The trend is something many people have suspected but now a new report from property consultants Savills Research shows it is absolutely true.
Homes in the vicinity of the top performing 25% of secondary schools now cost 16% more than their county average, up from 13% in 2007.
And homes in areas with a combination of good state and independent school options can be worth two or three times their county average.
In stark contrast, house prices around schools in the bottom quarter of the performance tables averaged 10% less than the county average.
Even although house prices have dropped due to the economic crisis, those near good schools have suffered less.
Property prices around the top-performing 25% of schools fell by just under 16% but prices for homes in the vicinity of the bottom 25% of schools dropped by more than 19%, suggesting that good schools can help to recession-proof a home.
‘On the face of it these are not massive differences, but they’re significant.
That’s a 21.5% difference in the size of the price fall between houses near the most successful schools and those near the worst performers,’ explained Lucian Cook, director of Savills Research.
‘It’s hard to conclude a direct cause and effect but it is clear from our analysis that a good education, state or private, almost invariably comes with an added cost in terms of the price of local property,’ he added.
Savills has identified educational super locations which offer a choice of at least five schools from the top quarter by academic performance.
Dubbed educational supertowns they are Leatherhead, where the premium over the Surrey average is 59%, followed by Winchester at 37%, and Tunbridge Wells and Harrogate at 20% over their county averages.
Fareham, Bishop’s Stortford and Woking are the bargain locations for great educational choice, with house prices at a17%, 5% and 4% discount compared to their county average.
Then there are educational super suburban areas where the differences are more dramatic.
House price premiums around the individual top performing schools in the top ten educational suburbs average almost 70% above the city average.
Top of the educational super suburbs is Altrincham where house prices are more than twice the Greater Manchester average, while those in Hallam in Sheffield, Clifton in Bristol, and Solihull and Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands all have values at 50% above the city/metropolitan average.
Cook expects the educational hotspots to lead the way when a sustained residential market recovery sets in.
‘Areas around good schools tend to attract the more affluent buyers with more equity, and they’re the ones we expect to lead the way in any upturn,’ he said.
