Forget foreign investors, it’s those pesky parents you have to keep an eye on.
Over the past three years, the cost of buying a house in a coveted school zone in Australia’s capital cities has increased by up to 60%, with Sydney, Hobart, and Brisbane posting some of the biggest gains.
‘Family-friendly’ suburbs are anything but as supply shortages pit families against each other as they compete for the perfectly positioned property. School catchment areas have long played a significant role in property prices, but recent analysis by CoreLogic shows prices in popular school zones in every capital have typically outpaced median price growth through double-digit growth over one-and three-year spans.
As eager parents and first home buyers planning to start a family continue to drive up prices, the market’s priority of providing a good education is more evident than ever. Whether it be for a high-demand government school or an exclusive private college, student eligibility rides on their postcode and parents will stop at nothing to bag the right numbers. It’s like the Hunger Games out there, only replace mockingjays with magpies and bow and arrows with auction hammers.
In Sydney, top-performing school zone postcodes have produced returns of more than 50% over the past three years, which is roughly 30% above the increase for Greater Sydney. In the upper north shore suburb of Pymble—home of selective boarding school Pymble Ladies’ College—prices have soared 36% in the past year alone. The median house price here is around $3.2M, while in November, a seven-bedroom home went for $9.9M, smashing Pymble’s record house price by almost $1.5M.
In suburbs like Newport and Avalon, which boast coveted public primary schools, prices have exploded, with the latter experiencing growth of over 65% in 2021. For prestigious private high school zones, suburbs within the upper and lower north shore still reign supreme, with Epping, Willoughby, and Ryde continuing to demonstrate growth.
And while there are surely other factors at play when considering price growth—a desire to move away from the city due to remote working conditions, access to other amenities for outdoor recreation, and the size and quality of homes—school zones remain a solid driver. In sought-after catchment areas, developers are capitalising on the boom by replacing houses with duplexes and townhouses to meet demand.
Instead of water views or landscaped backyards, buyers are including specific school catchment areas in their list of demands, with house prices climbing the closer the proximity to a good school. House prices within a two-to-five kilometre catchment are generally going for a 15% premium, sometimes higher. Looking within walking distance to a coveted college? May the odds be ever in your favour.
