Ödåkra is bisected by the West Coast Line (train stop on the Skåne Commuter Rail between Ängelholm and Malmö), and lies adjacent to the motorways E6/E20 and E4.

The proximity of Helsingborg has made the town quite popular (about ten minutes by train), along with the large townhouse area Björka built near Väla centrum in Ödåkra in the 1980s.

The toponymy suffix ending "-åkra" is derived from the late Iron Age and in 1583, the city name was written Øagre .

The growth of the town gathered further momentum due to the 1898 Helsingborgs Spritförädlings AB connection to the railway.

At the start of the 20th century, there were around 30 similar factories in Sweden; each of these manufactured their own seasoned and unseasoned special brands.

For the most part, this consisted of a number of houses and small apartment buildings, constructed at the junction between the railroad and the old road, north of the mill and station area.

As a result, a centre area north-east of the station was established, consisting of municipality houses, libraries, post- and bank offices, and drugstores.

In the 1960s, a large proportion of houses were built to the east of the station community, and the city began to take on the character of a residential suburb of Helsingborg.

To the north of the shopping centre, during the 1980s, a large housing area called Björka was built (mainly consisting of townhouses), after the historic town in the south.