I was having a chat with a Sutton homeowner and landlord the other day, when he asked if schools, especially primary schools, affected the Sutton and Carshalton 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 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 Sutton and the 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.
Looking at property market within half a mile of some of the seven best performing Primary schools in the area (half a mile is what many consider to the be the main catchment area of most Sutton Primary school’s – although exceptions do exist), I then compared them with the overall average for the Borough.
Since the Summer of 2002, the average property within the Borough of Sutton has risen by 126.6% ..
Barrow Hedges Primary School 8% Manor Park Primary School 119.9% Muschamp Carshalton Primary School 120% Avenue Primary Academy 123.5% Sutton Average 126.6% Westbourne Primary School 140.1% Robin Hood Primary School 149.7% All Saints BenHilton 153.3%
That means the parents of AllSaints have seen the values of their properties rise proportionally 21% more than the Sutton 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 Sutton landlords, both who are with us and many who are with other Sutton agents, like to pop in for a coffee or ring/email us to discuss the Sutton property market, to consider how Sutton 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. One good source of opinion, specific to the Sutton property market is the Sutton Property Blog www.suttonproperty.today I don’t do hard sell, I will just give you my honest and straight talking opinion.
