and the money raised by selling them will subsidise the building of council and other affordable housing. Whether for sale or rent, all OX Place homes represent an investment in the sustainable future of Oxford by currently going at least 40% beyond current government carbon reduction targets and zero carbon by 2030.
But OX Place has wider ambitions.
Low carbon homes across Oxfordshire
OX Place is working with seven selected developers to help build more than 2,500 low carbon homes across Oxfordshire in the next 10 years.
The appointment of development partners is part of OX Place’s £1bn sustainable housing development framework for factory built homes assembled onsite using modern methods of construction - homes that can be built more quickly and with fewer defects while controlling costs.
This framework embeds an eco-friendly approach to new developments and will be a key driver in OX Place’s journey to zero carbon by 2030. Currently, OX Place will work with chosen developers to deliver three options for sustainable homes:
- a carbon reduction of 40% or more from the 2021 building regulations
- Passivhaus equivalent standard – meeting required primary energy demand of ≤ 60 kWh per m2 per year
- zero carbon for regulated and unregulated energy, with a preference for low embodied energy
