NAPLAN vs home prices: Ultimate buyers guide to 700+ Qld schools
Exclusive analysis of NAPLAN performance and home values reveals the best Queensland suburbs to buy if you’re a parent.
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Exclusive new analysis of Queensland state school performance and home values has revealed that parents may want to look to the regions for an A+ education that won’t break the bank.
News Corp has launched Bang for Buck, a unique data piece that identifies high performing state schools and the most affordable property markets within school catchments.
Using the latest NAPLAN data, median home values supplied by PropTrack, and school catchment maps, the analysis then applies a weighting of 70/30 to determine a final Bang For Buck ranking for 709 of Queensland’s 1264 government-funded schools.
Schools without a NAPLAN average or a median dwelling catchment price were omitted.
And the results may surprise you, with the top scoring schools based on both metrics located in regional Queensland.
Top of the list for primary schools is Mount Tyson State School (SS) in Toowoomba, which has a NAPLAN ranking of 10 and a median house value of $704,600.
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By comparison, Queensland’s top performing primary school for NAPLAN results in 2023 was Sunnybank Hills SS, where the median house price in its catchment is now $1.223 million – $519,000 more than a house in Mount Tyson.
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Mount Tyson was followed by Bell State School in the state’s southwest, and Marburg State School in Ipswich.
Those schools ranked 166 and 66 respectively during the standardised test.
Other primary schools to make the top 10 for both affordability and performance were Hermit Park SS and Magnetic Island SS (Townsville), Caravonica SS (Cairns), Gladstone Central SS, Glen Aplin SS and Applethorpe SS (Southern Downs) and The Caves SS (Rockhampton).
In Greater Brisbane, Jamboree Heights came out with the top bang for buck score in the capital, with a NAPLAN rank of 19.
But soaring prices has seen its median house price push past $1 million.
Meanwhile, Mount Gravatt SHS earned the top bang for buck score in the capital, with a NAPLAN rank of 9 and a median catchment price of $1,085,600.
It was followed by the hotly sought-after Mansfield SHS, which has a NAPLAN rank of 2 and a median house value of $1.234 million, an increase of 54 per cent in three years.
A recent auction event held at Mansfield SHS by Ray White saw more than $14 million in property change hands in and around the coveted school catchment, with more than 200 registered bidders.
Ray White Mount Gravatt principal Grant Boman said a good education was a major driver for Aussie families.
“We are very lucky to have some fabulous private and public schools within our area but the jewel in the crown, so to speak, is Mansfield State High School,” he said.
“Having grown up in the area I have seen first hand the transformation of Mansfield SHS and the effect it has had on the area.”
As a result, Mr Boman said it was no surprise that Mansfield and Wishart had some of the most tightly held homes.
On the Gold Coast, Springbrook SS recorded the top score for affordability and academic results, followed by Varsity College and Bellevue Park SS.
Home values in the Springbrook SS catchment were the cheapest of the top 10 at $765,300, with the school’s NAPLAN rank coming in at 89.
Other top bang for buck primary schools included Varsity College, Bellevue Park, Arundel and Tallebudgera.
Raine and Horne Robina/Mudgeeraba agent Murray Duthie said Springbrook SS had long enjoyed an excellent reputation.
While younger children could receive their education close to home, a bus service ferried older kids down the mountain to attend high school on the central Gold Coast.
“The lifestyle on offer in Springbrook is very much associated with its location within the World Heritage-listed national park, so you don’t necessarily get people looking at the school as the centrepiece to come up here, although it is a great little school,” Mr Duthie said.
For secondary schools, Tamborine Mountain, Southport and Varsity College high schools offered were the top three.
Meanwhile, Mapleton SS and Noosa District SHS were the top scorers on the Sunshine Coast on both metrics.
In the Far North, Babinda, Goondi and Walkamin state schools had the best bang for buck scores for primary students, while in Cairns itself, Caravonica SS came in with the top score thanks to NAPLAN rank (64) and median house price of $638,900.
Yorkeys Knob and Freshwater state schools were also in the region’s top 10.
Cairns SHS was the top performing high school for academic performance and median house values.
REIQ Cairns zone chair Tom Quaid said school catchments were a significant factor for many buyers
“Cairns SHS is highly sought-after and I have had buyers willing to pay a premium to be an extra street over to ensure they are within the zone,” he said.
“And it is not just buyers either, we have had people go out of their way to rent within a certain catchment.
“A good school absolutely has an impact on home prices with buyers often happy to go up a price bracket.”
In the Townsville region, Hermit Park, Magnetic Island, Ingham, North Shore and Belgian Gardens state schools were the top bang for buck catchments.
Top scoring high schools included Ayr, Home Hill, William Ross, Pimlico and Ingham state high schools.
Each year, parents camp out the front of the sought-after Pimlico SHS in the hope of enrolling their out-of-catchment children.
Elsewhere, top bang for buck schools included Sharon SS and Gin Gin SHS (Bundaberg region), Urangan Point SS and Biggenden SS K-10 (Fraser Coast), Gladstone Central SS and Toolooa SHS (Gladstone), Cannonvale SS and Collinsville SHS (Mackay-Whitsunday), and The Caves SS and Springsure SS K-10 (Rockhampton).
PropTrack economist Paul Ryan said school catchment zones were a significant factor for many buyers.
“It is often one of the key amenities that many look for,” he said.
“And where there is a good school, there is competition, and being in a certain catchment becomes a major selling point.”
But despite the competition for homes in some school catchments, an Education Queensland spokesman said “all Queensland state schools are great schools where principals and teachers are working every day with every student to support them to reach their potential”.
“Simplistic league tables to compare and rank schools is not supported by the department,” the spokesman said.
“Measures such as NAPLAN and housing affordability do not adequately summarise the
different context or the diversity of education that our state schools provide.”
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