Schools Impact Home Values
Research shows that home buyers, investors and tenants place considerable emphasis on local schools when looking to buy or rent. In fact, schools play such an important role in the desirability of a property, that a school catchment area may add a premium of as much as 10% to a property’s value. For investors, it’s a factor that needs to be added into the equation along with transport, shops and amenities such as parks, when looking to make the right investment purchase choice. For home owners, local schools may also impact decisions on over-capitalising. For example, will adding another storey to create a substantial family home add as much appeal if the house is not in the catchment for a desirable primary or high school?
Property sales price data compiled by domain.com.au, detailing the rate of price growth within government school catchment areas, shows that being within the catchment for Australia’s top-ranking schools can add as much as 10% to the value of a property. This figure is based on comparing sales of comparable homes within the same street or near proximity that fall into different school catchments. Primary schools as well as high schools have a strong impact on property values. In Sydney, some of the most soughtafter government school "hot spots" are the catchments for: Willoughby Girls High School, Killara High School, Cherrybrook Technology High School, Epping Boys High School (Eastwood), Cheltenham Girls High School and Epping West Primary.
Parents who are thinking about moving house are increasingly using My School to assess the quality, facilitities and results of government schools, and using that information when choosing the location of their new home. Google reports approximately 4 million searches per month nationally on school catchment areas. However, in the past it’s not always been easy to find out what government school catchment a property is located in. For example, some catchment boundaries mean that homes on one side of the street are in one school catchment and those on the other side are in another, less popular, school’s catchment. Domain.com.au now offers a website feature and App, Domain School Zone, which identifies which school catchment a listed property is in (primary and high school), as well as a map of the school’s catchment zone and key information about the school. Domain School Zone also allows property searches based on a school zone, so you can identify a school that will suit your child or children, and then search for properties for sale or rental in the catchment for that school. Domain School Zone is a feature of the domain.com.au website and the Mobile App for phone or tablet can be downloaded via the domain.com.au website or at Google Play or ITunes.
Author : Virginia Van Ewyk
