Nicola Kelland - School Zones

If you are a parent, at some stage during your child or children’s formative years, you will be thinking long and hard about schooling. The ability to choose which school your child attends, may well be governed by where you live, or how much you want to spend on schooling. Local school zones have been around for many years now, I see a number of my clients selling and moving to other suburbs, often crossing to the other side of the city, to enable their children to attend desirable schools.

So it is not surprising, that a desirable school zone is a strong attraction for purchasers looking for a new home. Of course, the zones must start and finish somewhere and often this is the middle of the street. So we have an interesting question to ask ourselves “what is the difference in the value of a home, in zone in comparison to the one across the street that is out of zone”?

Of course, it can vary suburb to suburb, but in locations like Remuera where Grammar School zones are highly desirable, it could be 10% or more for a property in zone, or around $150,000 for a home worth $1.5 million.

Some purchasers weigh up the cost of buying in zone, versus the cost of private school tuition. Depending on how many children they have the private school option is sometimes cheaper. Then once the children have been schooled, many of these owners move out of the zone area, to return to their suburb of choice, or buy a nicer property out of the zone more cheaply. But there are long terms benefits to owning a property in zone, as long as the zoning remains the same!