School Zones: The True Cost of a Free Education

Do school zones have an effect on housing prices in Melbourne? You bet they do!

Unless you have school-aged children or are planning to have kids in the near future, school zones are unlikely to be high on the priority list when it comes to the criteria for your dream home. However, you could be doing yourself a disservice when it comes to capital growth potential if you’re not taking this into account.

Catchment zones: what are they exactly?

Generally speaking, school ‘zones’ or ‘catchments’ are areas set around schools, which the government indicates is where the bulk of a school’s pupils must live to be eligible to enrol. They mainly apply to government-run public schools. 

Property located within the zone for popular public primary and secondary schools have the potential to secure sale prices of up to 20% - 30% more than property outside the zone. 

Elite public Melbourne schools are in hot demand

South Yarra Primary school is a great example of this, where the median house price within the catchment zone is $1.7m and outside of the zone but within the same area is $1.365m, which is a difference of almost 20%. 

Of course nothing is ever certain and purchasing within what you believe to be a premium school zone may change by the time you go to sell. Beaumaris Secondary College for instance, historically was not a highly sought school and therefore did not have any influence on property within the area. However, in 2015 ‘Beaumaris High’ was closed and reopened as ‘Beaumaris Secondary School’ in 2018, which consequently saw property prices in the area, both across sales and the rental market, skyrocket. 

With elite private schools costing parents up to (or in excess of) $30,000 per year, per child, it makes more sense for a lot of families to make that one off investment in their property to be within a quality public school zone.

So if you are on the hunt for a family sized home and haven’t been checking which school zones you’re in, you better add it to the list of things to look out for!

Until next time,

Sam