What proposed Rostrevor high school zone boundary changes could mean for house values
Proposed school zone boundary changes to accommodate a new high school at Rostrevor could mean big home value increases for some homeowners. Find out the areas tipped for growth.
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Homeowners in some Adelaide suburbs could see their property value increase significantly as a result of proposed changes to high school catchment boundaries.
Proposed changes to school rezones were announced this week with the construction of a public school at Rostrevor.
It prompted revisions to the catchment boundaries for Marryatville High, Norwood Morialta High and Charles Campbell College.
Under the proposed changes, the Rostrevor school will accept students from Rostrevor, Hectorville, Tranmere, Woodforde and Montecute, with parts of Hectorville and Rostrevor moving out of the Charles Campbell College zone.
Belle Property Norwood agent Eric Jem said the announcement had made Rostrevor hot property.
“Ever since the announcement about the new school, inquiries have increased and people have been asking me if I have new homes available,” Mr Jem said.
“Rostrevor was already popular and the price has already gone up by a lot, but demand will jump significantly now.
“Personally, I think this will push house prices up by about 10 per cent because demand to get into the school zone is so strong,” he said.
School zones have typically been a huge drawcard for buyers.
One purchaser in March paid $705,000 above the reserve asking price to secure a home in the Glenunga International High School Zone.
Real Estate Institute of South Australia chief executive officer Barry Money said a good new school acts as a magnet for buyers.
He said it also changes the population mix of a suburb and drives prices up.
“Without an immediate reaction from supply, that will push up demand and, pending supply, that will push up the median house values and possibly maintain those values at a higher level until supply reacts and comes on board,” Mr Money said.
“If you look at the catchment area of this new high school, Rostrevor, Hectorville and Tranmere, they all have seen median house values over the past 12 months of between 8 and 12 per cent.
“I think they will now start to increase now,” Mr Money said.
The biggest winners in the proposed zoning changes are homeowners within a small pocket of Payneham.
Properties bounded by Henry St, Ashbrook Ave and Payneham Rd will have their school zones shifted from Charles Campbell College at Paradise to Marryatville High School.
“I can’t talk to a school’s status, but we know that in that Payneham area we’ve seen median value increases of 10 to 11 per cent increases year on year, and I would see that pocket growing in house value, and at a faster rate of knots,” Mr Money said.
Mimi Lee and Harry Wong are selling their property at Leabrook Drive, Rostrevor and hoping the excitement surrounding the new school helps them fetch a higher price at auction.
“We Chinese have a chat group and there’s been a lot of chat about the new school,” Ms Lee said.
“Chinese people, we think education can change people’s lives. If we work hard we can change our life and have a better life.”
Why is case for new high school secret?
By Chris Russell
Greater transparency is needed on why a new high school is being built at Rostrevor ahead of fixing the problem of city centre schools being too full, the opposition says.
The $84.4m Rostrevor school will create extra capacity in the eastern suburbs, affecting the catchment zones for Charles Campbell, Norwood Morialta and Marryatville.
However, the shared zone of the two city centre schools – Adelaide High and Adelaide Botanic High – will not be affected.
Opposition education spokesman Blair Boyer made a freedom of information application for the modelling and business case justifying the new school but was rejected on the grounds of Cabinet confidentiality.
Mr Boyer questioned why the school, which is in Education Minister John Gardner’s electorate of Morialta, had been allocated funding first.
“If it is, indeed, a greater priority then creating more enrolment capacity in the shared CBD zone, why is Mr Gardner keeping the business case and modelling secret?” Mr Boyer said.
The Rostrevor school will be built on the site now used for middle school years by Norwood Morialta, which is consolidating on its Parade campus in Magill.
Existing buildings will be demolished and a new building constructed with a year 7 intake slated for 2023.
“The new school is essential to meet growing enrolment demand in the area,” Mr Gardner said.
An Education Department spokesman said Infrastructure SA had recommended a new northeast school for an investment decision this year.
Department modelling shows eastern suburbs schools would be 5 per cent above capacity by 2023 if the new school was not built.
The department also has estimated the CBD schools will be 7 to 9 per cent above capacity by next year.
Already, 81 students living in the CBD zone were unable to get a place at Adelaide High, parliament’s Budget and Finance Committee has been told. Of these, 24 were in year 8 and 27 in year 9.
Capacity at Adelaide High is currently being increased with a $23m redevelopment, mainly aimed at accommodating year 7s from next year.
The department also is analysing demographic data ahead of potentially making a business case for another new high school, possibly in the Prospect area.
In a separate freedom of application, Senator Rex Patrick has discovered about half the students at Adelaide High and a quarter at Adelaide Botanic live outside the zone.
Both schools have special interest programs which allow out-of-zone enrolments and have continuing students who were in-zone before western suburbs were excised in 2019.
Senator Patrick said denying entry to children living in the zone was detrimental to attracting skilled migrants to Adelaide.
“It’s a mess, we can’t encourage the best people to come to Adelaide and then not cater for their families,” he said.
At Adelaide Botanic, 193 of 750 were out-of zone students at the time Senator Patrick received the data. Of those, 58 had previously been in-zone and 79 were special interest science or “enter for success” with others designated via ministerial guardianship.
At Adelaide High, 730 of 1488 students were out-of-zone.
That included a large number of continuing students and siblings as well as special interest enrolments for cricket, rowing, languages, hearing impairment and those attending part-time to do curriculum subjects not offered at their usual school, particularly SACE dance classes.
The draft zoning for the eastern suburbs shows Marryatville High’s catchment increasing considerably, taking in much of Norwood, Kent Town, Joslin, Payneham and Royston Park and parts of Trinity Gardens and Beulah Park.
The Education Department said Marryatville currently draws a significant number of students from outside its zone, many of whom live in these suburbs.
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