Where are the most affordable areas to buy a house near an outstanding school?

With the start of the new school term, families will be thinking about their future education needs.

Proximity to a highly-rated school remains a major factor in buyers’ purchasing decisions, with close to a third (31%) of respondents to our summer sentiment survey describing it as either essential or important.

However, with UK interest rates at 5.25% after 14 consecutive increases from the Bank of England, the cost of borrowing is weighing on activity in the residential property market.

According to our sentiment survey a third of respondents have seen their spending power reduced. For 17%, the hit to their spending power has been more than 10%.

This has seen buyers trim budgets, and is a key reason why we expect house prices to remain under pressure and fall by 10% across the remainder of this year and next.

However, our analysis of Land Registry data shows that buyers do not necessarily have to compromise their families’ education to get the most for their money when buying a family home.

We looked at more than 500 primary and secondary schools in England that have been rated outstanding by Ofsted within the last six calendar years (routine inspections were suspended in 2020). We then compared the average sale price for a house within 2km of each school against the local authority average, coming up with a list of the 40 areas outside of London and 20 in the capital offering the greatest relative affordability.

In London we reduced the radius to 1km to reflect the greater density of housing and population.

Our analysis found that Yorkshire and The Humber topped the list for both primary and secondary schools. Houses within 2km of outstanding schools in Bradford and Leeds offered the largest discounts relative to the local authority averages of -46% and -48%, respectively (see chart).

While the list outside of London is weighted towards the north of England, the spread of locations underlines the importance of doing your homework when choosing a home based on the location of a school.

In London, it is generally the outer boroughs that offer the best relative affordability with access to top-rated schools, although Westminster, which has more homes priced above £1m than anywhere else in the UK, is the exception.

The average sale price for houses in West Kilburn in Westminster within 1km of St Luke’s Church of England Primary School sold for 55% less than in the local authority in the period analysed (see chart).

Ofsted rating data correct as of 11 August 2023.

Data source: Knight Frank Research/ Land Registry