The Fortismere Factor adds 30% to house prices

Families are paying premiums of up to £400,000 to live in the catchment area of two of London's best schools.

New homes built only yards from the schools in the borough of Haringey are selling for almost 30 per cent more than similar houses outside the catchment areas. This is despite the credit crunch and an average 6.4 per cent fall in house prices nationally this year.

The development of nine fivebedroom houses in Woodland Terrace overlooks the playing fields of Fortismere School in Muswell Hill and is only 70 yards from its gate.

The homes are also 400 yards from Tetherdown Primary in Fortis Green.

Fortismere tops the league table in Haringey and was voted one of Britain's best comprehensives. Its catchment area for this September's intake is just 0.6 miles.

Tetherdown is one of the top 15 primaries in England. Its tiny catchment area has been expanded by adding an extra class at entry level, and now includes the new homes built on an old tennis club in Twyford Avenue.

The properties are selling for £1.8 million to £2 million, compared with almost £1.4million for an equivalent house in Crouch End less than two miles away.

The trend has been dubbed the " Fortismere Factor" by local estate agents, who say very few houses in the area come on the market because residents stay for years while they bring up their families. Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward has already sold half the properties, including one unfinished.

Sales manager Andrew Hunt said buyers - local professional families moving closer to the schools - began making offers off-plan 18 months ago when the plot was still empty.

"These properties are directly opposite the school's playing fields and Fortismere is highly regarded, as is Tetherdown," he said. "There's always been a premium on houses in the area because it's so close to the school."

Eight of the traditional-looking three- storey houses are semidetached and the ninth is detached.

All have five bedrooms, a study, two bathrooms and two shower rooms. They back on to a copse and share a tennis court. A similar-sized house with six bedrooms in Mount View Road, Crouch End, is on the market for £1.395 million.

Katy Stern, sales manager at Foxtons, said: "People are so desperate to get their children into the school that they will pay a little extra."

Fortismere headteacher Aydin Onaç said: "It's very difficult for new families wishing to move close to Fortismere and having to pay overinflated house prices.

"Some have suggested this may run to hundreds of thousands, depending on the property. It would be interesting to speculate on what we could do at the school if these families, and the developers, returned the favour by donating, say, five per cent of the value the school has added to their houses."