How much can a good school zone affect the price of your home?

With close proximity to a quality local school being a must-have for many home buyers, it’s no surprise that demand for ideally located properties remains as high as ever.

Thanks to the automatic school acceptance that results from residing in a particular catchment area (not to mention the added advantage of minimal school commuting times), competition for relevant properties can be fierce.

“For a lot of buyers, good quality schools and their location have a big impact,” says experienced inner-Sydney agent Duncan Gordon.

“If the school is sought-after and popular, it can be the driving force behind purchasing decisions within a particular catchment area. Obviously, this also improves the value of relevant properties.”

The director of Raine & Horne in Newtown and an agent who regularly features as one of Australia’s top 10 sales practitioners in the Raine & Horne network, Gordon services an area featuring a number of highly popular schools.

“In our local market, Erskineville Public is a very popular school with a small catchment area,” he says. “The train line is the boundary on one side of the catchment and many people will specifically try to only buy on the right side of the tracks, so to speak, so they can get their kids into that primary school.

“The other really important one for us is Newtown Performing Arts High School. If you’re not in the catchment, the only way to gain acceptance is via auditioned spots. This reality, therefore, increases the demand and hence increases the price of nearby properties, particularly good-sized family homes.”

Gordon says the enormous time savings on school commuting made possible by close proximity are also a huge factor when it comes to demand. Indeed, with constantly increasing traffic levels and burgeoning lifestyle and career demands, living close to a school can be a definitive game-changer.

“Everyone’s time-poor these days,” he explains.

“In a lot of families, both parents have to work, meaning everybody’s got to get out of the house quickly in the morning. So reduced commuting times are a really important factor when people are making decisions on house purchases. If it’s a five-minute walk from the school, that’s going to tick a big box for them.”

With school zone status being such a critical consideration for many, the Domain app makes it easy, offering users the ability to check school zone information relating to particular properties.

Deborah Rogers is one parent whose recent real estate purchasing decision was powerfully swayed by school proximity. The Sydney mother-of-two bought a lot at AV Jennings’ Arcadian Hills Estate development in March and is already anticipating the benefits of living there when her new home is complete.

Located in south-west Sydney, the almost 700-lot development is adjoined on its southern boundary by the highly sought-after Macarthur Anglican School.

“We go to Macarthur Anglican, so when we build, it will be so close,” she says. “It means we won’t be rushing in the morning. It will mean more time to sleep in.

“It’ll give us another 20 minutes to eat breakfast. It will be an easier, simpler way of living. When you have that, you’re not stressed and your children aren’t stressed.”

AV Jennings development manager Paul Tarasenko says they understand that a number of people have bought into the estate due to the fact they either work at the school or their children attend.

“There are also other schools in the area, such as Cobbitty Primary and other schools at nearby Oran Park,” he says.

“Having Macarthur Anglican School being right next to us, as well as the fact we are located in the rural Cobbitty township, has definitely created quality in terms of the perception that people have.”