Do people REALLY move house to get into a good school?

[Ijustwanttoretire]

Apparently 'The average house value in England is £247,000 but parents face taking on loans of up to £180,000 more to live near a top-rated school.' Really? Does your average family move house to get into a better senior school? £180000 would buy a decent house where I live, let alone paying that much extra to get into a good catchment area. So how many MNers have ACTUALLY done this?

I am not sure why people doubt it is worth it, if your other option is private education, that's just money down the drain, but if you buy the money goes to equity which you recoup when you sell, effectively you get a good education for free, it's a no brainer!

I'm not sure it's so much of people moving house to get into a school, although that undoubtedly happens,bad people having that as one factor when they're moving house anyway.
It might effect them deciding to move a year earlier or into a specific area.

Renting/buying second properties in our nearest town to get into the grammar schools is commonplace where I live, across the border in the next county but only 20 minutes drive away. Hugely expensive area of the South East too, but in comparison to the cost of seven years of independent school it must work out for those who choose it.

The trouble is that the grammar schools tend to take the most academic children/those whose parents can afford to tutor them, so the alternative state schools get a poor reputations because those who attend them are less academic/have behaviour issues/were perhaps born into families who do not value education.

We’re lucky in that the village we live in - in a teeny flat, mind because of the astronomical house prices - has an excellent primary and is in the catchment for a good secondary. However, if DD is academic then I will do all I can to get her into the grammar because of the sheer success rate it has. Many would disagree with me on principle.

Absolutely it's a factor to be taken into account when moving. That's why sites such as Rightmove will give details of local schools.

Its the people who move and then narrowly miss out on the catchment school due to it being too popular that I feel sorry for.

I too am shocked that you're shocked. More importantly why WOULDN'T You? It's the One biggest thing you can do for your kids.

I made lots of sacrifices, no moving house, but in other ways, to get both my ds's into my local primary and secondary.

I assumed most people did. It's one of the biggest considerations when raising your kids.

Horrendous grammatical errors there 🤦🏻‍♀️

Of course they do!

We didn’t move, our local primary isn’t great, fortunately we are catholic and the primary at the other end of the road is a catholic primary. Currently for secondary our catchment is outstanding, however if we aren’t happy with it the 2 bordering towns have catholic secondary’s that we can send dd to.

Assuming there isn't a house price crash, it's not a "cost", it's an investment as once they've left school, the parents can sell the house again, probably at a healthy profit as others will want to move to near a good school too!

For those unfortunate enough to live near a crap/failing school, if they value their kids' education, they'll do whatever it takes to give them the best opportunities - if that means moving, then many will do it.

There are no/few unskilled jobs anymore. The whole world is getting better educated, so the best education you can provide for your kids is probably the best thing you can do for them.

Yes they do - there are 8-9 houses basically on the doorstep on the only outstanding primary school in out town. The „for rent“ signs on ALL of them go up single september/october, and its always families with the oldest child aged 4 that move in... and out exactly 1 year later

I’d like to see a source for the figures in the OP. I think they’re very misleading.

We will be moving before our DC start secondary school as the secondary school here is dire.

PassTheCherryCoke: "I don’t think it’s that common in England to not get into your catchment school. "
I completely disagree.

I think it is becoming much more the norm in many places.
In Surrey and Southwest London they have a 750,000 children shortage of school places.

That's both primary and secondary.

My children are secondary now, so primary doesn't affect me. But this year, 40 kids didn't get a primary place in our place in Surrey: there are 3 primaries and 2 secondary's, and many many more locally, ie in the next town or not too far away.

And these young families who have lived here for donkeys years got allocated primary's three villages away which often involves a bad commute or 2 to 3 buses - the whole thing is completely ridiculous.

Apparently is becoming more and more common. It's crazy.

I hope so - I don't have dc but I bought my house knowing it would always sell as there are two good schools in walking distance :)

Good schools in my area have £150-200,000 premium on houses in catchment area.

What is even more perverse is that a family with younger kids will move in (in anticipation of the secondary school place) and drive their kids to their primary schools near their old house.

Well that will be us soon. I don’t want this, I would much rather there was a fair balance across the education system and that there was no such thing as failing schools. I think it’s disgusting, but aside from go to all of my local ward meetings, join all of my local community groups, join in petitions and all of the other stuff I get involved in, I simply cannot turn a whole system around and revitalise a shit school.

For PP saying it’s an unfair class thing, that the rich can move instead of diversifying or uplifting the shitty schools, staying and helping improve that particular community, it doesn't work like that for individuals. I’m not putting my children out there as an experiment to work their way through a failing school, because otherwise I’m making it worse by leaving. I understand how these things work over time, how whole areas fall into decline and/or become gentrified, but none of it is mine or my kids’ fault and I’m not bearing the brunt of this fucking shambles of an education system that we’re all now at the mercy of.

Also, we are by no means posh or rich. Moving has taken us back down to zero every time. I know it’s a comparatively luxurious option, but we’ve moved into crumbling shit holes and spent every minute and every penny we’ve got sorting them out.

I pay my fucking taxes, I think my kids have every right to go to a school that isn’t going to fail them. As I said before, one of my children has Sen. A shit school would be absolute the undoing of him, seriously. My eldest could probably get through any type of education and do well, he’s just that type of kid, but not my other two.

People do that round my way too. Houses in the catchment area are £50k more expensive and people pay them. Not entirely sure why as despite the good results and its 10 yo Outstanding OFSTED, it's not actually a very good school in practice (DH used to teach there) and most of the parents moan about it.

I also think it's dodgy having part of your house value tied up with a school's performance or reputation. Which is probably why the misapprehension about how good the school is continues as people are protecting their house investment. It's become a bit Emperor's New Clothes, I think.

We didn’t move to get into a good school but even though we didn’t have DC at the time we definitely took local schools into account when deciding where to buy. Quite apart from the potential personal advantage when we had DC it meant the property had better resale potential than one in an area with less good schools.

Oh and also - many people don’t actually spend much to move catchments. Friends of ours moved out from their lovely three bed house into our catchment - to a one bed flat above a shop. They actually saved money. They have now moved between the two areas, still walking distance.

Yes. I did it and no regrets what so ever. Luckily I didn't need to increase my mortgage by £180k to do this.

The secondary schools near my old house were terrible. The ones near my current house are excellent.

None of the schools round here are shit. They are all good. Most exceptional. No one moves, from a failing school, round here.

The problem here is that you simply can't get in to any. Because they are all over-subscribed.

Because the council? Government? Cuts. Because our town population is increasing, but the foundations, the infrastructure: the GP's, the housing, the schools, haven't.

My parents moved house when I was 9 to ensure that I'd get into the school they wanted. They did it early to make sure I had a couple of years to settle and make new friends at primary.

Yes I am in Scotland in did it. The house prices are higher simply because of the catchment area.

Yes, the person that bought our house was quite open that was what they were doing.

Yes they do move house to get a better school.

£180000 would buy nothing in the area I live in. It is not even a extra room.

We have just moved to be closer to our youngest 2 school (they were already in the school) and our old NND have just sold up to move to a town about 9 miles away to ensure their child got into one of the secondary schools there. In the small town I used to live you were 9.3 miles from the closest secondary school. This year 23 children from there were allocated a secondary school 31.7 miles away. It would take them 1 hour 45 mins to use public transport to get to this school. None of the " local" schools (within 9 -15 miles radius) had the space for the children there. Local MP is involved and last I heard "only" 11 of the children were still down for this school as the waiting lists had started to move.

So I utterly understand that people move to get a house near to a better school. Or even a (singular) school.