Top school zones: Cost doubles

The price of a home in areas zoned for Auckland’s highest-ranked schools has jumped to $2 million

Parents wanting to send their children to some of Auckland’s prestigious state schools may be forced to fork out more than $2 million to buy a house in the zone, or more than $700 a week in rent — double the cost 10 years ago.

Figures from property analysis site Relab.co.nz, which analysed 33 Auckland school zones, showed the cost of buying a home had increased sharply in suburbs close to soughtafter, higher decile schools.

Topping the list were two decile 9 school zones, Auckland Grammar and Epsom Girls Grammar, with median values topping $2m last year.

The price of a three-bedroom home in the Auckland Grammar zone, which covered Remuera, Parnell, Newmarket and Epsom, was $2.09m — almost double the $1.11m median value in 2006.

In the Epsom Girls Grammar zone around Epsom, Greenlane, Mt Eden, Remuera, Newmarket and Parnell, it was $2.04m — also close to double its median value of $1.06m in 2006.

In theory, decile ratings indicate only how wealthy a school’s students are. However, in practice many families try to get their children into the highest decile schools — especially in Auckland — which then forces up property prices within those school zones.

Relab marketing director Bill Ma said the figures showed parents what they should be budgeting for. “The higher decile schools definitely come with a premium price.”

Property Institute of New Zealand chief executive officer Ashley Church said there was no question school zones influenced prices.

“It would be interesting to see how Auckland would have developed had there not been school zoning,” he said. “The phenomenon is to some degree getting out of control relative to what you are paying in other parts of the city.”

Unfortunately, Church said, prices left little option beyond renting for parents on limited budgets.

Relab.co.nz figures showed renting an average three-bedroom house could set parents back $700 to $900 a week.

Bucking the sales trends were two mid to low

decile schools at the top of the rentals list: Auckland Girls’ Grammar (decile 3) cost about $841 a week in rent in 2016; Selwyn College (decile 4) cost about $895 a week.

Both schools have traditionally taken students from across the city, which makes their decile ranking lower than it would normally be for their neighbourhood.

Auckland Grammar and Epsom Girls Grammar followed in third place, both costing about $777 a week.

Mangere Budgeting Services Trust CEO Darryl Evans said the cost of living in these school zones had led some parents to resort to desperate measures to make ends meet.

He described some sending children into part-time work to help pay the bills; others scrimped on healthy food; for others outings and extracurricular activities were out.

Another family were caught out in a lie about where they lived after an unexpected school visit, while yet another had saved all they could to get just one of their children into a private school — in the hope they’d have a good career and support the rest of the family in the future.

Professor John O’Neill, director of Massey University’s Institute of Education, said school enrolment was no longer “just an educational issue, but a housing affordability issue”.

He said luxury of choice was largely for the wealthy.

“Everyone else is struggling, even in low-decile areas, or areas of socioeconomic disadvantage, this hasn’t stopped rentals increasing or competition for accommodation. Higher decile schools became larger and lower decile schools smaller.”

Figures from Relab.co.nz showed even schools at the lower end of the scale were well above the nationwide average of $631,302.

The cheapest area was Manurewa High School’s zone, which included Manurewa, Wiri and Manukau. The median value of a three-bedroom house in 2016 was $764,532.

The QV median values of all three suburbs were below $650,000.

O’Neill said the idea that higher decile schools were “better” ignored the value that lower decile schools could add to communities.

“None of that measures the value added by the school; just that you have greater concentrations of aspirational families and children who have richer kinds of supports round than you do in poorer areas.”