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The price of relocating

While statistics won’t give the game away, house prices do. Lucian has found a correlation between top performing Local Education Authorities (LEAs) and house prices in those areas. Family-sized homes of three bedrooms or more in educational hotspots can command a premium of up to, and sometimes over, 13 per cent, compared to homes in less well-performing areas.

With two children at a top local independent school, James Barnett, Director of Residential Sales at Savills Cambridge, has first-hand experience of the phenomenon. “Education has always been important for homebuyers, but good schools, along with a perceived better quality of life, have become the key drivers in families relocating out of London to Cambridge in recent years.”

The new arrivals benefit from a preponderance of private pre-prep, prep and secondary schools, such as the King’s College and Perse schools, and they’re prepared to pay to get as near as possible. “There’s a good stock of 1920s and 1930s houses in the south and west side of the city, that are within walking or cycling distance of many of the schools. Here, where parents don’t have to drive their children to school, a typical family-sized house with garden fetches a premium £900,000. But we’re still cheaper than Oxford!” James exclaims, speaking of another educational hotspot.

For Cambridge-bound families looking for a state education, there’s a thriving system of Village Colleges. Comberton Village College, for example, is co-educational and has an outstanding reputation. Throw in a commuter journey to London that takes from 50 minutes to an hour, a rich cultural scene, beautiful architecture, a growing number of eateries, and it’s a tempting prospect for families.

With fees at independent schools costing up to £26,000 per child, per year, it’s not surprising that the best state schools are becoming an increasingly attractive prospect to parents. The Savills research shows that this trend is particularly strong in counties that have retained the selective grammar school system, such as Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Kent.

Here, state schools often match the standards of independent rivals. At Savills Beaconsfield Nick Warner estimates that 30 per cent of buyers are moving 30 miles or more to take advantage of Buckinghamshire grammar schools. Half of those come from affluent London areas (Hampstead, Clapham, Chiswick) where even higher house prices and cut-throat competition for places at good London schools put the squeeze on parents, especially those with several children to educate.

“For commuting, South Buckinghamshire is in the favourable position – close to Junction 2 of the M40 and convenient for the West End and Heathrow. It also has the Chiltern Railways line into Marylebone,” says Warner.

The girls’ grammar, Beaconsfield High, attracts many buyers to the town of Beaconsfield, which bristles with prime housing stock. “The price premium particularly affects three-bedroom and larger houses that are suitable for families. The old Georgian part of the town offers what we call ‘the golden triangle’ of spacious 1930s, 1940s and 1950s houses, with huge gardens up to one acre that fetch prices from £1 million to £3.5 million,” says Warner. “In the new town north of the railway line you can buy a modern, three-bedroom to five-bedroom house for between £600,000 and £700,000, which is much more affordable but still more expensive than a location outside the catchment area.”

Heading for the north and west

For buyers who can’t stretch to Buckinghamshire prices, rural Lincolnshire is the ‘Promised Land’. “The number one reason for moving to Lincolnshire is value for money, followed by the grammar schools,” explains Rupert Fisher of Savills Lincoln. Families are coming from all over the UK to take advantage of the ‘educational value-for-money’ Lincolnshire prices, teamed with the grammars in the towns of Caistor, Alford and Sleaford. “Relocators come from Cambridgeshire, Essex, Oxford, Staffordshire and London, cashing in their chips and swapping their urban townhouse for a rectory or barn with land,” says Fisher.

“We find it very difficult to break the £1 million barrier. You can buy a modest three-bedroom house with four acres of land for £300,000, and if you have £600,000 you can take your pick. Many of our clients only want to view properties within the grammar school catchment areas, which are fairly generous due to the area’s agricultural character.”

In Dorset, where prices are higher, families are drawn by the good range of independent schools such as Sherborne, Bryanston, Canford and Clayesmore. Peter Lane of Savills Wimborne says, “It’s a lifestyle decision first and foremost. There’s not a single mile of motorway in Dorset; our coastline from Chesil Beach to Studland Bay is a World Heritage Site; and we have great sailing on the coast. The schools are the icing on the cake.”

Lane reports that it’s often buyers in their thirties who are looking for a substantial country house to make their main residence, while retaining a flat in London for work. In particular, the prep schools Port Regis and Dumpton have lifted prices for period property in the towns of Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Wimborne and nearby areas. “Clients are willing to spend from £800,000 upwards on a good-sized period farmhouse, manor or rectory, with four to six bedrooms and up to five acres of land,” says Lane. While it’s still the case that the schools encourage boarding, there’s a trend for parents wanting to live nearby for exeat weekends and to enjoy being part of school life. There’s also a rise in the number of parents choosing to send their children as day pupils.

Outlying villages such as Trent, the Comptons, the Donheads and anywhere in the Blackmore
Vale are hot tickets for Dorset parents, who can drive with ease to the best schools. Some families even buy a property before their children are old enough to attend secondary school, as Lane explains: “Families will travel down here for the holidays to get their kids used to the area, then, when the time comes, they up sticks and move to Dorset permanently.”

Making the move

Jack and Alice Barchester were in the vanguard of families moving out of London to find a gentler lifestyle in the countryside and excellent state schooling prospects for their children.

“In the early 1990s we were living in a three-bedroom Victorian semi in Charlton and were desperate to move out of south-east London,” recalls Alice. “Our son Tom, eight at the time, went to an imposing Victorian junior school and there was a niggle at the back of my mind about what kind of secondary school he would go to.”

Jack was working in West Sussex and commuted for four hours a day. The couple looked there first but it was expensive. Then a friend who lived on the Kent/Sussex border sent them the local paper. “We were amazed at what you could get for your money and decided to concentrate our efforts in Tunbridge Wells,” says Alice.

The couple sold their house in Charlton, and with Tom and 18-month-old daughter Sophie rented in Tunbridge Wells for a year before they found somewhere to buy. “We found a detached four-bedroom 1930s house that was undervalued in the St John’s/Culverden area, which is a good catchment area for schools. It needed work, but we wanted to put our mark on it so that was fine.”

Both children attended the local state primary school. At 11 Tom went to Uplands Community College in nearby Wadhurst. “It’s a broad-spectrum state school in a beautiful setting of fields and countryside.” Sophie took the 11-plus at junior school and was accepted into Tunbridge Wells Girls’ Grammar School (TWGGS). “We knew it was the school for her and when she got in we were over the moon,” says Alice. “The teachers make learning fun and get really good results without putting the girls under too much pressure. There are plenty of other things to get involved with too, such as school exchanges to India, literary festivals and art and drama groups.”

Sophie has thrived. She did very well in her GCSEs and has moved up to the sixth form to do her first year of AS Levels in English, art, drama and biology. “She loves acting and art and has gone mad for Shakespeare,” says Alice. “My blood runs cold sometimes when I think what might have happened if we hadn’t moved. It would have been harder for her to achieve what she has.”

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