Langham Residents can thank the school for an average £6,400 windfall

I was having a chat with an Oakham property investor the other day, when he asked if schools, especially primary schools, affected the local property market in terms of demand from buyers and tenants to a property.

Anecdotally, I have always known this to be true, a good school creates good demand and good demand does affect house prices.



So, I asked my colleagues on the front line, who take the phone calls from people putting themselves on our mailing list and they confirmed that most people cite location as their number one factor.

After looking through our mailing list, it confirms there is a close correlation between the high demand areas of Oakham and the close proximity to a good primary school. Talking to my team in a recent morning meeting, they agreed many people would look to increase their budget quite significantly, whilst others would consider downgrading their property requirements to be close to a good primary school.

Those of you who regularly read this blog will know I like a challenge, so I decided to look at the science behind these assumptions. According to the SchoolGuide website, Langham Primary School is one of the best primary schools in Rutland. Its figures are certainly impressive. Their last Ofsted Report classified it as Outstanding, 72% of 11 year pupils achieving Level 4 or above in maths, reading and writing whilst 31% of them achieved level 5. There is also an excellent pupil/teacher ratio of 24:1. Finally, the schools’ KS2 rating was classed as good.

Looking at property sales within the catchment area of the school, property values have risen in value since 2002 by 35.2% whilst according the Land Registry, the Oakham average as a whole has risen in the same time frame by 33.4%.

That doesn’t sound a lot of difference, but when you apply that difference to the value of an average property in Langham, those extra few percentage points make over £6,400 difference in property price growth in Langham, when compared to the Rutland County average ... interesting, don’t you think?

However, whilst a good primary school significantly contributes more to house prices, the same can’t be said for secondary school. There are two reasons for this, firstly, as secondary schools are much larger, so their catchment areas are correspondingly much larger, meaning parents don’t need to live so close to the school. Secondly, in the UK, whilst the difference between the top 25% and bottom 25% of secondary schools is not insignificant, in the primary school sector, the difference between the top 25% and bottom 25% is, according to the London School of Economics, is considerably and significantly more.

Many other Oakham landlords, both who are with us and many who are with other  Oakham agents, like to pop in for a coffee or ring/email us to  discuss the Oakham property market, to consider how Oakham compares with its closest rivals and hopefully we can answer all their questions. You must take lots of advice and seek out the best opinion. 

If you have any questions, please contact me and I will be glad to offer you my honest, straight talking opinion.  I don't bite and I don't hard sell.

Email: david@upp-property.co.uk or call me on 01572 725 825