Top schools push prices by £70,000

Families hoping to send their children to London's leading state schools are paying up to £70,000 extra to secure property in the catchment areas.

Parents competing for places where pupils score highly in league tables are driving up house prices in some parts of the capital, according to researchers at the London School of Economics.

Figures to be presented to the Royal Economic Society this week suggest the problem is so acute the cost of moving close to a good state school may work out more than the cost of private education.

In one area of Hackney a four-bedroom Victorian terrace, close to high-performing Lauriston Primary School, is expected to sell for £430,000, while a larger four bedroom terrace nearer to a school with weaker results recently fetched £360,000.

The research, by economists Steve Gibbons and Stephen Machin, suggests that although the problem is evident around the country, the price increases in London are considerably higher.

Parents hoping to secure places at schools rated 25 per cent above the local average will usually be forced to pay about an extra £37,000 for their homes. This figure is likely to be higher in more affluent parts of the capital.