I was having a chat with a Dundee 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 looking for properties and they confirmed that most people cite location as their number one factor.
After looking through the data, it confirms there is a close correlation between the high demand areas of Dundee 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, Rosebank Primary School is one of the best primary schools in Dundee. It certainly received a good report at the end of last year. 90% of children were performing well or very well in ready at P7, with 66% were performing well or very well at numeracy. There is also a great pupil/teacher ratio of just over 14:1.
Looking at property sales within half a mile of Rosebank, property values have risen in value since 2002 by 138.84%, whilst according to recent figures, the Dundee average as a whole has risen in the same time frame by 109.2%.
That means the parents of Rosebank have seen the values of their properties rise proportionally 27.14% more than the Dundee 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 Dundee landlords, both who are with us and many who are with other Dundee agents, like to ring/email us and even pop in for a coffee or us to discuss the Dundee property market, to consider how Dundee 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.
I don’t bite, I don’t do hard sell, I will just give you my honest and straight talking opinion.
