Getting In: Six-figure price boost for homes in popular Christchurch school zones
Thursday, 7 November 2024
This is Getting In - a project by The Press examining what it takes to get your child into your school of choice in Christchurch. Subscribe, to read the entire series.
“In the zone” is a selling point increasingly used on real estate adverts around Christchurch.
The desirability of popular school zones has long had a ratcheting effect on house prices in some parts of the city, and can now add a six-figure sum to the price of a family home, real estate agents say.
Property valuer Michael Tohill, a director of real estate firm JLL, said family homes in Christchurch Girls’ High, Christchurch Boys’ High, Burnside High and Cashmere High school zones are the most sought after.
Smaller zones, such as Girls’ High, put more pressure on prices.
“It’s about supply and demand. But it’s hard to quantify, because they tend to be in desirable neighbourhoods anyway, like Fendalton and the Cashmere hills,” he said.
The effect is also there for primary schools, but to a lesser extent, Tohill said. Rental prices are also affected by school zones.
He said family homes in some parts of Girls’ High and Boys High’ zones could fetch an extra $250,000. Units or small homes not suitable for families will not see the same effect.
“A young family will aim to buy a home for the future - sometimes 10 years ahead.”
Tohill said when a school zone is reduced in size, as has occurred because of infill housing, demand is ramped up.
Recent research by Ed McKnight, economist for Christchurch property investment company Opes Partners, shows that while prices in a desirable school zone can be higher than those outside it, they do not grow faster, nor do homes sell more quickly.
For primary schools, the zones with the dearest properties in greater Christchurch include Okoha, Tai Tapu and West Melton, which have mainly large homes on lifestyle blocks, and Fendalton and Cashmere, where homes are already expensive.
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Candice Toughey, branch manager of Harcourts Cashmere, said “huge demand” for family homes in the Cashmere High School zone means almost all are auctioned. This is so competition will elicit the best price.
Depending on the suburb, the price difference for in and out of the zone could easily be $150,000, she said.
Toughey said she herself recently had to pay $1 million at auction to buy a three-bedroom home in the zone to be near work, even though she no longer has school-age children.
“It’s more than I wanted to pay, but there was a lot of competition. People do fight over these properties.”
Thorrington, Cashmere, St Martins, and Somerfield primaries, and Christchurch South Intermediate, were also popular zones, she said.
“But the largest demand in this area is for Cashmere High. Part of the attraction is that it’s co-ed, that makes it very popular. If it’s Boys’ and Girls’ High, and you have both daughters and sons, you have to make sure you’re in both.”
She said buyers included people from other parts of New Zealand and overseas, including one recent family coming from Dubai.
“They do their research into the city, they look into the schools.”
Read on Friday: Getting into one of Christchurch’s sought-after private schools.