There is an intense rivalry between these two cities. Traditionally, this has revolved around academic achievements, celebrity alumni and rowing, but more recently house prices have also come into focus.

While both cities have historic centres encircled by suburbs of mainly Victorian and Edwardian homes, Oxford has historically enjoyed higher prices due to the large cluster of prime housing to the north of the city, but in recent years, Cambridge has caught up.

The thriving local economy and increased levels of prime house building in Cambridge have resulted in average sale prices growing strongly to reach £409k over the year to November 2014. The value gap to Oxford has closed from 14% in 2004 to 2% today.

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^{Source: Savills Research, Land Registry, Census}