Parents paying extra to live near top schools
PARENTS are paying a premium to buy homes near top performing state schools, new research suggests.
Top performing Jordanhill School in Glasgow comes with a house price premium of £3521 (two per cent).
The second best performing school, St Ninian’s High School, comes with a premium of £16,659 (seven per cent), third placed Mearns Castle High comes with a slightly higher premium of £36,291 (15 per cent) while fourth placed Williamwood High comes with a discount of £14,091 (six per cent).
All three schools are located in East Renfrewshire.
Houses near Bearsden Academy and Boclair Academy, both East Dunbartonshire, are 31 per cent higher than the local average, with buyers paying a £71,040 premium.
However prices near eight of the top 20 performing state schools, including Williamwood High School in East Renfrewshire, are lower than the average cost in the surrounding area.
St Luke’s High School in East Renfrewshire comes with the biggest discount of £100,291 (40 per cent).
Graham Blair, mortgages director at Bank of Scotland, said: “In areas such as Edinburgh and Aberdeen, the price tag for a house close to the best state schools is unsurprisingly large.
“However, in other areas, particularly East Renfrewshire, this doesn’t appear to be the case with three of the top five schools being reasonably affordable, or even cheaper than houses in the surrounding area.”
The Bank of Scotland research found the average cost of a house near one of the 20 top performing state schools is £231,476.
Analysis showed that house buyers are paying a premium of £41,441 (22 per cent) when compared to houses in surrounding areas where the average price is £190,035.
The research suggests that living near a top performing state school could be a shrewd investment based on house price performances over the last five years.
Parents who bought a home near one of the top 20 schools in 2012 have seen an average house price rise of £45,493.