As a parent you’ll presumably be very aware of the importance of school catchment areas when deciding where to live, but perhaps as an investor or landlord you may not have considered it.
Most people, when looking to move house, will consider any number of things when they start to look. Things such as broadband speed, mobile coverage and energy efficiency have, in recent times, become much more important than perhaps they were even five or ten years ago, as most people are now very much in tune with the sorts of features they’re looking for in a place to live.
One aspect of this, mainly as a consequence of the pandemic, is that people now appreciate much more the smaller aspects and features of their own home, from spending so much time either locked up in it or working from home for extended periods.
Most modern landlords are likely to tell you that they’re much more aware of these priorities than they were, and are now more likely to invest in properties that meet, for example, energy efficiency requirements and properties that have good wi-fi coverage as standard.
But how many investors have considered the impact of location to good schools?
School catchment areas and property investment
Proximity to good school catchment areas is something that parents have been trying to game for decades, and is certainly something that, in more suburban areas especially, is a much bigger priority than you may have considered.
As an example of this, Zoopla recently published an article with regards to the lengths that some parents will go to for a good school place.
According to the research, ‘Parents are breaking school admissions criteria to avoid paying an average £82,960 premium on homes in a good or outstanding school catchment area.
17% of parents say they lied, bent or broke admissions rules, while a further 7% say they ‘played the system’ in order to get their child into a good local school; this totals 24% flouting the rules.
Pretending to be religious or lying about home addresses are the most common mistruths told in order to secure in-demand school places.
16% of those who admit to breaking rules say they made a ‘voluntary donation’ to the school while 8% admit they offered a bribe.
Despite the prevalence of rule breaking, over half of parents (56%) who’ve done so feel guilty about it’
This perhaps demonstrated the extents to which potential tenants would be willing to go to in order to live near to good or outstanding schools, so as a property investor it may well be worth considering whether if you’re typically expecting families as tenants, your rental growth potential could be boosted by proximity to good schools.
If you’re considering investing in buy-to-let property in the UK right now, why not get in touch with one of our experts today to discuss our available investment opportunities?
