I was having a chat with a Huddersfield property investor
the other day, when he asked if schools, especially primary schools, affected
the local property market in terms of demand from buyers and tenants to a
property. Anecdotally, I have always
known this to be true, a good school creates good demand and good demand does affect
house prices. So, I asked my colleagues
on the front line, who take the phone calls from people putting themselves on
our mailing list and they confirmed that most people cite location as their
number one factor.
After looking through our mailing list, it confirms there is
a close correlation between the high demand areas of Huddersfield and the close
proximity to a good primary school. Talking
to my team in a recent morning meeting, they agreed many people would look to increase their budget quite
significantly, whilst others would consider downgrading their property requirements
to be close to a good primary school.
Those of you
who regularly read this blog will know I like a challenge, so I decided to look
at the science behind these assumptions. According to the SchoolGuide website, Spring
Grove Junior, Infant & Nursery School is one of the best primary schools in
Huddersfield. Its figures are certainly
impressive. Their last Ofsted Report classified it as Outstanding, 97% of 11-year
pupils achieving Level 4 or above in maths, reading and writing whilst 26% of
them achieved level 5. There is also a great pupil/teacher ratio of 17:1. Finally,
the schools’ KS2 rating was classed as Excellent.
Looking at property sales within a mile of Spring Grove,
property values have risen in value since 1999 by 173.17%, whilst according to
recent figures, the Huddersfield average as a whole has risen in the same time
frame by 112.22%.
That means the parents of
Spring Grove have seen the values of their properties rise proportionally
54.31% more than the Huddersfield average ... interesting don’t you think?
However,
whilst a good primary school significantly contributes more to house prices,
the same can’t be said for secondary schools. There are two reasons for this,
firstly, as secondary schools are much larger, so their catchment areas are correspondingly
much larger, meaning parents don’t need to live so close to the school. Secondly,
in the UK, whilst the difference between the top 25% and bottom 25% of
secondary schools is not insignificant, in the primary school sector, the
difference between the top 25% and bottom 25%, according to the London School
of Economics, is considerably and significantly more.
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