Parents are paying a premium of £80,000 above the average house price to live in the catchment area of the country's top state schools, according to new research.
The average price of a property around Scotland's top 20 secondary schools is £249,635, which is 68% above the Scottish average, according to the Bank of Scotland study.
In three of Scotland's local authority areas - Edinburgh, Aberdeen and East Dunbartonshire - the premium to live near a top performing school is more than £100,000, when compared to their surrounding areas.
Read more: College chiefs hit out over deal to pay lecturers £40,000
Parents in Edinburgh are paying the most, with the catchment for St Thomas of Aquin's High School attracting a premium of £145,022, against the local authority average of £232,357.
House prices near Boroughmuir High School in the capital, which comes fourth in the list of top 20 state schools, are now on average £354,378, a premium of 53%.
House buyers in East Dunbartonshire will pay a premium of £107,759 to live near its top performing schools, while in Aberdeen City the figure is £103,283.
Read more: College chiefs hit out over deal to pay lecturers £40,000
Graham Blair, mortgages director at Bank of Scotland, said: "Being in the catchment for a good school is one of the major considerations parents take into account when purchasing a property and it is clear those choosing to buy near one of Scotland's Top 20 state schools are paying a significant premium.
"While homeowners buying in these catchments are likely to make a reasonable return on their investment over the longer term, it is also important to recognise that parents on low or average incomes may be unable to get their children access to the best schools."
The study also suggested that living near a top performing state school appears to be a shrewd investment based on house price performances in these areas over the last five years.
Parents who bought a home near one of the Top 20 schools in 2011 have seen an average house price rise of £32,817, from £216,818 to £249,635 in 2016 - an increase of 15%.
This is a faster rise, in cash terms, than in Scotland as a whole, where the average house price has grown over the same period from £141,905 to £169,552 - an increase of £27,647.
Read more: College chiefs hit out over deal to pay lecturers £40,000
The biggest increases in prices around the top 20 schools have been in East Dunbartonshire where the average cost of a house in the catchments for Bearsden and Boclair Academies has gone up by 45% over last five years from £228,257 in 2011 to £331,304 in 2016.
The school ranking was compiled using Standard Grade performance data from the Scottish Government and reflects the percentage of pupils achieving Highers of 5+ at SCQF L6 or better in 2016.
Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liz Smith said: "Parents obviously want what is best for their child, but these figures show that some families are simply being priced out of attending higher performing schools.
"It is clear from this report that parents on lower incomes will simply not be able to afford the tens of thousands of pounds extra that you need to get into these catchment areas.
"A two-tiered system is starting to appear in Scottish state schools, and we need to see reform of the system before the problem gets any worse.
"By devolving power to the schools themselves and allowing headteachers to make more decisions, we can hopefully ensure that all schools are good schools."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel