HOT PROPERTY Zoe Dare Hall

Poised for a SCHOOL PLACE

Parents seeking the best performing schools in London must do their homework when it comes to property buying, writes Zoe Dare Hall

Atwo-bedroom flat recently came on the market on the Fulham Road. It had no outdoor space, sat directly above a pub – and a couple with young children snapped it up, desperate to get their daughter into the Catholic, non-feeing paying Oratory primary school a short walk away. “We had several far more suitable properties for them, but this one won them over as it was well within the catchment zone,” says James Hyman, head of residential at Cluttons.

With London families prepared to pay house price premiums of up to 121 per cent over the borough average to live within reach of a top private school, according to a recent survey, parents are learning the art of future-proofing. Some are jumping on sought-after preps that are opening secondary schools, such as Thomas’s Battersea this September, bringing valuable peace of mind that their child is sorted until they are 18.

Such forward-thinking isn’t just over private schools. Charles Kennard at Savills Kensington mentions newly-wed couples with an eye on primary and secondary options for their yet-to-be-conceived children. “We recently sold a property on Kensington Place to a couple so their young children could go to Fox Primary and then onto Holland Park secondary. This is a prime example of buyers looking to make long-term moves so their children can attend some of West London’s highly sought-after state schools,” says Kennard.

Some buyers at 80 Holland Park – where remaining properties start at £6m – are also opting to spend millions for a house and avoid school fees. Knight Frank’s Rupert des Forges comments that “proximity to some of the area’s bestperforming, state-funded schools” is high on the agenda for some families who have bought in the development, along with its study area for private tutoring and “an Olympic-level gym”.

And given the shortage of decent family houses on the sales market, parents are increasingly looking at paying high rents instead. Sophie Alexander, senior lettings negotiator for Knight Frank in Kensington, notes: “We have seen clients dramatically increase their rental budgets – from £2,000 to £7,000 a week in one case – in order to be within close proximity of local schools, particularly Holland Park School.”

Long-term thinking is often vital, too, to stand a chance of securing a place at schools “centred around religion,” points out Polly Wattridge at Carter Jonas in Holland Park. “Such schools often require the families to have lived in the catchment and to have been part of the church community for a long time. We see clients

121%

THE PREMIUM PAID TO LIVE NEAR A TOP PRIVATE SCHOOL

£7K

PER WEEK RENTAL FOR HOUSES IN HOLLAND PARK’S CATCHMENT

FAMILY FORTUNES Above: A five-bedroom apartment near Holland Park School, £8.95m, Knight Frank. Bottom near left: A house and mews offering six bedrooms in Bedford Gardens W8, £24.5m, Knight Frank. Bottom far left: A home on Park Farm Road in Kingston upon Thames, £1.25m, through Dexters

buying in the area, even if their children are less than one year old, so they can create long-term roots in the community.”

Adding to the demand for London day schools – and property near them – is the increasing shift away from prohibitively pricey boarding schools, notes Alex Sever, founder of Pegasus Tutors. “They have flocked to the top London day schools and, as a result, the academic standard of these schools has far surpassed the boarding sector. Westminster and St Paul’s are now in a league of their own, while Eton and Winchester would probably struggle to keep up with second-tier London schools such as Dulwich College, King’s College Wimbledon and City of London.”

Overseas buyers like to be close to London’s European and American schools such as La Petite Ecole Française in Ladbroke Grove, says Wattridge, while Mark Pollack at Aston Chase has just dealt with three competing buyers for a £10m house on Springfield Road in St John’s Wood. “American buyers like to be within walking distance of the American School. And this was a lateral house, which is rare,” says Pollack, who has a five-bed house on the same road for £5.975m.

Competition for places is Londonwide. In Hackney’s Victoria Park Village, Savills’ James Marshall has seen two

families paying 110 per cent of the asking price, “after a series of competitive bids,” to secure houses near Lauriston, a state primary school. In Brook Green, Savills’ head of sales Dominic Barry is seeing “huge demand” for family homes within the catchment of St Stephen’s Primary School. And in Kingston, families are paying £50,000 over the asking price just to be in the right catchment, says Conor Hayes at Dexters, who is marketing a detached three-bed Edwardian house for £1.25m close to Outstanding-rated Kingston Academy. “There’s also Tiffin Girls, which is a top grammar,” Hayes adds.

Outside London, however, Savills’ research shows that house prices near several sought-after grammars are lower than the average within 5km. This is because grammars in Buckinghamshire (Aylesbury and High Wycombe) and Kent (Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells) are often located in less-desirable areas to live, and tend not to have fixed catchment areas.

It’s a high-risk strategy, though, to buy near a school with a highly competitive entrance exam, warns Frances Clacy, Savills’ research analyst. “Parents would be well advised to locate themselves where there is a range of options.” L