Parents splash out to get kids into top performing schools
PARENTS in Glasgow are willing to fork out £120,000 more than the average house price to live near a high achieving West End school, according to a report.
Research suggests buyers are prepared to blow the budget to stay close to Hyndland Secondary, which was rated the city’s second top performing council-run state school behind Glasgow Gaelic School.
The report found parents pay £121,090 to live close to the school, where 49 per cent of pupils left with five or more highers this year. The average property price in the area is £280,290.
Meanwhile, families are prepared to pay £85,920 over the average to live near Glasgow Gaelic School, on Berkeley Street, where 70 per cent of pupils left with the same number of highers. The average house price in the area was £245,20.
The research, carried out by the Bank of Scotland, showed property prices reached an average £277,134 in the areas around the country’s top 20 secondary schools.
The highest premiums are paid in Edinburgh with £173, 783 over the average to stay near the prestigious James Gillespie’s High School, £137,801 for the city’s Boroughmuir High School and £121,205 for Cults Academy in Aberdeen.
On average, Scottish parents have to fork out almost £73,000 more on average to buy a home near Scotland’s best performing schools.
However, the research also revealed that for five of the top 20 secondaries, homes in the postcode area of the school actually cost less than the local average.
The best performing of these is St Ninian’s High School in East Renfrewshire – ranked as the fourth best secondary in Scotland – where house prices cost on average £259,024, some two per cent lower than the rest of the local authority.
Houses near Woodfarm High School are also two per cent lower than the East Renfrewshire average, while in East Dunbartonshire, properties in the catchment area for both Bishopbriggs Academy and Turnbull High School area are 19 per cent cheaper than the average, with this rising to 23 per cent for homes close to Lenzie Academy.
The research, carried out by the Bank of Scotland, showed average property prices reached an average £277,134 in the areas around the country’s top 20 secondary schools.
That leaves buyers having to pay on average 36 per cent more than if they were buying a property elsewhere in the same local authority area -– with this amounting to a difference of £72,973.
Graham Blair, mortgages director at Bank of Scotland, said: “When buying a home, many parents want their children to be close to a top performing school, and school catchment house price premiums generally tend to align to where we already know property is more expensive.”