Top marks for schools mean higher prices for homes

HARROGATE has been placed at the top of a list of the country’s “educational super-towns” where success in schools has led to higher property prices.

A study carried by Savills estate agents assessed house prices in areas of the country which contain at least five secondary schools in the top performing quarter in the country.

Harrogate tops a table that compares pupils’ GCSE performances with above county-average property prices.

The town saw pupils achieve average point scores of 475 in last summer’s GCSEs – the equivalent of nine A grades.

Property prices in Harrogate are said to be 23 per cent above the North Yorkshire average.

Harrogate is the only supertowns in the North of England. Others include Bath, Bishop’s Stortford, Tunbridge Wells and Horsham in Sussex.

Toby Cockcroft from Savills said: “The town is renowned for its high level of schooling and we find that people move here just to get in to the catchment area for the best schools.

“With Harrogate Grammar, St Aidan’s and St John Fisher on the doorstep and a number of private schools such as Harrogate Ladies College and Ashville, the town really does lead the way for the rest of the country and our buyer demand definitely reflects that.”

Lucian Cook from Savills Research said it was hard to conclude a direct cause-and-effect but it was clear that good education – state or private – almost invariably comes with an added cost in terms of local property prices.

Homes near the top-performing 25 per cent of secondary schools now cost 16 per cent more than the county averages, up from 13 per cent in 2007.

Estate agents say that homes in areas with a combination of good state and independent schools can be worth two or three times the county average.

In contrast, house prices near schools in the bottom quarter of the tables averaged 10 per cent less than the county mean.

Researchers also listed educational “super suburban areas” that include Hallam in Sheffield where house prices are 50 per cent above the city average.

A Savills spokesman said: “In suburban areas the results are distinctly more dramatic than for the towns, with good schools in the top quarter of the league table adding an average 37 per cent to the value of a home.

“Even more tellingly, house price premiums around the individual top-performing schools in the top ten educational suburbs average almost 70 per cent above the city average,” the spokesman added.