Whitehills catchment area properties outperform Northampton average by 13.1%

I was having a chat with a Northampton property investor the other day, when he asked if schools, especially primary schools, affected the local property market in terms of demand from buyers and tenants to a property.  Anecdotally, I have always known this to be true, a good school creates good demand and good demand does affect house prices.  So, I asked my colleagues on the front line, who take the phone calls from people putting themselves on our mailing list and they confirmed that most people cite location as their number one factor.

After looking through our mailing list, it confirms there is a close correlation between the high demand areas of Northampton and the close proximity to a good primary school.  Talking to my team in a recent morning meeting, they agreed many people would look to increase their budget quite significantly, whilst others would consider downgrading their property requirements to be close to a good primary school.

Those of you who regularly read this blog will know I like a challenge, so I decided to look at the science behind these assumptions. According to the SchoolGuide website, Whitehills Primary School is one of the best primary schools in Northampton.  Its figures are certainly impressive. Their last Ofsted Report classified it as Outstanding, 83% of 11-year pupils achieving Level 4 or above in maths, reading and writing whilst 37% of them achieved level 5.  Finally, the schools’ KS2 rating was classed as Good.

Looking at property sales within half a mile of Whitehills, property values have risen in value since 1999 by 135.58% whilst according to recent figures, the Northampton average as a whole has risen in the same time frame by 119.88%.

That means the parents of Whitehills have seen the values of their properties rise proportionally 13.1% more than the Northampton average ... interesting don’t you think?

However, whilst a good primary school significantly contributes more to house prices, the same can’t be said for secondary schools. There are two reasons for this, firstly, as secondary schools are much larger, so their catchment areas are correspondingly much larger, meaning parents don’t need to live so close to the school. Secondly, in the UK, whilst the difference between the top 25% and bottom 25% of secondary schools is not insignificant, in the primary school sector, the difference between the top 25% and bottom 25%, according to the London School of Economics, is considerably and significantly more.

Many other Northampton landlords, both who are with us and many who are with other Northampton agents, like to pop in for a coffee or ring/email us to discuss the Northampton property market, to consider how Northampton compares with its closest rivals and hopefully we can answer all their questions, so feel free to drop me a line to northampton@northwooduk.com, pop in or call me on 01604 607080.