'I definitely paid for the location'

Her daughter might only be seven but Lucy Appleby is already paying for a secondary school.

She has just bought a house in the catchment area of the brand new Lambeth Academy and believes it cost her around ?£50,000 over the odds.

But at substantially over £300,000 the three-bedroom ex-council property is still a bargain.

"I definitely paid for the location but prices will go up because of the academy," Ms Appleby, 40, said. "Having said that, if the school wasn't there I wouldn't have chosen that street."

She is swapping her two-bed Victorian flat in Clapham Old Town for a former council house.

Ms Appleby, a teacher, said: "At the moment we are in the catchment area.

"But in four years' time, when Natasha goes there, it will be a lot smaller."