Insights

Director at Hodges St Kilda, Josh Stirling, was recently featured in Property Observer for his advice on how the primary school zoning affects the local property market.

With private school fees ever increasing, quality state schools are a top priority for buying families. Because state school enrolments are limited to residents within the locality, competition is high for properties in areas with strong performing state schools.

St Kilda Primary School is one of those top-performing schools that have driven families to the Port Phillip Area. Before the introduction of zoning, St Kilda Primary attracted many families from as far as Point Cook, due to its positive reputation and great performance results.

But with the current zoning situation, parents or parents-to-be are moving their homes to ensure they are in the locality that will grant their children access to schools such as St Kilda Primary.

For the local area, this means that properties located in the Balaclava and St Kilda East regions are more likely to experience much greater demand.

When compared to private school fees, paying a premium on property presents as a good investment – particularly if there are two or more children of school age in a family. In fact, a study conducted by RMIT in 2012 found that parents were willing to stretch their budgets by $160,000 on average to buy a home in the popular Camberwell High school zone. This makes sense given it could mean potential savings of over $250,00 per child.

St Kilda is already a highly sought after area for property – but school zoning adds yet another desirable selling point for investments in the area.

Click here to read the full article.