Poised for a SCHOOL PLACE Parents seeking the best performing schools in London must do their homework when it comes to property buying, writes Zoe Dare Hall
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two-bedroom flat recently came on the market on the Fulham Road. It had no outdoor space, sat directly above a pub – and a couple with young children snapped it up, desperate to get their daughter into the Catholic, non-feeing paying Oratory primary school a short walk away. “We had several far more suitable properties for them, but this one won them over as it was well within the catchment zone,” says James Hyman, head of residential at Cluttons. With London families prepared to pay house price premiums of up to 121 per cent over the borough average to live within reach of a top private school, according to a recent survey, parents are learning the art of future-proofing. Some are jumping on sought-after preps that are opening secondary schools, such as Thomas’s Battersea this September,
bringing valuable peace of mind that their child is sorted until they are 18. Such forward-thinking isn’t just over private schools. Charles Kennard at Savills Kensington mentions newly-wed couples with an eye on primary and secondary options for their yet-to-be-conceived children. “We recently sold a property on Kensington Place to a couple so their young children could go to Fox Primary and then onto Holland Park secondary. This is a prime example of buyers looking to make long-term moves so their children can attend some of West London’s highly sought-after state schools,” says Kennard. Some buyers at 80 Holland Park – where remaining properties start at £6m – are also opting to spend millions for a house and avoid school fees. Knight Frank’s Rupert des Forges comments that “proximity to some of the area’s bestperforming, state-funded schools” is high
121%
THE PREMIUM PAID TO LIVE NEAR A TOP PRIVATE SCHOOL
88 The London Magazine
on the agenda for some families who have bought in the development, along with its study area for private tutoring and “an Olympic-level gym”. And given the shortage of decent family houses on the sales market, parents are increasingly looking at paying high rents instead. Sophie Alexander, senior lettings negotiator for Knight Frank in Kensington, notes: “We have seen clients dramatically increase their rental budgets – from £2,000 to £7,000 a week in one case – in order to be within close proximity of local schools, particularly Holland Park School.” Long-term thinking is often vital, too, to stand a chance of securing a place at schools “centred around religion,” points out Polly Wattridge at Carter Jonas in Holland Park. “Such schools often require the families to have lived in the catchment and to have been part of the church community for a long time. We see clients
