I was having a chat with a Melton Mowbray 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, we looked at 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 Melton Mowbray and the close proximity to a good primary school. Not just families either. An area will appeal to couples setting up home who want to live in an area that has benefitted from the popularity a good primary school provides.
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, Swallowdale Primary School is one of the best primary schools in Melton Mowbray. Its figures are certainly impressive. Their last Ofsted Report classified it as Outstanding, 90% 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 Swallowdale, property values have risen in value since 1999 by 168.11%, whilst according to recent figures, the Melton Mowbray average as a whole has risen in the same time frame by 123.51%.
That means the parents of Swallowdale have seen the values of their properties rise proportionally 36.11% more than the Melton Mowbray 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.
Before investing in property you must take lots of advice and seek out the best opinion. One good source of opinion, specific to the Melton Mowbray property market is the Melton Mowbray Property Blog www.meltonmowbrayproperty.com I don’t bite, I don’t do hard sell, I just give you my honest and straight talking opinion.
