I was having a chat with a Plymouth 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 Plymouth 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, Holy
Cross Catholic Primary School is one of the best primary schools in Plymouth. Its figures are certainly impressive. Their
last Ofsted Report classified it as Outstanding, 93% of 11-year pupils
achieving Level 4 or above in maths, reading and writing whilst 25% of them
achieved level 5. Finally, the schools’
KS2 rating was classed as Good.
Looking at property sales within half a mile of Holy Cross,
property values have risen in value since 2000 by 202.05%, whilst according to the
Land Registry, the Plymouth average as a whole has risen in the same time frame
by 129.96
That means the parents of
Holy Cross have seen the values of their properties rise proportionally 55.47%
more than the Plymouth 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.
Many other Plymouth landlords, both who are
with us and many who are with other Plymouth agents, like to ring/email us to discuss
the Plymouth property market, to consider how Plymouth compares with its
closest rivals and hopefully we can answer all their questions. You must
take lots of advice and seek out the best opinion. One good source of opinion,
specific to the Plymouth property market is the Plymouth Property Blog
www.plymouthpropertyinsight.co.uk I don’t bite,
I don’t do hard sell, I will just give you my honest and straight talking
opinion.
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